An article about diet and nutrition from Xinhua News, with a side of sneaky kiwi advertising.
Author: Kendra
What would you do if everything you drew came to life? Meet Ma Liang, a poor orphan boy with big dreams and zero art supplies, who discovers that sometimes the universe rewards those who refuse to give up. This classic Chinese folk tale has it all: a magical gift, greedy villains, and one very satisfying ending for a corrupt emperor.
In this short story, a melancholy robot stays awake all night, considering how strange it is that humans sleep.
In this relatable dialogue, a convenience store clerk chats a bit with his customer, since both of them are awake in the middle of the night.
Ever walked into someone’s house uninvited and helped yourself to their food? Yeah, probably not a great idea. Join Goldilocks as she learns this lesson the hard way.
Today’s post summarizes The Chicken Feather Letter, a classic Communist children’s novel written in July 1945, while he was working as a war correspondent for Xinhua News Agency embedded with anti-Japanese resistance forces in northern China.
One little pig learned the hard way that laziness doesn’t pay off when a hungry wolf comes knocking.
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Dialogue: 李红的新头发 – Li Hong’s New Haircut
Poor Wang Ming finds himself in a predicament when Li Hong shows off her fresh new hairstyle.
In today’s post, we’ll read the first chapter of Ba Jin’s famous novel The Family. Set in 1920s Chengdu, The Family follows three brothers in the wealthy, tradition-bound Guo household as they each respond differently to the crushing weight of the old patriarchal system — one submitting, one resisting quietly, and one breaking free.
If you want to read Chinese ghost stories and tomb raiding novels like Gui Chui Deng, you’ll have to learn the tomb-raiders vocabulary; and what better way to do that than by reading about the ancient pyramids?
Everyone knows the story of the poor little bird that didn’t quite fit in – now you can read the classic tale in Chinese.
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Essay: 在手机上买东西 – Shopping on My Phone
Why leave your couch when the entire mall can come to you? In this passage, we learn some easy vocabulary related to mobile shopping.
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History: 黑死病 – The Black Death
This non-fiction article dives into the terrifying story of the bubonic plague – how it wiped out up to half of Europe’s population and, surprisingly, ended up giving the survivors a better deal in life.
Ever catch yourself daydreaming about where you’d live if you could choose anywhere? City lights, countryside quiet, or somewhere in between? This text walks you through the classic dilemma of picking your perfect home – and spoiler alert, there’s no perfect answer.
Think Columbus was the ultimate explorer? Well, a Chinese admiral beat him to the high seas by nearly a century – and he did it with a fleet so massive it would make any European navy look like a bathtub toy collection. Get ready to meet Zheng He and his legendary treasure ships that sailed from Southeast Asia all the way to Africa.
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Essay: 我想我的吵邻居 – I miss my noisy neighbor
Ever wished your annoying neighbor would just disappear? Be careful what you wish for! This short story follows someone who gets exactly what they wanted – and discovers that silence isn’t always golden.
Join Li Hong and Wang Ming as they hash out the age-old debate: is a boring job with good perks worth sticking around for?
Ever told someone their cooking was ‘delicious’ when it really wasn’t? Congratulations, you’re a liar – but maybe that’s not such a bad thing! This intermediate text explores the tricky moral territory of lying.
Ever wondered how birds manage to fly thousands of kilometers without ever stopping to ask for directions? No Google Maps, no compass, no ‘turn left at the next cloud’ – and yet they never get lost. Let’s explore the mind-blowing ways these feathered travelers find their way across the planet.
In this non-fiction essay, we learn why dinosaurs disappeared from the earth.