Chengyu! (成语!)

March 6, 2025

COMING SOON, Chengyu are traditional Chinese idioms, typically composed of four characters, that convey profound wisdom, historical events, or moral lessons in a concise and poetic form. Rooted in ancient literature, philosophy, and folklore, chengyu offer insight into Chinese culture, values, and way of thinking. Whether drawn from classic texts or legendary tales, each chengyu carries a deeper meaning beyond its literal words. This wonderful collection of 18 chengyu stories, written in easy Chinese, explores…

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Heroes of Ancient China, Book 1: Nezha (哪吒)

February 27, 2025

Born with miraculous powers and a fearless spirit, young Nezha is destined for greatness, but his path is far from easy. From his legendary battle with the Dragon King to his rebirth through a lotus flower, Nezha’s journey is one of resilience, justice, and transformation. Guided by his master Taiyi Zhenren and armed with divine weapons, he takes a stand against tyranny, joining Jiang Ziya in an epic battle to destroy the corrupt Shang dynasty.…

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Learn to Read Chinese, Book 4: Six Ghost Stories in Easy Chinese

December 9, 2024

This book contains six wonderful Chinese tales of the supernatural, based on short stories by Pu Songling and published in 1766 as Liaozhai Zhiyi (聊斋志异, Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio). The stories have been retold in easy Chinese by Yunjie Xiong, using simplified grammar and a limited Chinese vocabulary based on the HSK4 word list. Each page of Chinese faces a page of pinyin (phonetic spelling), so if you don’t recognize a word, you…

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Learn to Read Chinese, Book 3: Four Love Stories in Easy Chinese

May 27, 2021

A wealthy girl runs away with her cousin, a poor stonecarver.   A scholar finds true love inside a book. Two lovers defy death to be together. And a young man finds love with two ghosts. FOR MATURE READERS ONLY.  Believe it or not, it’s possible for you to read and understand the four wonderful love stories in this book even if you start off not knowing a single word of Chinese!  We won’t lie to…

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Learn to Read Chinese, Book 2: SIx Folk Tales in Easy Chinese

January 6, 2021

Two friends find a golden nugget on the ground.  A young girl meets a fox spirit.  A dog saves a life, a tiger takes a life.  A girl runs away from her fishing boat.  And a boy saves the spirit of his grandfather. Believe it or not, it’s possible for you to read and understand the stories in this book even if you start off not knowing a single word of Chinese!  We won’t lie…

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Learn to Read Chinese, Book 1: Four Classic Folk Tales in Simplified Chinese

December 20, 2020

An orphan girl gets help from a goose.  A poor family receives a magical gift.  A boy is stranded alone on a ship in a storm.  And two magicians perform a deadly trick. Believe it or not, it’s possible for you to read and understand the four wonderful stories in this book even if you start off not knowing a single word of Chinese!  We won’t lie to you and say it will be easy,…

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The Love Triangle (三角恋)

December 9, 2020

FOR MATURE READERS ONLY.  Sang is a young scholar living alone in a small village in 18th century China. One night a strange and beautiful woman arrives at his house, and he soon falls deeply in love with her.  But later, a second even more beautiful woman arrives, and things become extremely complicated.  This is a story about fox spirits and ghosts, love and lust, and the unpredictable nature of the human and the not-quite-human…

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Ye Xian, the Chinese Cinderella Story (叶限)

October 13, 2020

The story of Cinderella is possibly the most widespread and popular of all folk tales.  The earliest known version is from Greece around two thousand years ago, and over the next thousand years, it traveled to France, Italy and Germany, and eventually to the Walt Disney studio in America. But as the Cinderella story traveled from Greece to Western Europe, it was also carried eastward to Asia along the Silk Road and other ancient trade…

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Hulin and the Mad Goose (虎林和狂鹅)

September 14, 2020

Folk tales are immensely popular in China.  Passed down orally over the centuries from grandparents and parents to children, they serve as an unwritten handbook for living.  Nearly all Chinese folk tales are about simple people who find themselves in difficult situations.  These people are often helped (and occasionally hindered) by talking animals, as well as by powerful gods, wizards and other supernatural beings who actively interfere in events here on earth (天下, tiānxià, “under…

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