Reading is where Chinese either clicks or stalls. You can learn a few hundred characters from flashcards, but until you see them in running text, inside stories you actually want to finish, they stay fragile. Graded readers are the bridge: books written or retold with a controlled vocabulary so that a learner with a small character inventory can read whole pages without drowning.
This guide walks through what makes a good Chinese graded reader, the main options in print and in apps, and how to choose a level. We make one of the options (ReadNative), so we'll be upfront about where it fits and where other products are the better choice.
Why graded readers matter more in Chinese
In most European languages, a beginner can at least sound out an unknown word and guess at cognates. In Chinese, an unknown character is a wall: you can't pronounce it, and it rarely looks like anything you know. That makes the gap between "textbook dialogues" and "real books" unusually wide.
Research on lexical coverage gives a useful rule of thumb. Work by Paul Nation, and by Hu and Nation (2000), suggests that readers need to know somewhere around 95โ98% of the words in a text to understand it comfortably without constant help. A native novel for adults sits far above what an HSK3 learner can cover. Graded readers close that gap on purpose, keeping unknown words rare enough that you can follow the story and pick up new ones from context. If you want the longer explanation, see how many words you need to read a book.
There is also a quieter benefit: volume. Day and Bamford's work on extensive reading argues that reading a lot of easy, enjoyable material builds fluency in a way that slow, dictionary-heavy reading does not. Chinese learners often do the opposite, grinding through a single difficult article per week. Graded readers let you read pages per day instead of lines. Our extensive reading guide has practical ways to set that up.
What to look for in a Chinese graded reader
Not all "easy Chinese" material is equally useful. These features make the most difference:
- A clear level system. Ideally tied to HSK levels or a stated character or word count, so you know what you're getting into.
- Controlled new vocabulary. New words should appear gradually and repeat often enough that you actually learn them.
- Pinyin on demand, not everywhere. Pinyin over every character is comforting but trains your eye to read the Latin letters instead of the characters. The best setups let you check pronunciation when you need it and hide it otherwise.
- A story worth finishing. Motivation is the engine of extensive reading. A plot you care about will carry you through more pages than a dialogue about ordering noodles.
- Audio, if possible. Hearing the text read aloud ties characters to sounds and tones, which matters enormously in Mandarin.
- Simplified or traditional, as you need. Most graded material is in simplified characters; if you're learning traditional, check before you buy.
Print series
Print graded readers have a long track record and are a good fit if you like paper, want to read away from screens, or study with a teacher.
Mandarin Companion
Mandarin Companion is probably the best-known modern series. Many of its titles adapt Western classics into Chinese settings, so the stories feel familiar while the language stays controlled. Levels are defined by a limited character set, starting from a few hundred characters, and the books are written to be read cover to cover rather than studied line by line. They're widely praised for being genuinely readable, and many learners say a Mandarin Companion book was the first Chinese book they ever finished.
Chinese Breeze
Chinese Breeze (ๆฑ่ฏญ้ฃ, Hร nyว Fฤng), published by Peking University Press, is an older series with several levels, each tied to a vocabulary size from a few hundred words upward. The stories are original and set in contemporary China, so you also get a feel for everyday life and culture. Some learners find the production less polished than newer series, but the grading is careful and there are many titles to choose from.
Other print options
Several publishers in China and abroad produce graded readers tied to HSK levels, and many bookshops that serve learners stock them. Quality varies, so look at a sample page before committing: if you understand most of it with occasional help, it's a good level for you.
The main drawback of print is the lookup problem. When you hit an unknown character on paper, you either guess, flip to a glossary, or draw it into a dictionary app. That friction is sometimes healthy, but it can also slow you down to the point of giving up.
Apps and digital readers
Digital readers solve the lookup problem by letting you tap any word for its meaning and pronunciation. They also tend to include audio. Here are the main options, described as fairly as we can.
Du Chinese
Du Chinese is a reading app built specifically for Mandarin learners. It offers a large and regularly updated library of short lessons and stories sorted by HSK-style levels, with native-speaker audio, tap-to-look-up words, and adjustable pinyin. If you want a big variety of short, polished pieces with excellent audio, it's one of the strongest choices. We compare it with our own app in ReadNative vs Du Chinese.
The Chairman's Bao
The Chairman's Bao focuses on graded news articles, written at different HSK levels about current events in China and the world. It's a good option if you want topical, nonfiction reading and vocabulary for discussing the news. Its strength is breadth of real-world topics rather than long-form stories.
Pleco's reader
Pleco is the dictionary nearly every Chinese learner uses, and it can also act as a reader for text you paste or import, with tap-to-look-up. It isn't graded content in itself, but paired with suitable texts it's a powerful tool, especially for intermediate learners reading web articles.
