秃秃大王

by 张天翼

《秃秃大王》是著名儿童文学家，张天翼代表作之一。该作品以隽永的艺术魅力吸引了成千上万的小读者，陪伴了一代又一代小读者的成长，成为永恒的经典，被孩子们珍藏在记忆的深处。 《秃秃大王》讲述了喜怒无常的秃秃大王既愚蠢又邪恶，一生气牙齿就会长长。虽然已经有很多妻子，但他还强迫干干做他的妻子，并把干干的父母和她的弟弟冬哥儿以及邻居由君都捉了起来。最后，大家齐心协力，将愚蠢凶残的秃秃大王赶出宫殿，将那些无辜的人都解救了出来，获得自由的故事。 这则故事告诉孩子战胜逆境的秘诀是：团结、冷静、乐观、智慧。

Genres: Fiction, China, Fantasy

Kindle Edition

Published May 1, 2017

Reviews

[Izabela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my what a ride!
Destroying your childhood dreams? Check! Ridiculous plot? Check! Communist satire? Check! Murder? Check! Human meatballs? Check! Blood soup? Check! Flies? Check! Cute protagonist? Chec-ugh.....?
Did I mention it's a story for children?

A ridiculous story best enjoyed when you're an adult, and one you will never read to your children.

I read it as a learning excerise and prep for future danmeis and enjoyed every second of it.
It's recommended to be at HSK4 level before attempting to read it, though honestly, after 1 month of reading 1 graded reader a day I found it extremely easy and wished I tried it earlier, and I'm around HSK2-HSK3.

[Five · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really fun first Chinese novel! A children's story about overthrowing a despot. The language is very repetitive but in a way that reads fairytale to me. Really enjoyed, it is gruesome at times but it's for the best.

[hm · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m writing this review from the point of view of someone who read the book as a language learning exercise, rather than someone who read it for the story (let’s be honest, I’m way too old to be able to judge how interesting the plot of this children’s book actually is for the target audience). And from this point of view, the book does its job well.

It is short compared to adult novels, but (in my opinion) reasonably long for a children’s book. Therefore the story’s length won’t overwhelm you, but it won’t be over after you blink a few times either. The language used is relatively simple, with many, and I mean many repetitions… which can be good and helpful in memorizing new vocabulary, but also infuriating when you do know that vocabulary. Let me give you an example:

但是哭有什么用呢？小明和冬哥儿也知道哭是没有用的。冬哥儿说：“哭是没有用的呀。

This sort of thing happens on almost every page, with the same sentence being repeated multiple times in a row, only slightly changed. I could feel my eyes glazing over every time this happened, and it made the book a bit annoying to read in the long run – hence the 3/5 stars rating.

It is, however, true that I found it too simple in general, which might have had some impact on the boredom I felt while reading. 《秃秃大王》 helped me establish how comfortable I feel with reading in Chinese, and it made me realize that it might have been a bit below my level. Which is fine: I picked it as my first book to read entirely in Chinese specifically to determine that. If anything, it boosted my confidence in my abilities, which is in itself something I desperately needed.

For what it’s worth, I think this is a good choice as one of the first books to read in Chinese. You should be able to read it with no problems if you’re around HSK3/HSK4 level.

[Ari · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is this book a good option for early Chinese learners? Well, that depends. The plot and characters are all very "random lol" and the jokes are extremely silly. The main villain 秃秃大王, aka "the bald king" (whom I've been told is supposed to represent Chiang Kai-shek, or at the very least, the landlord class) has teeth that grow longer and shorter. He drinks blood and eats maggots, and flies buzz around his head. Several times he shoots up into the sky and his head is mistaken for the moon. There is a character without a name ("---"). There is a character whose name is numbers. Some readers might find all of this hilarious, but I found the dream logic and sheer ridiculousness hard to follow, and the jokes unfunny. Maybe they're unfunny because this is a book for children. Despite really not enjoying myself, I powered through, because early Chinese readers don't get a lot of options for simple novels. I'm looking forward to when my Chinese is better so I can read more stories that I would actually enjoy, but grateful for the learning.

[Abi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found that 秃秃大王 was a very accessible first novel in Mandarin and that it was great language practice.

Story-wise, to be honest, while it was sometimes funny and mostly entertaining, it was occasionally rather gruesome as well. Beyond that, I did find the main characters rather, well, stupid. King Tutu was made out to be so awful that I was rooting for the protagonists because I hated him, but I can’t say I found them incredibly compelling after they got fooled for the second time, not going to lie. That said, since it was a short novel, I finished it before I got too annoyed by anyone/anything.

Overall, I thought that this was an okay novel but excellent Mandarin practice. 3 stars.

[Michael Fuller · Rating 5 out of 5]

咪咪咪
这本书有五星级

[Aarti]

Finished my first novel in a different language!! 🥳

[The Fool that doesn't belong · Rating 2 out of 5]

pretty easy to read and that's the only thing I liked about this story lol

[Vicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

my first novel in chinese! trying to become literate so i can read TGCF 💀💀💀

I'm giving this book a very generous 4/5 seeing as it's for little kids, and it def did a very good job of creating an interesting/captivating story with such a limited vocab. Well, I say "interesting" but I feel like the author cheated a bit by just making things as ridiculously unhinged, violent, and disturbing as possible lmoa

At points I def sensed a sort of ironic, satirical undertone to some of the characters/dialogue/events, and I did actually laugh at some parts. But also it was a book for primary schoolers so I can't really say I loved it lol

if anyone sees this review in a year and checks my bookshelf history and i haven't marked TGCF as read, know I have failed 💀💀💀 BUT IF I HAVE dang congrats future Vicky you really did it