On the note of a ladybug being an odd choice for one of the main two/partner if the Black Cat/Creation or Luck or whatever its supposed to be, I saw another blog a long time ago mention a White Bat being the animal instead
I can't remember how they said it would tie into real-life symbolism (I think this idea switched out the Creation/Destruction motif for them being about Luck, but I can't fully remember), but I haven't been able to stop thinking about how adorable a White Bat/Black Cat duo could have been, imo at least
(Post that spawned this ask)
You guys know that, if you give me a lore drop, then I have to look into it, right? Of course you do! And I can't keep all that knowledge to myself so before we get to the ask, let's learn about the Chinese mythology around white bats! As always, I am not an expert. I'm just someone doing their best to learn so polite corrections are welcome!
Bats, Luck, & China
The English language has a wide variety of homophones: words that are pronounced the same, but written differently. We can use these odd quirks in our language to create clever double meanings like a "Sunday drive" where we go for a drive on a Sunday to get ice cream Sundays. But homophones aren't unique to English. Lots of languages have them and Chinese is no exception. In fact, Chinese has WAY more homophones than English which leads to some very cool symbolism and word play.
One of the many homophones pairs in the Chinese language is 福 and 蝠, both pronounced "fú". The first one translates to "good fortune, happiness" and the second one translates to "bat". Because the two words are pronounced the same, bats have had a strong association with luck for centuries and that association is celebrated in Chinese culture. For example, bats are often depicted in Chinese art, architecture, and clothing. One of my sources even said, "Westerners are familiar with depictions of dragons in Chinese art, but bats might be even more common."
Additional sources I referenced for this section and the next:
Source 1
Source 2
Welch, Patricia Bjaaland Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery Tuttle Publishing 2008
Side note: That book was referenced in one of the articles and my library had it so I checked it out and it's awesome! I highly recommend it if you want a high level overview of Chinese symbolism. I'm tempted to give you all a miracle box symbolism breakdown since we've had so many talks on how to redesign the various Kwami. Thoughts?
White Bats As Supreme Symbols of Luck
This is where things geta little dicey. I've become very confident that bats are lucky in China, but white bats being extra lucky? Not so much. If you want to depict an extra lucky bat, it's going to be red.
That doesn't mean that only red bats are lucky! I saw a wide variety of bat colors referenced and depicted in my research. Red was simply the only color called out as having extra meaning. In Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery, Welch states, "Red bats became popular on late Ming and Qing Dynasty ceramics and textiles to symbolize extensive good luck". The color choice is due to further word play. The Chinese word for red has the same pronunciation as "vast, abundant" so red bats are "a symbol of abundant good fortune."
I did find one myth about a white bat, though. It's a tale belonging to the Naxi people, one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. These people have a myth, called "The White Bat’s Search for the Scriptures", a ritual text that tells of how the white bat was able to travel up to the heavens to find the books of divination and save mankind from illness. That source goes on to say:
The white bat is known in traditional oral cultures across the Himalayas as a sacred messenger, a culture hero who mediates between the human world and the abode of the gods. The borrowed idea of a bat as culture hero is an intricately constructed gestalt of various traditions. Investigating the mythic motif of the bat as culture hero in the eastern Himalayas, we soon find in old Tibetan tradition that there is a “Great Wise Bat” (sgam chen pha wang) that may be analogous to the white bat of the Naxi ritual literature.
So the white bat isn't a pan-Chinese symbol, but it is a Himalayan one! This association with white bats and Himalayan cultures has special significance to Miraculous since the guardian order's temple is canonically in the Tibetan mountains. We're not told the specific range and Tibet has several, but the Himalayas are one of the candidates. I wouldn't be surprised if that's why a white bat was chosen in the post the ask was referencing. It may also be a yin yang thing which we'll touch on in a minute. First I need to briefly acknowledge the Tibet issue.
Since the canon box is explicitly Chinese, I've been referring to Chinese culture as a whole for this post and will continue to do so in the next section, but since Tibet has become relevant, I feel obligated to pause and point out that Tibet and China have an incredibly complex history. They used to be separate nations and Tibet has an active government in exile - including the famous Dalai Lama - so treating Tibet as just another part of China is complicated. There is an argument to be made that, since the miracle box is supposedly ancient, it should be based on Tibetan culture alone and not all of modern day China. If you want to know more, do your own research as I am not qualified to get into the nuance of that one. The only thing I feel qualified to say is that - if I were writing the show and wanted the box to be based on Chinese culture - I'd locate the temple somewhere else in modern day China. It's not hard to find less controversial locations. China is a big place.
Finally Addressing the Ask
I really like the idea of Tikki being a white bat! Based on my research, a bat would be a much better cultural fit than a ladybug and the bat's color being white would let the miracle box have a culturally appropriate black-and-white yin yang instead of the odd red-white-and-black version we get in canon. That's not what yin yangs look like.
There are versions that are red and white instead of white and black and a version with a red dot in the middle with white and black on the outside (source), but the standard depiction seems to be the famous black and white. Of the version that use red, nothing I've found looks like this:
[Image description: the Chinese miracle box from canon]
That yin yang symbolism is why I think you could make a white bat work even if that color of bat isn't a ubiquitous luck symbol in China. The yin yang seems pretty ubiquitous and bats come in all colors in Chinese iconography so why not white? Plus it would make Ladybug and Chat Noir's suits have a more striking contrast instead of Ladybug being a combo of their colors while Chat Noir is all black. I never liked that design choice since they're supposedly opposites. Their civilian clothing should not be a better allusion to yin yang than their hero outfits!
Yes, this fix maintains the issue of the Creation Kwami actually being a Luck Kwami, but that's what canon went with so I'm not going to get too picky here. So long as it's better than canon, I'm happy to play and this was a super fun learning exercise! A welcome pallet cleanser after my Yaksi Gozen meltdown. As always, if any of that is wrong or if I'm missing some nuance, you are welcome to kindly correct me and I will happily share the correction with the blog!
