Chinese Breeze Chinese Readers Series: Level 2: 500 Word Level: 青凤: Qīng fèng: Green Phoenix

by Yuehua Liu, Chengzhi Chu

耿家的旧房子很长时间没人住了。不知道为什么，房子的门常常自己开了，又自己关上，看不见有人进去，也没看见有人出来，但是到了晚上，就能听见里面有人说话和唱歌。一天晚上，耿去病看到旧房子的楼上有亮光，他就慢慢地进到房子里，走上楼。他看见那里坐着一个漂亮姑娘，还有她的家人。耿去病很喜欢那个姑娘，他想知道那姑娘是谁，他们从哪里来，为什么住在他家的旧房子里。可是，他怎么也想不到以后出了那些事……这个故事是根据《聊斋志异》中的《青凤》编绘的。《聊斋志异》是我国一部优秀的古典文学，内容虽然多系描写鬼神狐狸的故事，却反映了当时的现实生活。画册通过青凤与耿去病的爱情生活，表现古代青年男女对自由的向往，以及他们向封建主义不屈地斗争。1.门怎么自己开了？2.房子里住的是什么人？3.啊，黑脸的鬼是他！4.小狐狸为什么不跑了？5.黑狐狸是谁？6.他们搬到一起住了生词索引练

68 pages, Paperback

Published December 31, 2008

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first level two reader of the Chinese breeze series that I read. Going from level 1 to level 2 wasn't too bad. In some ways it was a relief to have a little more vocabularly and a little more complicated sentence structure. I found I had to pay attention a bit closer to what I was reading but it was much more rewarding. There were a few words I didn't know and had to look up in the dictionary but on the whole it was still fairly easy to read. I managed to read the whole thing in three sessions instead of two that I was reading the level one books.

The story itself was lovely. It was an adaptation of a Pu Songling story from my favourite Chinese short story collection, Liaozhai Zhiyi (translated as strange tales from make do studio or strange tales from a Chinese studio). The story was about a young man who heard of a haunted house and decided to investigate as he wasn't scared of demons or ghosts. He met a lovely family of fox spirits who were haunting the house. He then proceeded to get very drunk with them. It was wonderful to have such great sentences for practice, this I will fully admit is part of the reasons I love these old Chinese stories so much. They are all about getting drunk and giving books to girls to impress them. (supernatural girls who may be ghosts or foxes).

I loved this story so much. I fear it will be hard for the more modern stories to compare with it. But I have four more of the level two books and I'm looking forward to reading those as well.

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

menudos plotwists que se trae (ya me los esperaba)

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best I have read in this series of readers for learners of Mandarin. An interesting adaptation of a story from Pu Songling's 聊斋志异 Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio.