The Chinese stories everyone here grew up with

Ten stories that turn up in conversation, on festival days and on the side of a teapot. Each one is written out here, and read aloud chapter by chapter inside the app.

• Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai: the love story hidden in a violin concerto梁山伯与祝英台
  Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai: a girl disguised as a scholar, eighteen miles of hints, a grave that opens, two butterflies. The story behind the concerto.
• Why the moon has a woman in it: Chang'e explained嫦娥奔月
  Chang'e flies to the moon: ten suns, an archer's elixir, and the Jade Rabbit. The legend behind Mid-Autumn Festival, mooncakes and China's moon rovers.
• Niulang and Zhinü: one night a year, on a bridge of birds牛郎织女
  Niulang and Zhinü, the magpie bridge, and the river of stars that separates them. The legend behind Qixi, China's Valentine's Day, told simply for foreigners.
• The Monkey King, and the long walk that follows him西游记
  Sun Wukong, Tang Sanzang, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing walking to India. Journey to the West summarised simply, plus why the Monkey King is everywhere in China.
• The wife who cried the Great Wall down孟姜女哭长城
  A wife walks north with a winter coat, learns her husband died inside the wall, and weeps until it falls. The Great Wall legend remembered at Shanhaiguan.
• Hua Mulan, the girl in the poem every Chinese child memorises木兰
  The Ballad of Mulan in plain English: who Hua Mulan was, her twelve years at war, the famous two-rabbits line, and why Chinese pupils know it by heart.
• Nezha, the child who handed his body back哪吒闹海
  Nezha and the Dragon King: a boy born from a ball of flesh, a fight in the Eastern Sea, the body he gives back, and the lotus rebirth, explained simply.
• The beast called Nian, and why your neighbours are shouting年兽
  Nian is the beast behind Spring Festival. Red couplets, firecrackers, staying up late and the phrase guo nian all come from this one story. Explained simply.
• Zhang Qian: thirteen years away, and nothing in his hands张骞出使西域
  Zhang Qian left Han China in 139 BC, spent ten years a prisoner, failed his mission, and came home with the discovery that opened the Silk Road. A true story.
• Bai Suzhen: the snake who wanted to live as a woman白蛇传
  Bai Suzhen, Xu Xian, Xiaoqing and the monk Fahai. The White Snake legend explained simply, plus why Hangzhou's Broken Bridge and Leifeng Pagoda matter.