Fairy tale show comes to Beijing（中国大学在线

CHILDREN all around the world are familiar with fairy tales such as "The Little Mermaid" (《美人鱼》[文章来源：中国大学在线]), "The Princess and the Pea" and "The Emperor’s New Clothes". The colourful characters from the stories made us laugh and cry throughout our childhood.

　　The stories are the creation of Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen. The year 2005 marks his 200th birthday. To celebrate, the China Puppet Theatre (中国木偶剧院) in Beijing, is holding a series of shows based on his classic fairy tales.

　　Andersen was born in the slums (贫民区) of Odense, Denmark, on April 2, 1805. His early life was not easy. His father was a shoemaker and his mother worked as a washerwoman. He received little early education. As a child he was very emotional and was laughed at for being feminine (女性化的) and tall.

　　In 1816 his father died and Andersen was forced to go out to work, first in a tailor’s shop and then at a tobacco factory. At the age of 14 Andersen moved to Copenhagen to start a career as a singer and actor. He struggled for three years until he had to leave the theatre when his voice broke in 1822.

　　Andersen went to a grammar school after he left the theatre. Having done well he was admitted to Copenhagen University in 1828. He began to publish his fairy tales in 1835. They came out in small volumes (量) until his death.

　　Although Andersen lived a hard life, he tried to make people laugh in all his stories. He wrote because he didn’t want children to have a sad childhood as he did. "Being born in a duck yard does not matter, if only you are hatched (孵化) from a swan’s egg," he once said.

　　The work brought Andersen world fame, but he remained a lonely man. He loved three women in his life but none of them loved him back and he never married. His friends were the people that paid for his work and not people he was particularly (特别的) close to. "Just living is not enough... One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower," he said.

　　Andersen died on August 4, 1875. His home in Odense is now a museum and thousands of people visit it every year.

丹麦作家安徒生的童年并不幸福，他却写出了令无数孩子欢笑的经典童话。

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