Recommended Chinese Books/Magazines 好书介绍

[sunflower]

cafelatte:

My original intent is to add some value to this discussion with my personal opinions (as stated). I am a fan of 金庸 and have read his books many times over the years. I thought it will be useful to share a different view, perhaps especially so for those who have not read 金庸 before.


I do not wish to engage in any verbal debate so I will take an exit here.

Hee...read your views in time before you deleted them. Actually, I find both you and Tamarind have your own opinions (albeit in disagreement) and there is no right or wrong, just more passionate in what each of you think is appropriate. Each of you is entitled to your own opinion lah, which is good for many parents to compare and decide. It really depends on the maturity of the child and only the child's own parents will be able to decide which is more appropriate.

I've read 武侠小说 by 金庸, 梁羽生，古龙 before when I was in upper pri/ lower sec, esp after exams, because I can continue reading non-stop. Can't really recall the details of the stories now but just to share that I stopped reading after a while because I find that my mind became idle? (donno how to describe), something like watching too much soap opera (连戏剧). Maybe it's just me.

Personally, I'm not into romance so dislike 亦舒, 琼瑶, regarded them as 言情小说 (trashy novels?). Sorry, no offence to those who love their books.

I'm more into classics. Read 巴金 books like 憩园 in P4. Quite a good bk, not too thick and manageable. Bks I read in my upp pri years include 西游记 by original author written in 半白话文 (3 thick volumes) and translated Sherlock Holmes (福尔摩斯) detective stories (or for that matter, any translated classics) - very interesting read. Also read books by local authors such as 金兰姐妹 written by 田流, which is good for upper pri /lower sec as story is set in Singapore. Children with high Chinese standards can read classics such as 三国演义, 水武传 or classics by these authors 老舍, 鲁迅, 巴金, 沈从文 etc. Can start them off with simplified or comics version for those not very well versed in Chinese. However, I don't recommend 聊斋 for upp pri.

cafelatte recommended some good Chinese story bks which my girl (std of Chinese not too high) likes, as the stories are more current and child-like, so children can identify with the characters and relate to them more.

[baong]

cafelatte:

My original intent is to add some value to this discussion with my personal opinions (as stated). I am a fan of 金庸 and have read his books many times over the years. I thought it will be useful to share a different view, perhaps especially so for those who have not read 金庸 before.


I do not wish to engage in any verbal debate so I will take an exit here.

Hi cafelatte,

Me too read your post in time before you edited them. I hope you will put them back Your view is valuable for other parents.

It is good that everyone share their opinion in this forum so parents can learn from one another. I take a more relax stance with what my kids read. When they are younger, I will try to introduce suitable books to them. But when at an age/level where they are able to read or understand 金庸 kind of books, haha I don't think I can teach/force them to read books they have no interest in anymore. IMO, they will find the kind of books they are interested to read. Of course, parents can try to introduce, but I think its really up to the kids to decide. Kids, if they are really interested to find out or know more about anything, they will go all out to find it, trust me! Here's an example:

My son is 7 and I dunno why he is suddenly interested in mrt maps right now, besides asking me for a hard copy of the map, he also went googling himself and he finds all sorts of images of the singapore mrt maps, even though now its SA period, and I hope he will spend more time on his school work. I treat it as a form of relaxation for him. Since he is interested in this topic now, I tickled him a bit and ask him to find the train maps of other places, he did and ha, now he is familiar with the hong kong mtr maps and knows which station to go for Disneyland Think some may find this useless but in the process of getting the information, I do think he is learning something. After SA and if he is still into this, I'll try to let him know the Japan train system :!: Hope he will not be confused by it ...

My post is a bit long, and i hope i don't bored anyone. But I just wanna say, every kid is different and there is no one standard way to teach them.

baong

[tamarind]

I am glad that the debate does not continue, or else there will be no end to the debate.


All I want to say is that 金庸 novels are the essence of Chinese literature, and should not be misinterpreted.

http://baike.baidu.com/view/2619.htm

1、《射雕英雄传》最后一章（节选）将入选初中语文课本：
　　“描写华山论剑前夕，郭靖在经历一系列杀戮事件后的苦闷心境”的部分。
　　2、《天龙八部》入选高中课本：
　　全日制普通高级中学语文读本(必修)，由人民教育出版社06年11月第一次出版，首次选入了王度庐的《卧虎藏龙》和金庸的《天龙八部》两篇武侠小说，分别排在第五课和第六课，并合为一个单元，取名为“神奇武侠”。课文节选了《天龙八部》第四十一回 “燕云十八飞骑，奔腾如虎风烟举”，讲的是萧峰到少林寺救阿紫，在山上力斗丁春秋、慕容复、游坦之三大高手一节，充分展示了他的绝世武功和英雄气概。
　　3、《雪山飞狐》北京语文教材：
　　2007年7月的北京课改,语文泛读备选篇目中就节选了金庸的《雪山飞狐》。

[tamarind]

For mommies with girls below the age of 13, I highly recommend this series of books :

什么都行魔女商店（全四册）
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20469456

These books are translated from Japanese. The stories are whimsical, the drawings are lovely, and the books teach all the correct values ! But the words are not easy for local primary school kids, even those in upper primary. Mommies can help by reading the books together with your girls. You will both enjoy the books very much !

