Abstract Through a critical reading of traditional Chinese novels and European literature, this paper compares the development of two servant archetypes: “Granny Wang” in China and “Harlequin” in Italy and France. Both play clown-like minor roles in traditional literature, and are deployed by the authors as literary devices or stereotyped characters rather than as nuanced representations of real individuals—a treatment that breeds semiotic and narrative meanings. In this regard, the study first explores the origins and naming conventions of these characters, revealing how the capricious naming process influences their traits and literary functions. Despite their frequent presence in traditional literature, these characters have long been overlooked and dismissed by mainstream critics and authors. Accordingly, the paper studies how later writers recreated and revitalized these once-anonymous figures with more detailed depictions, granting them greater prominence and subjectivity within their respective fictional universes. Given the chameleon-like traits of the Harlequin and the self-interested characteristic of Granny Wang, it compares and analyzes their fluid and multifaceted natures in the literary works of a later era, which allow the anonymous characters to stand out and endow them with a certain degree of independence, individuality, and potential rebelliousness towards the master-servant relationship or the established hierarchy.
Lu et al. (Sun,) studied this question.