ReadNative
ReadNative takes a different approach: instead of many short pieces, it retells longer classic Chinese stories in graded form, so you read one story over many chapters and watch the difficulty rise as you go. Every word can be tapped for a gloss with pinyin, any sentence can be tapped for a translation, and the app tracks which words you've met often enough without looking them up. The Chinese books all have read-along narration.
The Chinese ladder currently looks like this:
| Book | Story | Level | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| ่ฅฟๆธธ่ฎฐ | Journey to the West | HSK1 โ HSK3 | Free |
| ๅไบ็่ | The Twelve Zodiac Animals | HSK1 โ HSK2 | Pro |
| ้ฟๅกๆ็ๆ ไบ | Stories of Afanti | HSK2 โ HSK3 | Pro |
| ็ฝ่ไผ | Legend of the White Snake | HSK2 โ HSK3 | Pro |
| ไธๅฝๆผไน้ | Romance of the Three Kingdoms (selections) | HSK3 โ HSK4 | Pro |
| ่ๆๅฟๅผ้ | Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (selections) | HSK4 โ HSK5 | Pro |
The fair comparison: Du Chinese and The Chairman's Bao have far larger libraries of short content, and if variety is what keeps you reading, they may suit you better. ReadNative's catalog is smaller but built around long, continuous stories from Chinese literature and folklore, which is a different kind of motivation. Journey to the West is free and runs to 50 chapters, so you can find out whether the format works for you without paying anything. If you go that way, our Journey to the West study guide introduces the characters and vocabulary you'll meet.
How to choose the right level
The most common mistake is choosing material that's too hard. It feels productive to struggle, but if you're looking up a word in every line, you're decoding, not reading. Here's a simple way to calibrate:
- Read one page or one short chapter without any help.
- Count roughly how many words you couldn't understand at all.
- If it's more than one or two per paragraph, drop down a level.
- If you understood nearly everything and it felt easy, that's fine: easy reading is exactly what builds fluency. Stay there until it feels effortless, then move up.
If you'd rather have a number to start from, you can estimate your vocabulary with our Chinese vocabulary size test, or paste a text you're considering into the Chinese text difficulty checker to see how it compares with your level.
A rough guide by stage:
| Your stage | What to read |
|---|---|
| HSK1, a few hundred characters | Very short stories, the lowest levels of any series, the opening chapters of a graded retelling |
| HSK2โ3 | Full graded novels at their lower levels, short graded articles, folk tales |
| HSK4 | Upper-level graded readers, simplified classics, graded news |
| HSK5 and up | The top of graded series, then native young-adult fiction and web articles with a pop-up dictionary |
Getting the most out of graded readers
A few habits make a big difference:
- Read for the story first. Don't stop to master every new word. If you understand the gist, keep going; the word will come back.
- Reread. Reading the same chapter twice, a day apart, is one of the fastest ways to make new characters stick.
- Listen and read together. If your reader has audio, play it while following along. Then try listening without the text.
- Limit lookups. Tapping every unknown word turns reading into translation. Our post on using tap-to-translate without getting dependent has some practical rules.
- Review lightly. A small number of looked-up words reviewed with spaced repetition goes a long way. You don't need to flashcard everything.
- Work on tones separately. Reading builds vocabulary and recognition, but tones need focused listening and speaking practice. A dedicated trainer like our sister app TonePerfect can help with that.
For the bigger picture of learning Mandarin through stories, see our pillar page on learning Chinese by reading.
FAQ
What HSK level do I need before I can start graded readers?
You can start almost immediately. The lowest levels of graded series and apps are designed for learners who know only a few hundred characters, roughly HSK1. Starting early is a good idea, because reading reinforces the characters you're learning elsewhere and shows them in context.
Should I read with pinyin or without?
Use pinyin as a check, not a crutch. If pinyin is visible over every character, your eyes will read the letters and skip the characters. Readers that let you tap for pinyin, or hide it by default, help you build real character recognition while still letting you confirm pronunciation.
Are graded readers better in print or in an app?
Both work. Print is distraction-free and pleasant to read, but looking up unknown characters is slow. Apps make lookups instant and usually add audio, which is a real advantage in Chinese, though it's also easier to over-rely on lookups. Many learners use both.
How many graded readers should I read before moving to native books?
There's no fixed number. A practical sign you're ready is when the top level of a graded series feels comfortable and you can read a native text, such as a children's book or a short web article, with only occasional lookups. Until then, reading more at your current level usually helps more than jumping ahead.
Is Journey to the West too hard for beginners?
The original novel is far too hard for beginners, and even for many advanced learners, since it's written in a mix of early vernacular and classical Chinese. Graded retellings are a different matter: ReadNative's version starts at HSK1 and rises to around HSK3, so a beginner can read the story in simplified language.