Minli

Minli is a strong-willed, young Chinese girl who lives in the Village of Fruitless Mountain. She grows up on tales of magical people and places from Ba, her father. Minli is restless and never content with her lot in life. Eventually she decides to run off on a quest to change her family's fortune. Minli upsets her parents, who are frightened about what will happen to her. But her ingenuity helps her to survive as she meets and befriends a dragon, sees through the tricks of the King of the City of Bright Moonlight, finds a cure for Dragon's poison, and figures out how to communicate with the Old Man of the Moon.

Minli's restlessness is her central conflicted character trait. Minli wishes to change her family's fortune but realizes over time that her discontent is the major factor causing her to lament her family's fortune. As the...