Updated with additional channels

Reading is a great way to expand a child’s language, especially a minority language that they do not have much exposure to.

However, if you are not able to read Chinese characters or read them well, or perhaps you struggle to read and paraphrase Standard Chinese to Colloquial Cantonese, or if you are not fluent in Cantonese, reading to your child in Cantonese is quite a momentous task, even if you have lots of Chinese books available.

Fear not, your child can still have stories read to them, thanks to some native Cantonese speakers have taken it upon themselves to record videos of themselves reading Cantonese books.

Cantonese Mommy 媽咪講故事

This mummy is a native Cantonese speaker who shares videos of her reading storybooks to her child – both in Colloquial Cantonese and in Standard Cantonese. Subscribe to her YouTube channel to get the latest book updates. She reads a great selection of books from Hong Kong and Taiwan. There are over hundred books on her channel and more are being added frequently.

好聽故事書 Books for the Little Soul

This mummy is also a native Cantonese speaker who shares videos of her reading books, some in Colloquial Cantonese, some in English, and some bilingual. Some books are originally in Chinese, and others, she translates from popular English books such as Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers.

瞳心Eunice

Eunice reads these Chinese books in Cantonese. also with cute voice impressions. She usually uploads a book a week. A few of her earlier books are read in both Cantonese and English.

Cantonese Stories by Michigan Cantonese Storytime

Founder of Michigan Cantonese Storytime reads many Cantonese stories. Many of these are centered around certain themes, especially for festival days such as Mid-Autumn and Christmas. If you navigate around her YouTube channel, she also has many different videos of animation and so on by themes.

Official storytelling channel by 新雅文化 Sun Ya Publications.

藍天故事Blue Sky Story

陳校長分享繪本故事

安徒生會故事時間 Hans Andersen Club Storytime

CanCanMa故事時間 by Candice Ng

Donut讀好書 – 名人「童」你講故事

Celebrities reading books to you. New book readings added. There is also a non-celebrity playlist of 8 books

故事阿豬媽

初心學園～Gogo老師粵語故事時間

野豬仔丼丼 & KOKO講繪本—中文繪本

廣東話故事頻道 Read Along with Cantonese Story Book

故事爸媽 Fun Fun

Thirty one stories read in a casual manner by a Dad in Colloquial Cantonese. Includes Goodnight Moon and The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and some books from the小雞 series. This channel is no longer updated.

Storybear

Picture books read by kindy teacher.

怪老樹劇團線上讀繪本 Old Tree Funny

Little Piggies Storytime 小豬大豬讀書書

12 stories including 愛哭公主 The Princess who Loves to Cry &小雞逛遊樂園 – Little Chicks at the Amusement Park. The nine Chinese books are read in Formal Cantonese and translated to Colloquial Cantonese. The three English books are read in English and Cantonese. This channel is no longer updated.

Chicken Feet Storytime 雞腳故事時間

Eight English books read by a dad in Colloquial Cantonese. Includes Curious George and The Itchy Bear. This channel is no longer updated.

繪本裡的生命教育Holly老師

貓老師Teacher Cat

Ansami

This mummy reads some greenfield books青田教育中心我會自己讀 (27 books) in Formal Cantonese in one playlist. On another playlist, she tells three stories are in a mix of Standard Chinese and Colloquial Cantonese, and the remaining 12 books are more我會自己讀. There are also some videos of book readings not sorted into any playlist. This channel is a tad disorganized, but might be useful if you want to hear someone reading greenfield books or if you are deciding whether to buy them. (If you do, they come with a CD).

爵士媽媽講故事時間

Five books recorded.

媛姐姐講故事

Bonus: 家長必讀的50本繪本故事

This channel, hosted by 周衞昌Louie (a psychologist 心理/催眠治療師) and 王素瑩Percie (閱讀教育導師) discusses 50 books that they recommend parents read to children, and how to use these books to help children’s development. You can also read about the books (in Chinese) at the 親.閱.樂 blog.

How to use these Videos

Some ways that you can use these videos:

You can show the videos to your child,
You can let them listen to the audio while looking through an actual book (if you have the book in any language, though ideally Chinese.)
Watch the video and learn to “read” the book, and then read it to your child.
A mixture of the above methods – e.g. watch once together, then be the reader after that

According to research, reading to your child would be best. But my personal two cents is that with a minority language, any exposure is good., so you should do what works for you- after all, each way helps to expose your child to more Cantonese. The value of exposure to native speakers should not be undervalued!

Have you been watching any of these book reading videos? Please share with us how you use them. Do you know of any other channels? Please let us know, and we will add it to our list.

This post is part of the Cantonese Kids Resources on YouTube series

You might also enjoy reading:

I’ll be adding to this list as I find more YouTube channels for book readings in Cantonese. Please bookmark this page and come back for updates.

2 thoughts on “Cantonese Storytime and Book Reading on YouTube”

Lucia Huong says:
Hello,
I have just visited your website today and I found it very interesting for us to learn Cantonese.
I have an idea, can you please add jyutping bellow Chinese characters so that we can read easily?
Thanks a lot.


February 13, 2020 at 9:58 am
- Cantonese For Families says:
  Thanks Lucia, for visiting. Thanks for your feedback. Most of the printables include Jyutping, but I will try to include them in the posts next time where possible. I hope you will continue to enjoy the site!
  
  
  February 13, 2020 at 10:48 am