Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China

In the book, mother leaves to visit grandmother for her birthday leaving her three daughters, Shang, Tao, and Paotze home alone. "Remember to close the door tight at sunset and latch it well."

An old wolf sees the mother leave. He dresses up like an old woman and after dark knocks on the door. "Bang, bang." He says, "This is your grandmother, your Po Po." Shang challenges him, and the wolf lies. Tao and Paotze let him in, and the wolf blows out the candle so he could not be seen. He gives the two girls who let him in a hug, and they all go to bed together.

Shang notices that "your foot has a brush on it" referring to his tail. He replies that they are "hemp strings to weave you a basket." She then mentions that "your hand has thorns on it" referring to his claws. He responds that it is an "awl to make shoes for you."

Shang figures something is wrong. She asks the wolf if he has ever eaten gingko nuts. He says not. The children offer to get him some. Once in the tree, Shang tells her sisters they have a wolf.

They lure the wolf into a basket held by a rope and pull him up into the tree. Then they drop him repeatedly until he dies from the fall.

The girls share their story with their mother when she returns the next day.

As you can see, the story is much like Little Red Riding Hood. No one is harmed by the wolf, which makes the story a little less terrifying and horrible. The battle of wits is significant here, as in Little Red Riding Hood. The book also displays the issues involved around children being home alone, and the need for children to communicate and cooperate with each other. Shang probably would not have let the wolf in.

After you finish enjoying the story and its illustrations and thinking about how it differs from Little Red Riding Hood, I suggest you also think about why stories about wild animals attacking from the woods are common to many cultures. Why do you think these stories were told originally? Why have they persisted in having appeal? Do you think they will be popular 1000 years from now? Why?

Enjoy and appreciate differences!

Lon Po Po comparison   November 30, 2001
Laura Harmon (Clemson, SC)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

Lon Po Po is an adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood from China. In Young's version the mother leaves her three children for the day, Shang, Tao, and Paotze, to visit their grandmother on her birthday. While the mother is gone a wolf, dressed as their grandmother, Po Po, comes to try to eat them. The oldest daughter Shang is clever and outsmarts the wolf. The relevance of this folk tale to the article Strong Women in Appalachian Folktales is the importance of the female protagonist.
A female protagonist in a folktale is a rarity. Male protagonists over shadow females in twentieth century tales. Shang is the female protagonist in Lon Po Po. Not only does she defeat the wolf but she outsmarts him as well. It is important that she is portrayed as the clever heroin so that contemporary children have more positive role models than the heroines in the best-known traditional fairytales (225). In Lon Po Po, the wolf does not fool Shang as little red riding hood was in the European tale. Shang realizes from the start that the wolf is trying to trick her. When she asks the wolf about his fur and his claws she is simultaneously planning a way to get rid of him. Appalachian folktales are tales that were adapted in America. Many made the female protagonist stronger than the previous European version. Ed Young readapted the tale of little red riding hood in the same way. In the original European version the wolf eats the grandmother. There are no women in this Chinese rendition that fall victim to the wolf.
Folktales inevitably change when retold by another culture. However, there are some similarities in the way that Appalachian folktales and Chinese folktales changed. They both highlight the strengths of female characters and give them an even bigger role than their original one (225).


Young's hidden images   January 30, 2003
M. M. Miller (Minneapolis, MN United States)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Like many of Ed Young's books, there are hidden images in the pictures. In this book, the images are of a wolf's head. One has to look sharply but they are there. Look carefully at the picture of the wolf looking up. Then take another look at the children in the tree pulling the wolf up in the basket.


This is a nice twist to "Little Red Riding Hood"!   November 17, 1999
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

This book is very similar to our "Little Red Riding Hood". I like this story better because the girls had to be smart and self-reliant instead of just running out the door to find a woodcutter with an ax. The illustrations verified the text very well and showed the Chinese influence and origin.