World classic, retold in simple Mandarin
Little Red Riding Hood
小红帽
Little Red Riding Hood (小红帽, Xiǎo Hóngmào) is a fairy tale by Brothers Grimm, retold in simple Mandarin as a 4-chapter story with audio for learners at about HSK 1 (Beginner).
Retold from the Brothers Grimm: a girl in a red hood carries cake to her sick grandma, a polite wolf points her toward the flowers, and someone with very big ears is waiting in Grandma's bed.
Meet the voices
- Narrator · 旁白 — Tells the Grimms' old tale plainly and warmly, like a grandfather by the fire.
- Little Red Riding Hood · 小红帽 — A cheerful, chatty little girl in the red hood her grandma made, who loves flowers, always says she will remember, and is braver than she looks.
- Mother · 妈妈 — Red's loving, busy mother, who sends her off with a basket and a list of rules.
- The Big Gray Wolf · 大灰狼 — A smooth-talking wolf with lovely manners, a nose for anything tasty and a belly that is never full.
- Grandma · 奶奶 — Red's frail, loving grandmother, who lives alone in a little house deep in the forest and still has plenty of spirit.
- The Hunter · 猎人 — A big, hearty huntsman who has been after the Big Gray Wolf for years.
4 chapters, one journey
Chapter 1: The Wolf on the Path
路上的大灰狼
Little Red Riding Hood sets off with cake for her sick grandma and a list of rules from Mom. Then a very polite wolf steps onto the path.
Free to read
Chapter 2: Off the Path
离开大路
Red wanders deeper and deeper into the flowers, while the wolf races to Grandma's cottage and calls through the door in his sweetest little voice.
Free to read
Chapter 3: Grandma's Big Ears
奶奶的大耳朵
In Grandma's dark bedroom, Red asks why Grandma's ears, eyes and hands are so big, and every answer is a little stranger than the last.
Free to read
Chapter 4: The Snoring Wolf
打呼噜的大灰狼
Face to face with the wolf, Red has one idea left, and it's in her basket. Then someone walking past the cottage hears a very strange noise.
Free to read
Key words in Little Red Riding Hood
Behind the story
This book retells Little Red Cap, which the Brothers Grimm printed in 1812 in the first volume of their Children's and Household Tales. Theirs is the version with the hunter who hears the wolf snoring. In Charles Perrault's older French tale of 1697, no hunter comes at all, and the story ends with a warning to young girls about smooth-talking wolves. This retelling keeps things gentle: the wolf shuts Grandma in the wardrobe instead of swallowing anyone.
In Chinese the girl is 小红帽, “Little Red Hat,” one of the best-known heroines of 格林童话, as the Grimms' tales are called in China. The villain has a familiar Chinese name too: in children's stories the wolf is usually 大灰狼, the “Big Gray Wolf.”
Did you know?
- The Chinese name 小红帽 means “little red hat,” close to the Grimms' German title Rotkäppchen, “Little Red Cap.” The English “Riding Hood” goes back to Perrault's earlier French tale, where she wears a chaperon, a kind of hood, which English translators turned into a riding hood.
- The Grimms gave the tale a second, shorter ending: another wolf comes along, but this time Little Red Cap stays on the path and goes straight to her grandmother, and together they trick the wolf.
- China has its own tale of a wolf who dresses up as a grandmother to get into a house: 狼外婆, “Wolf Granny.” In Taiwan the villain is a tiger, 虎姑婆, “Grandaunt Tiger.”