World classic, retold in simple Mandarin
Cinderella
灰姑娘
Cinderella (灰姑娘, Huī gūniang) is a fairy tale by Charles Perrault, retold in simple Mandarin as a 5-chapter story with audio for learners at about HSK 1 (Beginner).
Retold from Charles Perrault's 1697 fairy tale: a kind girl who sits in the ashes, a fairy godmother with a pumpkin, one night at the prince's ball, and a glass slipper left behind at midnight.
Meet the voices
- Narrator · 旁白 — Tells Perrault's old tale plainly and gently, with a soft spot for the girl in the ashes.
- Cinderella · 灰姑娘 — A kind seventeen-year-old who does all the housework and sits in the ashes by the fire, which is how she got her name.
- The Stepmother · 继母 — Proud and cold, she rules the house and her husband, and gives her stepdaughter every dirty job.
- The Stepsister · 姐姐 — The stepmother's vain daughter, who lives for new dresses, big mirrors and the prince's ball.
- The Fairy Godmother · 仙女 — Cinderella's godmother, who is also a fairy and knows exactly what a pumpkin can become.
- The Prince · 王子 — The king's son, who gives a ball and cannot take his eyes off one guest nobody knows.
5 chapters, one journey
Chapter 1: By the Fire
在火边
Her mother is gone, her stepmother gives the orders, and her stepsister has a cruel name for her. Then a letter arrives from the palace.
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Chapter 2: The Prince's Ball
王子的舞会
The prince is giving a ball, and the stepsister can think of nothing else. Cinderella fixes her dress and her hair, and quietly wishes she could go too.
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Chapter 3: The Fairy Godmother
仙女来了
Alone in the moonlit garden, Cinderella is crying when a kind old woman appears and asks her for a pumpkin.
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Chapter 4: Midnight
十二点
At the palace, the prince dances with no one else. Cinderella is so happy that she forgets to watch the clock.
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Chapter 5: Whose Slipper Is This?
这是谁的鞋？
The prince goes from house to house with one glass slipper. When he reaches Cinderella's door, her stepsister is the first to try it on.
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Key words in Cinderella
Behind the story
This book retells Cendrillon, the fairy tale Charles Perrault published in Paris in 1697 in his Stories or Tales from Times Past, the collection better known as Tales of Mother Goose. His is the version with the fairy godmother, the pumpkin coach, the midnight deadline and the glass slipper, and like his, this book ends with Cinderella forgiving her family.
In Chinese she is 灰姑娘, the “ash girl,” just as her French name comes from cendre, “ash.” The poet Dai Wangshu (戴望舒) translated Perrault's tales into Chinese as 鹅妈妈的故事, “Mother Goose's Stories,” and today the name is part of everyday Chinese: the media call a commoner who marries into royalty or great wealth a 现实版灰姑娘, a “real-life Cinderella.”
Did you know?
- Perrault's slipper is made of glass, 玻璃鞋 in Chinese, but many Chinese readers know it as 水晶鞋, a “crystal slipper.”
- China has its own Cinderella: Ye Xian (叶限), written down by Duan Chengshi (段成式) in the ninth century, more than eight hundred years before Perrault. She also loses a golden shoe, and a king searches for its owner.
- Every tale in Perrault's book ends with a short moral in verse. Cinderella's says that graciousness is worth even more than beauty.