Classical text gets novel treatment

What Liu does in the 50 chapters of the six books is to avoid the sophistication, and focus on the characters, the scenes and the related stories, like Daiyu burying the petals, drunk Xiangyun sleeping in the flower garden and Miaoyu serving tea.

"I try my best to bring the beautiful, the pleasant and the interesting from the novel to young readers," says Liu.

"I'm giving the kids a glimpse of the light and joy that the book brings, which will stay with them as they grow older and can explore the original novel themselves."

Liu's new series was inspired by the stories he told his 6-year-old granddaughter. 

The author, a former editor with a literary magazine, is known for his works of fiction and lectures on China Central Television about A Dream of Red Mansions.

In 2011, Liu raised public interest in the novel by releasing his own version of the work because the existing 80 chapters by Cao Xueqin are believed to be unfinished.

For years, Liu has been promoting the novel to adult readers, but now he is responding to demands that he take the classical novel to even younger readers.

He has begun to act. As part of this outreach, he has produced audio lectures for children and turned them into a series, besides offering cultural references in the books to festivals, customs, toys, tales and even legendary swords.

For Yang, Liu has made the classic approachable and his books are a boon to Chinese parents who are anxiously pushing to introduce the classics to their children.