Chinese Novels/Tales

[Miya]

I'm a big fan of Chinese history and stories. I've never actually read a full Chinese novel in Chinese, but I've heard the stories and watched dramas about it. What are your favorite Chinese stories? I know someone mentioned 三國演義 (Romance of the Three Kingdoms) in the other topic. My personal favorites are 西遊記 (Journey to the West) and 封神榜 (The Creation of the Gods), but I like 帝女花 (Di Nu Hua) a lot too.

I'm most interested in stories with Chinese mythology so if you know any good ones, please post them here

[linguaholic]

I read the novel 我叫刘跃进。It is a fascinating novel about the Chinese society, involving people from different backgrounds (rich people and very poor people). The plot is very complex and the story is intriguing and sometimes pretty funny. I would definitely recommend it! I just bought another book: "The banquet bug" by Geling Yan 赴宴者 and I have to read this novel for my chinese studies at university.

If you want to know about the story of 我叫刘跃进， please consult this link here:

http://baike.baidu.com/link?url=U_8N2JJGFTrgGz3aummtxhPg0eLedE0eVFduum4guaKqZ4J0nJcUTrcESb620on75o-N4mjkGNvDcQmO39WDvK

If you need some info about the banquet bug, please just type it in on google and you will find lots of search results. Please keep in mind that the info on the first link are all in Chinese :=)

[Miya]

Ooh I haven't heard of those before. I'll check them out when I have time

I also really like the story of 牛郎織女 (The Story of the Cowheard and the Weaver Girl). This story is really popular so I think lots of people have heard of it before ^__^

Recently I have been reading about Chinese history and have taken a particular interest in 雍正帝 (Emperor Yongzheng) and 呂四娘 (Lu Si Niang) 

[linguaholic]

I have not heard about 牛郎織女 yet. I will try to find some time to read it though. ! First of all I will need to read several books for university  :wacky:

There are so many fascinating books that one could read, especially when it comes to Chinese History. Sooner or later I will have to read all the classics (some of them just because I'm curious and I have to read some at university).

Our Chinese teacher recently told us about a book of 莊子. It sounded like an amazing book/story. It was something about him and a butterfly...about dream and/or reality. Can't remember the name though

[Miya]

牛郎織女 is a love story so if you're into those, then it's pretty good

I think the story you're talking about is 莊周夢蝶 (Zhuāng zhōu mèng dié). I've heard of the title before, but I don't know the story.

Another popular Chinese story about butterflies is 梁山伯與祝英台 (Liáng shān bó yǔ zhù yīng tái). It's also a very popular love story about butterfly lovers.

[Beverly]

I didn't read a lot of the old books but,I've watched a lot of the old tales mainly because my grandparents will play it a lot. My grandpa has the whole collection and we love the original version of the old tales more than the remake version. Journey of the west is also one of my favorite which I was happy to find them in Youtube [Zhang Jizhong] Journey to the West (2011) - Episode 1 Legend of the White Snake Legend is another one of my favorite

.  I also loved the original version of the Goddess of Mercy tales.

The only remake of old tales that I actually enjoyed was The General of Yang Clans family. Growing up my parents would tell us the the tale so when I saw the TV serie was played by one of my favorite actor,I went ahead to give it a try before I moved to U.S. This is the version that I watched

. I really love the song.

I enjoyed Romance of Three Kingdoms book more than the TV series to be honest.

the original movie of the butterfly lovers is so good. If you guys want to check it out, make sure you don't get the version where it's played by Nicky Wu.

Thanks to You tube, every time I miss home,I can just run to it to find these old movies if not,I don't know how I am going to survive missing some stuffs from home :cry:

[Miya]

Thanks for your recommendations. I've also heard of the White Snake Legend! (actually watched the Raymond Lam/Charlene Choi version of the movie recently, but it wasn't too good...)

I love ancient dramas so I might give The General of Yang Clans a try I don't think I've ever heard of the story though.

the original movie of the butterfly lovers is so good. If you guys want to check it out, make sure you don't get the version where it's played by Nicky Wu.

Which version do you recommend?

I think in general, books are better. But it's much easier/more entertaining to watch movies/dramas 

[Beverly]

This is the version that I like

.It's like opera  :grin: so if it's too old school, you can give Nicky Wu version a try. The reason why I preferred the old one was because I watched that version first. The tittle is Love Eterne 1967.

Nicky Wu version is actually in you tube to watch.

The Yangs warriors are famous for their loyalty, That version I linked you actually showed more of the males role and there were some TV Series that showed the females Of Yang clans. But I just really like that version of Warriors of Yang Clan 2005.

If you just like drama with love story and some comedy ,you should check into Princess Pearl the first one. It was VERY popular back when I was in college.  Wow I might re-watch this one  lol . Let me know what you think of you Warriors Yang Clan. I powered through that one so fast  :grin:

Return of the Pearl Princess 还珠格格 1 - Episode 1 (English Subbed)

[Miya]

If you just like drama with love story and some comedy ,you should check into Princess Pearl the first one. It was VERY popular back when I was in college.  Wow I might re-watch this one  lol . Let me know what you think of you Warriors Yang Clan. I powered through that one so fast  :grin:

Haha, I LOVE Princess Pearl! I actually own the whole set of DVD for the first season. Out of the 3 seasons, the first is my favorite. I was so sad when they changed almost the entire cast for the 3rd season 

Princess Pearl was super popular back when I was in... 2nd grade. I feel like it's been forever since I've watched it. It's definitely one of my favorite dramas ever. It's also the first Mandarin drama I've ever watched

[polaroidsredwine]

Our Chinese teacher recently told us about a book of 莊子. It sounded like an amazing book/story. It was something about him and a butterfly...about dream and/or reality. Can't remember the name though

It seems less people know about this than I thought!  I'll need to apologize to my family for the silly look I shot them about not knowing of 莊子. The butterfly thing is often called 莊周夢蝶, which basically entails dreaming he was a butterfly, waking up, then wondering if there was any distinction between himself and the butterfly.

I just recently finished the light novel 1/2 王子 - had to order them from overseas even though there's an author-approved translation online because I like to have the source material.  It's a very light read and the prologue is something I'd rather ignore, but otherwise I enjoyed it a lot.  Strong female leads (even if they are pulling a gender-bender in a virtual reality game) are my weakness.

[linguaholic]

It seems less people know about this than I thought!  I'll need to apologize to my family for the silly look I shot them about not knowing of 莊子. The butterfly thing is often called 莊周夢蝶, which basically entails dreaming he was a butterfly, waking up, then wondering if there was any distinction between himself and the butterfly.

absolutely, that was it. I can't wait to read this story. I would love to read it in Chinese; however, this will be rather difficult. I might buy the chinese version and a translation at the same time and then I will just read both. Thank you for shedding some light on this butterfly matter  :grin: and a very warm welcome to linguaholic.com (haven't seen you in the forums yet hehe).

[polaroidsredwine]

Why yes, I am new here.  Thanks for the welcome!

I think finding the work online should be fairly easy, especially since it shouldn't be under any copyright. Finding the original Chinese version may take a little more effort, though, but since it is fairly popular you may find it on sites more geared toward educational things.

[pandandesign]

I remember when I was in elementary school, I read a lot of Chinese books. White Snake (白蛇传) was one of my favorite Chinese classic tales because I LOVE the story! I have read the book as well as the show, which I watch the classic version of the show and the newest version of the show that's aired in 2003 by Liu Tao. The 2003 version is one of my favorite versions because it is sad at the end, and I cry every time watch it.