Chinese classical novel “Dream of the Red Chamber” and its various sequels

Since the times when the classical novel “Dream of the Red Chamber” emerged, many people in China repeatedly made attempts to interpret the contents, to continue the story and to recover the chapters that had been lost. The tradition of writing sequels to the classical novels - and especially to the “Dream of the Red Chamber” - has a long history and continues till nowadays. Having passed various stages in its development, the tradition of writing sequels in the XXth century is based on the philologist researches. Chinese readers have certain criteria which they apply when estimating new sequels of the “Dream of the Red Chamber”.