Chinese Short Stories 1 (Second Edition)

Chinese fairy tales are very important part of China's rich folk literature. These fairy tales and fables are extremely rich cultural heritage and precious moral wealth created by the Chinese ancestors for thousands of years and have been verbally circulated since ancient times. They carry emotions, moral traditions, personality characteristics, myths, cohesion and affinity. The supernatural tales often tell various relationships between human and nature in the form of bizarre language and symbols. Their themes are usually broad and include fantasy narrative stories. Folktales are certainly not limited to the actual real-life situations and what would people think as true and reasonable. Rather, they often contain natural and whimsical ingredients. Understanding these stories are indispensable for learning Chinese culture and to gain a better knowledge of Mandarin Chinese language.

The current book volume, Chinese Short Stories 1, is a Level 1 Chinese reading practice book. It would introduce you to 8 famous Chinese folk stories. The 1st volume in the Selected Chinese Short Story Series (中国短篇小说精选) includes both the Chinese text (simplified characters) and pinyin Romanization. With about over 500 unique Chinese characters, the volume would be suitable for the beginners, lower intermediate and advanced level Chinese language learners (HSK 1-6). Overall, the reading series offers you a variety of elementary level books (Level 1/2/3/4/5/6) to understand China as well as practice Chinese reading fast.