[cafelatte]

sunflower, baong, thanks for your comments. Good to know I didn't waste bandwidth and other parents' precious time with my 2cents worth.


Ah, so the debate continues and I am back despite earlier note that I will make an exit. Debates do end, I think when \"winning\" is not important . Nevertheless, this is definitely my last say on this topic :

Notice the links quoted in 百度 -> 选高中课本, 北京语文教材. Not 小学. I maintain my opinion there are too many sexual connotations in some of the novels, to be suitable readings for upper primary children. Descriptions of fascination with female 胸部, 陆不群 自宫, then his wife noticed he lost facial hairs and their lack of 房事, 尹志平 touching 小龙女 all over the body and eventually 宽衣解带......no matter how small part in the novels, to me, is not suitable reading for children in primary school.

This is not a debate about which source (HK TV, channel 8, English romance.etc etc) has more sexual connotations. I will not introduced 金庸 to my primary school kid. I will also not introduce English romance (trashy?) novels ala Mills&Boon to my primary school kid. Reading the old thread on English books recommendation, I don't think other Singapore parents are ? So this is totally out of context comparison. There are better more suitable English books for this age group and I am sure we can find more suitable good Chinese books for them too.

Would I say it is WRONG to introduce 金庸 to the children then ? Not if you are aware of the contents and judged that the benefits outweigh the controversies. However, as parent to parent, I would warn against introducing these books to your primary school kids if you have not read them yourself or at least be aware of the controversy behind some of the novels (intent of my original post). That said, I don't think I have, at any point, misinterpreted or condemned 金庸 novels. To me, they are written and hence more suitable for adults.

Mastering Chinese language in our enviornment is challenging for most of our children. As long as we as parents, do not give up, do not belittle them (eg. reading books too easy for their age) and try within our means to support them, I believe they will achieve their potentials.

By the way, my child doesn't watch Disney anymore but surely he won't be reading 金庸 anytime soon too !

[tamarind]

I have read about cases of kids in China who read 金庸 novels below the age of 10. Their parents are all highly educated professionals and I am sure they make better judgement than parents here (English educated ones) with regards to these novels. I myself read all his books at the age of 14 to 15, not an adult. I was never "corrupted", in fact, I learned a lot of good values from his books.


No wonder Singaporean kids are widely considered as not street smart. Parents are too over-protective. I suppose these parents should really disallow their kids to watch any Channel 8 series too, because it is a lot worst (Little nonya was quite sickening).

Anyway, due to our low standards in primary school, very few local kids can read 金庸 novels anyway. So there is no point debating about this. I only wanted to create some awareness to these great novels when I first wrote about them in this thread.

Whatever it is, I do not agree with the above interpretations of 金庸 novels. I myself have read every page of his novels and I do not have the same opinions. I hope that people have really read and fully understood all his novels before making any comments. His novels are phenomenal and the benefits do far outweighs those insignificant parts. Anyway, characters who did bad things all died terrible deaths, so that teaches a good lesson that what they did was wrong. Shielding our kids from everything is not going to help them deal with problems in life later.

[corneyAmber]

Thought I start this thread to recommend some of the good Chinese books that I have come across, suitable for children.


Self read age : 9 years onwards.

Title: 你是个怎样的人
Author: 蓝芬
Cover Page:
http://www.shop.panasiabooks.com/images/sg01.jpg\">

Previously it was known as : 你要做个怎么样的人

Comments from me:
I bought this book mainly for myself. At a certain age, sometimes it is difficult to get some messages across to the child, especially when a message is not new. I read this together with my child, not because she is not able to read but I like to understand her thoughts after reading it.

It is a simple read, no frills but a lot of food for thought. No doubt a lot of these knowledge you might have shared with your child/children, but nothing beats them reading it in a book to reinforce the ideas, especially the examples given are pretty good.

Sample pages read:
http://books.google.com.sg/books?id=OIl ... &q&f=false

[Busymom]

Looks interesting, thanks for the recommendation, ksi. May I know at where can I buy this book?

[chloecube]

i have got this, bought it at Berries during their yearly book fair. my 7 yr old DD is reading it too

[Busymom]

chloecube:

i have got this, bought it at Berries during their yearly book fair. my 7 yr old DD is reading it too

When and where is Berries book fair being held? My DS goes to Berries but I am not aware of such book fairs.