‘童话’ (tóng huà) literally combines ‘童’ (tóng), meaning ‘child’ or ‘childhood’, and ‘话’ (huà), meaning ‘story’ or ‘speech’. Together, it refers to a fictional story traditionally intended for children—often featuring magical creatures, talking animals, enchanted settings, and clear moral lessons. These stories frequently include anthropomorphized animals (like clever foxes or kind deer), making them especially relevant to the ‘Animals’ topic.

While many fairy tales originate from oral folk traditions—such as those collected by the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen—the Chinese term 童话 also encompasses original modern works like Ye Shengtao’s classic stories. Unlike myths (神话) or legends (传说), 童话 emphasizes imagination over cultural belief or historical grounding, and rarely involves real deities or ancestral figures. It is commonly used in education, publishing, and family storytelling contexts, often appearing in illustrated books, school readers, and animated adaptations.