World classic, retold in simple Mandarin
Alice in Wonderland
爱丽丝梦游仙境
Alice in Wonderland (爱丽丝梦游仙境, Àilìsī mèng yóu xiānjìng) is a classic by Lewis Carroll, retold in simple Mandarin as an 8-chapter story with audio for learners at about HSK 3 (Intermediate).
Retold from Lewis Carroll's classic novel: bored on a riverbank, Alice follows a White Rabbit with a pocket watch down a hole into a world where nothing makes sense.
Meet the voices
- Narrator · 旁白 — The library's grandfatherly storyteller, who begins on a sleepy riverbank and ends there too, as Alice's sister pictures Alice one day telling her dream to children.
- Alice · 爱丽丝 — A curious, polite and very outspoken English girl who talks to herself, misses her cat Dinah, and keeps changing size.
- Alice's Sister · 姐姐 — Alice's calm older sister, who would much rather read her book than chase rabbits.
- White Rabbit · 白兔 — A fussy, nervous rabbit in a waistcoat who is always checking his pocket watch and always, always late.
- Mouse · 老鼠 — A touchy little mouse who is terrified of cats, which Alice keeps forgetting.
- Dodo · 渡渡鸟 — A very grand and very pompous bird who knows the perfect way to get dry: a race that everybody wins.
- Caterpillar · 毛毛虫 — A big blue caterpillar on a mushroom who speaks slowly, answers rudely, and knows the mushroom's secret.
- Pigeon · 鸽子 — A frantic pigeon who is sure that anything with a long neck must be a snake after her eggs.
- Duchess · 公爵夫人 — A bossy, sneezing duchess with a peppery kitchen, a howling baby and a grinning cat.
- Cheshire Cat · 柴郡猫 — A grinning cat who appears and vanishes whenever he likes and says that everyone here is mad.
- Hatter · 帽匠 — A rude, jittery hat-maker who is stuck at six o'clock teatime forever because he quarreled with Time.
- March Hare · 三月兔 — The Hatter's tea-party partner, who argues with everyone and put butter in the Hatter's watch.
- Dormouse · 睡鼠 — A tiny dormouse who is always asleep, except when he is telling a very strange story.
- Gardener · 园丁 — One of the Queen's gardeners, a flat playing card with a paintbrush and a dangerous secret.
- Queen of Hearts · 红心王后 — A furious queen who solves every problem by shouting “Off with his head!”
- King of Hearts · 红心国王 — The Queen's small, timid husband, who loves rules and important-sounding words and tries to calm his furious wife.
8 chapters, one journey
Chapter 1: Down the Rabbit Hole
掉进兔子洞
On a sleepy summer afternoon, a White Rabbit with a pocket watch runs past Alice, and she follows him straight down a very deep hole.
Free to read
Chapter 2: The Pool of Tears
眼泪池
Alice grows so tall that her head bumps the ceiling, and she cries until her tears make a pool, just as the White Rabbit comes hurrying back.
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Chapter 3: Everybody Has Won
大家都赢了
The creature swimming toward Alice turns out to be a touchy mouse, and a very grand Dodo knows the perfect way to get everyone dry: the strangest race ever run.
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Chapter 4: Who Are You?
你是谁？
A sleepy blue caterpillar asks Alice who she is, and she can't answer, but he knows the secret of the mushroom he is sitting on.
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Chapter 5: The Grinning Cat
会笑的猫
In a kitchen full of pepper, Alice meets a sneezing Duchess and a grinning cat who gives her some very strange directions.
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Chapter 6: A Mad Tea Party
六点钟的茶会
At the March Hare's tea party it is always six o'clock, and the Hatter has a riddle, a buttered watch and very bad manners.
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Chapter 7: The Queen's Croquet
王后的槌球赛
Alice finally walks into the beautiful garden, where the roses are being painted red and the Queen of Hearts wants everybody's head cut off.
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Chapter 8: Who Stole the Tarts?
谁偷了馅饼？
The Knave of Hearts is on trial for stealing the Queen's tarts, the Hatter is a hopeless witness, and Alice feels herself starting to grow again.
Free to read
Key words in Alice in Wonderland
Behind the story
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was written by Lewis Carroll, the pen name of Charles Dodgson, who taught mathematics at Oxford. He made the story up on a summer boat trip in 1862 to entertain ten-year-old Alice Liddell and her sisters, and it was published in 1865 with pictures by John Tenniel. Its nonsense, its puns and its talking animals made it one of the best-loved children's books in the world.
Chinese readers first met Alice in 1922, in a translation by the linguist 赵元任 called 阿丽思漫游奇境记. Today most people know the book as 爱丽丝梦游仙境. This retelling follows Carroll's book, not any film. His English puns rarely survive in Chinese, so it swaps them for jokes that work in simple Chinese.
Did you know?
- Carroll put the friends from that boat trip into the story as birds, and the Dodo is Carroll himself, whose real surname was Dodgson.
- The Chinese title 爱丽丝梦游仙境 means “Alice's dream journey through fairyland”: 梦 is a dream, and 仙境 is a magical land where fairies and immortals live.
- Alice caught on in China fast: in 1928 the novelist 沈从文 published 阿丽思中国游记, a novel that sends Alice on a trip through China.