What do Chinese teenagers read?

[laurenth]

I'm always looking for novels whose difficulty level is somewhere between readers for foreigners and adult literature. But in my experience, it's been quite hard to find. There are several threads about that in chinese-forums and elsewhere and, yes, I've read several novels by 余华 and other supposedly "easy" authors. But I'm curious to know: what are the  books that 10-14 year old Chinese read for fun or maybe just because they must do it for school. For instance, the equivalent of Harry Potter and all that.

 

Of course, I could just read Harry Potter translated in Chinese (I've done it for the first book), but I'd rather read stuff written by Chinese people for Chinese people.

 

Surely, there must be something like a "初中 required/popular reading list" somewhere? Any suggestion?

 

[Meng Lelan]

Chinese teens have a lot of required readings for school. I don't think I often see Chinese teens read "for fun" or what if anything they read "for fun" but would appreciate being corrected (?) on this point. 

[roddy]

The 鬼吹灯 series comes to mind - I think that's aimed at the kind of age group you're talking about. 

 

Amazon.cn also has a 青春 category, which breaks down further into, eg, fantasy, 'campus' stories, etc. I note they now have a 'look inside' feature so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out if something is the correct level. 

[gato]

If you are trying look for reading material at teenage's reading level (and not necessarily teeny bopper material), then you can try reading Chinese newspapers.

Newspapers are generally at the 6-10th grade level in terms of vocabulary level, though they might requires somewhat higher level of background knowledge.

[laurenth]

Thanks for the link to 鬼吹灯, Roddy. It looks fun, I will at least try to read that.

 

Gato, I do read press articles regularly. What I'm looking for is light fiction in which I can be engrossed while commuting to and from work.

 

BTW, I'd never thought that the press could use "6-10th grade level vocabulary" but now that I think of it, although news articles can be quite complicated in the beginning, once you've read three of four about a given subject, it can become relatively easy to read many others.

[Lu]

I once picked up a magazine called 最小說 (ZUI novels), not sure how popular it is, but by subject matter it appeared to be aimed at young adults. Short stories, most of them not too difficult as I recall, although also not that great.

[tooironic]

There are a number of Chinese-language manga apps available on Google Play and Apple Store. I'm not a big fan myself but I downloaded MangaHello and read some of the free downloadable Chinese comic books available. I also find "light" news apps like 知乎日报 and 6park interesting to read on my commute. Not really targeted towards the very young market though, more like late adolescence/young adult.

 

As for this reading list you ask about, one thing to bear in mind is that, in mainland China at least, reading for pleasure is not really a mainstream hobby, at least not for young people. I've noticed that in Australia for example reading for pleasure is still quite a common pastime (I remember reading somewhere Australians are among the biggest readers in the world, we even have whole TV shows dedicated to reading!), and you'll often see people reading both paper and electronic books on public transport, but in China you tend to see more people playing games instead. I suppose one reason is that children in China are given so much homework at school that they can't really be bothered to do extra reading outside of class, nor is reading for pleasure really encouraged in general. Presumably it is seen as a "non-efficient" activity that won't lead to a good job. Then this attitude is carried through into adulthood.

[laurenth]

Hello Lu, as it happens, last time I was in China 1.5 year ago, I also picked a copy of ZUI 最小说 at a newsstand, together with a copy of 读者. At that time, it was still a tad difficult for me and so I forgot it on a bookshelf. Now you made me remember it and I think it's exactly what I need! Thanks!

 

Meng Lelan and tooironic, thanks for your explantations, now I understand that Chinese teens do not have time for pleasure reading. But are they requested to read fiction as part of their curriculum? I mean something that is more elaborate than chengyu stories or fairy tales, and less complex than the 4 classics? Maybe they are supposed to read Lao She and Lu Xun just as we (French speakers) are requested to read Balzac and Flaubert?

 

Anyway, in the meantime, I've started reading 鬼吹灯!

[choochoogone]

One author's name came into my mind immediately. "郑渊洁". By the way, I'm Chinese. You can read all his works. Hope this helps.

[roddy]

I'm not convinced that Chinese teens don't read for pleasure - there are certainly plenty of books aimed at them, and that's not happening without some expectation of profit. 

 

I'm not sure what kind of stuff they do at school, but I suspect it's mostly extracts within the context of a textbook, rather than reading an entire book. But here's the People's Educational Press student pages for 初中语文

[Lu]

 

you'll often see people reading both paper and electronic books on public transport, but in China you tend to see more people playing games instead.

From my observation, there is a lot of reading on public transport in China (in the Beijing metro, at least). Some people read paper books, but mostly it's on their phones. (I don't think I've ever seen an e-book on Chinese public transport.) But perhaps in Australia even more people read.

[skylee]

Do people (or young people) still read 讀者?

[tooironic]

I'm not convinced that Chinese teens don't read for pleasure

 

What I said was it's not a mainstream hobby. In Australia it is. That's it.

[c_redman]

I don't know what teenagers actually read, but online amateur fiction like http://www.readnovel.com/ is the kind of material I imagine they would read, and also write. there is a lot of material that could be considered intermediate level, and it's categorized by genre in a way that makes it easy to casually browse for something enjoyable.

[laurenth]

About Chinese teens or young adults reading (or not) for pleasure, this Wired article seems to indicate that online novels have a huge following, with the most popular works becoming printed books, movies and a significant source of income for the most successful writers.

[c_redman]

Excellent, another online reading resource! The site mentioned in the article, cfmu.com (short for Chinese Magic Fantasy Union), was renamed shortly after the Wired article, and is now at http://www.qidian.com. The individual book pages have a lot of links, and it took me a while to find where to actually read in the browser. From the book detail page, look for "点击阅读" (from the left-side menu), or for 立即阅读 in a popup that appears over certain links in various pages.

[Lu]

In case the OP is still looking for more material: Han Han these days has a magazine (another one), in an app, called 一个 / One. One story and one question & answer every day. I read a few and then bored of it, as it is your average campus literature, but I think it's exactly the kind of thing Chinese teenagers might read, as it is, well, your average campus literature. Also free, bite-sized and on your phone, for easy consumption.

[laurenth]

Thanks Lu, I'll download the app if I can find it - it does not seem to be included in Play Store for Android.

 

Right now I'm reading 鬼吹灯 (Roddy's suggestion). I suppose you could call that "pulp fiction", but I'm enjoying it a lot actually. It fits the bill for some (relatively) easy literature with a true Chinese background (not translated) and in which I can become engrossed enough to read significant amounts of it.

 

I'm at the start of chapter 8/47 of the first volume. I'm unlikely to read the whole 8 books of the series, though.

[Lu]

 

it does not seem to be included in Play Store for Android

That's odd, I found it in the Play Store without a problem. I searched for 一个, there were several apps with that name, but only one by 韩寒.

[laurenth]

 

That's odd, I found it in the Play Store without a problem. I searched for 一个, there were several apps with that name, but only one by 韩寒.

 

Found it, I add to search for 韩寒 instead of  一个. Thanks again.