Famous Chinese classic ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ reworked as children’s book

As one of China's Four Great Classical Novels, the Dream of the Red Chamber has constantly been the object of research by numerous literary scholars. Written by Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) writer Cao Xueqin, the book has even become the foundation of a new academic field called Redology.

However, while most scholars go about their research with the hopes of enlightening their fellow academics in the field, Liu Xinwu, a Chinese author born in 1942, has taken a different path by rewriting the story as a children's book so that today's younger generation can come to understand the classic work.

On July 9, the author published a new book that takes the classic story written more than 200 years ago and changes it into an easy-to-understand children's story.

Looking to avoid topics that children may not yet be mature enough to understand, Liu explained at the debut ceremony for the book held on July 9 that he avoided parts of the story referring to love, conflict and marriage.

“I only kept the most beautiful words and scenes in the story for children to read, as for the love, I changed it into a discussion on friendship.”

The children's book market in China has been on the rise in recent years, but has mostly been dominated by translations of famous foreign children's stories such as Cinderella, The Little Match Girl and A Thousand and One Nights.

“I support reading foreign stories, but we should value our own Chinese culture first,” Liu said, explaining his motivation for writing the book.

“This is a good way to continue developing our nation's culture to cultivate the next generation.”