What do you think?
Rate this book
Chinese graded reader 1000 words
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 22, 2018
Graded Chinese Reader 500 words and 1000 words: Selected Abridged Chinese Contemporary Stories.
This is the best series of graded readers that I have found yet. There are a total of 6 books, starting from the 500-word level going up to the 3000-word level in increments of 500 words. These graded readers are superior for two reasons:
1. They are much thicker - around 200 to 350 pages each, vs. the more typical 40-70 page readers.
2. The stories are selections of actual Chinese literature, which have been shortened and simplified (compared with most graded readers that make up there own - usually terrible - stories).
In the 500 level book, the short stories were only about 10 pages each, and were not that interesting. In the 1000 word level book, the stories jumped to around 30-50 pages each, and were more interesting. I enjoyed one in particular - I'll include the description here:
誰生活的更美好 : (roughly who lives better / whose life is more beautiful)
This story was written by the highly regarded modern writer Zhang Jie. It takes place in Beijing around 1979 and reflects the lives and spiritual pursuits of common people. A young and pretty female conductor on the plate No. 1176 bus, is warm, polite, and serious in her job. Her beauty attracts a number of young men. Among them are two who treat her differently, one is called Shi Yanan and the other is Wu Huan. They both have favourable living conditions and feel superior to others. They make a return trip by this bus every day. Shi and Wu are curious about the girl and her work. Wu sometimes helps and sometimes offends her, but whatever he does, the girl is always polite and humble. Gradually Shi comes to respect her more and more, while Wu wants to demonstrate his superiority and thus hurts her. However, none of this influences the girl and her work. In time Shi finds that the girl is pure, honest, and noble, with a mind capable of writing beautiful poetry. In contrast, both he and his friend seem small and mean. Finally, he realizes that the girl has a nobler mind than both of them, but Wu Huan still indulges in self-admiration. The story reveals that happiness and dignity in life depend on one's spiritual nature, not on material possessions and superficiality.
So, one thing that immediately jumps out about this story is the focus on spiritual purity, which makes sense given the year - 1979, just after the end of the cultural revolution. As I read it, I was acutely aware that what I was reading was not the true inner thoughts of an artist, but rather those thoughts that made it past the Communist Party's censorship. The themes of spiritual cultivation over material possessions and dedication to one's work regardless of how mundane it might be are right in line with the party doctrine at the time.
Despite this, I still agreed with the overall message of the story and enjoyed it. **Spoiler Alert** in the end, it turns out that the girl is secretly a poet whose work both men are familiar with and admire (but whose identity was previously unknown to them). Although only a bus clerk in her working life, she has used her spare hours to become an accomplished poet.
Most of the other stories focused on the divide between life in the countryside and life in the cities of China during the 1980s and 1990s as China under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping underwent its economic miracle. Some of these stories were interesting, some were really boring.
Part of the point of all the energy I've been investing into learning Chinese so that one day I'll be able to read Chinese literature. Since these graded readers are based on Chinese literature, they have given me a bit of a "sneak peek" of what that will be like.
I now have all 6 readers in my possession and am starting the 1500-word level one today.
This is the best series of graded readers that I have found yet. There are a total of 6 books, starting from the 500-word level going up to the 3000-word level in increments of 500 words. These graded readers are superior for two reasons:
1. They are much thicker - around 200 to 350 pages each, vs. the more typical 40-70 page readers.
2. The stories are selections of actual Chinese literature, which have been shortened and simplified (compared with most graded readers that make up there own - usually terrible - stories).
In the 500 level book, the short stories were only about 10 pages each, and were not that interesting. In the 1000 word level book, the stories jumped to around 30-50 pages each, and were more interesting. I enjoyed one in particular - I'll include the description here:
誰生活的更美好 : (roughly who lives better / whose life is more beautiful)
This story was written by the highly regarded modern writer Zhang Jie. It takes place in Beijing around 1979 and reflects the lives and spiritual pursuits of common people. A young and pretty female conductor on the plate No. 1176 bus, is warm, polite, and serious in her job. Her beauty attracts a number of young men. Among them are two who treat her differently, one is called Shi Yanan and the other is Wu Huan. They both have favourable living conditions and feel superior to others. They make a return trip by this bus every day. Shi and Wu are curious about the girl and her work. Wu sometimes helps and sometimes offends her, but whatever he does, the girl is always polite and humble. Gradually Shi comes to respect her more and more, while Wu wants to demonstrate his superiority and thus hurts her. However, none of this influences the girl and her work. In time Shi finds that the girl is pure, honest, and noble, with a mind capable of writing beautiful poetry. In contrast, both he and his friend seem small and mean. Finally, he realizes that the girl has a nobler mind than both of them, but Wu Huan still indulges in self-admiration. The story reveals that happiness and dignity in life depend on one's spiritual nature, not on material possessions and superficiality.
So, one thing that immediately jumps out about this story is the focus on spiritual purity, which makes sense given the year - 1979, just after the end of the cultural revolution. As I read it, I was acutely aware that what I was reading was not the true inner thoughts of an artist, but rather those thoughts that made it past the Communist Party's censorship. The themes of spiritual cultivation over material possessions and dedication to one's work regardless of how mundane it might be are right in line with the party doctrine at the time.
Despite this, I still agreed with the overall message of the story and enjoyed it. **Spoiler Alert** in the end, it turns out that the girl is secretly a poet whose work both men are familiar with and admire (but whose identity was previously unknown to them). Although only a bus clerk in her working life, she has used her spare hours to become an accomplished poet.
Most of the other stories focused on the divide between life in the countryside and life in the cities of China during the 1980s and 1990s as China under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping underwent its economic miracle. Some of these stories were interesting, some were really boring.
Part of the point of all the energy I've been investing into learning Chinese so that one day I'll be able to read Chinese literature. Since these graded readers are based on Chinese literature, they have given me a bit of a "sneak peek" of what that will be like.
I now have all 6 readers in my possession and am starting the 1500-word level one today.
October 28, 2020
I quite like these graded readers, definitely very helpful to people learning the language - helps with the memorisation of the characters and also increases your reading speed. As to the content, some of the stories are a bit boring but most of them are very interesting and meaningful read that also helps you understand the culture.
January 22, 2023
i looooooove propaganda
May 30, 2026
Primer libro “de verdad” (que no sea un cuento para niños), muy chulo.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews