This idiom, which means “to make an example of someone,” comes up a lot in conversations about power, politics, and the workplace.
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Essay: 学切菜 – Learning to Cut Vegetables
In this wax-on, wax-off lesson, our narrator picks up the most important basic skill in Chinese cooking.
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Short story: 姑姑的马拉松 – Auntie’s Marathon
Think you’re too old to start something new? This fifty-year-old auntie would like a word.
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Dialogue: 打错了 – Wrong Number
Ever dialed the wrong number and just hung up in embarrassment? What if you didn’t? This gentle little story shows how one tired phone call and a lonely stranger turned a mistake into something warm.
Ever complained about a gloomy, sunless week? Try a whole year of it. Back in 536 AD, the sun dimmed to a mere ghostly glow, and no one alive had any idea why.
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Science: 捕蝇草 -The Venus Flytrap
A plant that eats bugs and can count to two? Sounds like science fiction, right? Meet the Venus flytrap, a tiny green hunter that fascinated even Charles Darwin. Let’s find out how this clever little plant catches its dinner. Also, quick FYI: CRP will be off for the July 4th weekend, see you next week!
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Jokes: 两个坏消息 – Two Pieces of Bad News
These two jokes prove that bad news has a way of getting worse.
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Joke: 成功的秘密 – The Secret of Success
Ever wonder what the secret to success really is? A curious student keeps digging for answers, but the teacher’s answer wasn’t what he was expecting.
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Fable: 叶公好龙 – Lord Ye Loves Dragons
In this classic short story, it turns out Lord Ye (叶公) doesn’t like dragons as much as he thinks he does.
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Famous story: 《故乡》- Hometown by Lu Xun
If you’ve ever returned home after many years of absence to find that you had changed and grown, while everyone else had stagnated, this famous short story by Lu Xun, one of China’s greatest all-time writers, is for you.
Prayer, patience, and a clever workaround for fasting season gave birth to some of the world’s finest beer. This piece of non-fiction describes how and why the monks of medieval Europe were so fond of brewing.
Ever wondered if expensive wine actually tastes better? In this short story, Li Ming puts it to the test with a simple taste comparison.
Ever cleaned your whole house before the cleaner shows up? Yeah, that’s a thing. This post has every word you ever wanted to know about doing chores.
Today’s reading, Autumn Remembrance, was written by Shi Tiesheng in 1981 and describes a paralyzed young man’s slow, painful realization, only after her death, that his mother had been quietly dying of cancer while absorbing his rage and dedicating her final years entirely to keeping him alive.
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Short story: 在树下 – Beneath the Tree
This sad little story is told from the perspective of a tree, looking down on a couple in love.
Ever wonder who we should thank for those late-night reheated leftovers? Believe it or not, the microwave oven was born from a melted chocolate bar and one curious engineer who couldn’t stop asking ‘why?’ Here’s how a tiny detail changed kitchens around the world.
In this dialogue, two soldiers from warring countries discover they have more in common than they thought.
What treasures could possibly be hiding in a box Grandma never opens? Turns out it’s a whole lifetime of adventures—from Egyptian pyramids to Icelandic green lights. But Grandma’s favorite place might surprise you.
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Biography: 曹操 – Cao Cao
Meet Cao Cao, Chinese history’s ultimate bad guy – but was he really as bad as his reputation makes him out to be?
There’s nothing worse than technology failing you right before a deadline.