I read this fairy tale in an illustrated book when I was a kid. Since then, I had forgotten its title. However, the story itself still haunted me for a long time. That loving 'prince' who gave his eyes to the poor and that selfless bird who died of being loyal to the prince are characters too impressive to be forgotten.
Today, I managed to find the original version of this tale and was surprised to see that it was written by Oscar Wilde in 1888, as I originally presumed that it would be a tale by Grimms or Andrew Lang. Here is a link to this story:
I tried to find this tale because I noticed the similarity between the story of the Happy Prince and that of Guangxu Emperor. To me, Emperor Guangxu, like the Happy Prince, though graceful, glamorous and noble, was meant to be no more than a frivolous ornament according to his masterful guardian Cixi, just like the motive of the mayor who set up the statue of the Happy Prince. However, like the Happy Prince, Guangxu wasn't willing to be a puppet but really wanted to help his people, to the extent that he would sacrifice himself. However, as Guangxu really held little power (much resembles the Happy Prince who couldn't even move a step), he wasn't expecting that his reform would succeed. He might only initiate the reforms out of his own conscience that he had to do sthg. for the people. And we see that Emperor Guangxu was not alone as he had loyal supporters like Tan Sitong (1865~1898), who died a martyr for the reform and the Emperor. Those supporters who sacrificed their livs are just like the swallow in this tale.
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