The series Graded Readers for Chinese Language Learners is composed of 50 books, divided into three subseries, namely folktales, literary stories and historical stories, corresponding to Levels 1-3 respectively. The rich and fun content and easy-to-understand language makes it easy for everyone, whether they are foreigners learning Chinese, children with parents of Chinese origin, ethnic minority students of the Chinese language, or even primary school students in China, to read this series. It enables the readers to gradually improve their Chinese reading skills and enhance their understanding of Chinese culture by reading and enjoying stories.

The “Literary Stories” subseries is based on the Four Great Classical Novels in ancient China. From each novel some epic snippets are extracted and adapted into 4-6 books, each with 20-30 thousand characters. Altogether there are 20 books in the subseries, six of which are from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, four from Water Margin, six from Journey to the West and four from Dream of the Red Chamber.

Journey to the West is a mythological novel, telling the story of a Tang Dynasty monk called Xuanzang (Monk Tang) who, under the order of the Tang emperor, went west on a pilgrimage for Buddhist scriptures with his three disciples Sun Wukong the Monkey King, Zhu Bajie the Pigsy and Monk Sha. During the journey, they defeated demons and monsters and experienced all kinds of ordeals. There are six books in this series based on this novel, namely Havoc in Heaven, The Pilgrimage for Buddhist Scriptures, Three Battles with the White Bone Demon, The Flaming Mountains, The Real and Fake Monkey King and The Leiyin Temple.

The Real and Fake Monkey King tells the story that the real Monkey King defeated the fake one.

On the banks of Heaven, the Monkey King asked the Bodhisattva to subdue the Goldfish Spirit and save the people in the village.

Later, they ran across many bandits and the Monkey King struck them down, which made Xuanzang furious and sent the Monkey King away.

Then the fake Monkey King came, hurting Xuanzang and taking away the luggage. The real and fake Monkey King fought and no one can tell which the real one was until the real Monkey King fought the impostor down before Buddha. 

Ms. Chen Xianchun is a professor at Beijing Language and Culture University who has engaged in the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language since 1975, equipped with rich Chinese teaching experience. Professor Chen has made profound research into the teaching of Chinese reading and has published, in addition to more than 20 academic papers, many monographs and textbooks such as Teaching Reading and Psychology, Typical Characters and Events in Chinese Culture, A Primer on Modern Chinese Reading, An Intensive Chinese Course, and Read This Way.