Kongji and Patji: The Korean Cinderella?

If you spend enough time exploring Korean literature, you will eventually encounter the story of Kongji and Patji (콩쥐팥쥐). At first glance, it is easy to categorize it as the Korean version of Cinderella. You have a hardworking, virtuous young woman, a cruel stepmother, and a spoiled stepsister. However, once you move past the basic premise of household mistreatment, the narrative structure of this Korean tale begins to diverge sharply from the Western version. It is less a story about a lost glass slipper and more a story about the complex, often supernatural, relationship between the living and the ancestors.