Mother Goose Fairytale | Little Red Riding Hood

WowoSpot Kids

Little Red Riding Hood is one of my favorite stories when I was a kid. I believe the story was told in Chinese when I first learned about it. To my surprise Little Red Riding Hood is part of the Mother Goose Fairytale collected by French author Charles Perrault in 1696. This tells us Little Red Riding-hood is a folklore tale that has been passed on from generation to generation.

The characters of the big bad wolf, the grandmother, the little girl who wears a red riding-hood have been alive in my childhood memories. They were always found in the story books, in the cartoons, in the pop culture, in the movies. The history and popularity of the story makes the characters metaphoric to this day. It is not hard to understand why we have referred to "big bad wolf" as someone who appears to be gentle and smooth in appearance while is in fact dangerous. I often see morals and teachings embedded in folklore tales; Little Red Riding-hood is no exception.

What is a riding hood? It refers to a hooded outdoor cloak worn when riging horses. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as "an enveloping hood or hooded cloak worn for riding and as an outdoor wrap by women and children". Obviously today we do not ride horses for commuting; the imageries of the red coloured riding hood has become symbolic, suggesting the characteristics of innocence, vulnerability, gullibility.

Today I would like to visit the English version of this story from the book of the Tales of Mother Goose by Perrault in 1696 and share the story with Wowospot Kids podcast listeners by accounting it myself.

In the episode, newly composed instrumental music will be heard to accompany the appearing of the big bad wolf. The music is written my Lisa Ruping Cheng, with the purpose of inviting the listeners to enter into the world of the little girl walking in the forest by herself and wonder what is going to happen to her....