World classic, retold in simple Mandarin
The Wizard of Oz
绿野仙踪
The Wizard of Oz (绿野仙踪, Lǜyě xiānzōng) is a classic by L. Frank Baum, retold in simple Mandarin as a 6-chapter story with audio for learners at about HSK 1 (Beginner).
Retold from L. Frank Baum's classic 1900 book: a farm girl, a scarecrow, a tin man and a lion walk the yellow road to find a wizard and a way home.
Meet the voices
- Narrator · 旁白 — The warm storyteller who sets the scene.
- Dorothy · 多萝西 — A kind, brave farm girl from Kansas who only wants to go home.
- Aunt Em · 艾姆婶婶 — Dorothy's tired, loving aunt on the Kansas farm.
- Good Witch of the North · 北方好女巫 — A tiny, smiling witch who welcomes Dorothy to Oz.
- Scarecrow · 稻草人 — A floppy straw man who wishes for a brain.
- Tin Woodman · 铁皮人 — A kind tin man who wishes for a heart.
- Cowardly Lion · 狮子 — A big lion who is afraid of everything.
- Wizard of Oz · 奥兹 — The great Wizard, who is not what he seems.
- Witch of the West · 西方坏女巫 — A wicked one-eyed witch who wants the silver shoes.
- Glinda · 格琳达 — The kind Good Witch of the South.
- Toto · 托托 — Dorothy's small black dog and loyal friend.
- Gatekeeper · 看门人 — The gruff guard at the Emerald City gate.
6 chapters, one journey
Chapter 1: The Big Wind
大风来了
A bored farm girl is swept away by a great wind and lands in a land of color. A tiny witch gives her silver shoes and a road to follow, but warns that nobody has seen the Wizard.
Free to read
Chapter 2: The Straw Man
稻草人
On the yellow road, Dorothy meets a scarecrow who wants a brain and who cannot walk straight. At dusk in the forest, something rusty groans.
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Chapter 3: The Tin Man and the Lion
铁皮人和狮子
Oil frees the Tin Woodman, who wants a heart. Then a huge lion leaps out of the dark and roars, but he is hiding a very silly secret.
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Chapter 4: The Green City
翡翠城
Everyone in the Emerald City must wear green glasses, and the great Wizard turns out to have a hard job for them: face the wicked witch of the West.
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Chapter 5: The Witch of the West
西方女巫
The friends walk west toward a black house while something flies overhead. Soon Dorothy stands alone before a witch who wants her silver shoes.
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Chapter 6: Behind the Curtain
巫师是谁
Toto finds a secret behind a green curtain. The great Wizard is not what he seems, and Dorothy still has one road left to walk.
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Key words in The Wizard of Oz
Behind the story
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was written by the American author L. Frank Baum and published in 1900. It became one of the best-loved children's stories in the world, and this retelling follows the book with its silver shoes, its green glasses and its Good Witch of the South.
In China the story is known as 绿野仙踪. It has been translated into Chinese many times and is a familiar children's classic, loved for its message that the brain, the heart and the courage we long for may already be inside us.
Did you know?
- In Baum's book the magic shoes are silver.
- The Emerald City looks green because everyone must wear green glasses inside its walls.
- Baum wrote many more Oz books after the first one.