Ever gotten so many parking tickets you wanted to give up driving forever? Well, that’s exactly what happened to Li Ming. But trading driving for walking turned out to the best decision Li Ming ever made.
Tag: Essays (48)
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Short story: 幸运的抢劫犯 – The Lucky Robber
Li Ming spent ages plotting the perfect bank robbery, but on the big day, fate had a different plan in store.
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Essay: 什么是家? – What makes a home?
Ever bought all the furniture and still felt like something was missing? This little story tells us it takes more than tables and chairs to make a house feel like a home.
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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.
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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Famous essay: 《背影》by Zhu Ziqing
Of all the essays Chinese students read in school, this might be the one they remember longest. 《背影》, or My Father’s Back, is barely 1,500 characters, and almost nothing happens in it. A young man is leaving his hometown after his grandmother’s funeral. His father insists on seeing him off at the train station. That’s the essay. But the author describes the scene in a simple, beautiful way that encapsulates a father’s love for his son.
In this short story, a melancholy robot stays awake all night, considering how strange it is that humans sleep.
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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.
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.
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.
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Essay: 素食者的朋友 – The vegetarian friend
In this story, Wang Ming (王明) keeps forgetting that his friend Li Hong (李红) is a vegetarian.
Ever caught yourself daydreaming about what you’d do with a million bucks? You’re definitely not alone. This text follows a Chinese speaker’s fantasy spending spree – from ramen in Japan to guitar lessons – while dropping some wise thoughts about whether winning big is actually all it’s cracked up to be
Follow along as our narrator navigates the universal struggle of getting online in a coffee shop.
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Essay: 我的科学课 – My Science Class
In this short passage, we learn some middle school science terminology.
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Essay: 我的小猫睡觉 – My Little Cat Sleeps
For a cat, sleeping is a full-time job. In this short essay, a kid describes his cat’s very busy schedule of doing absolutely nothing.
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Essay: 我学骑自行车 – I Learn to Ride a Bicycle
This kid is excited to finally learn to ride a bicycle, with a little help from his 爸爸.
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Essay: 《不死鸟》The Immortal Bird by Sanmao
In this tear-jerker essay, famous Taiwanese authoress Sanmao ponders on the value of her own life. It was written as she grieved the drowning of her beloved Spanish husband in 1979, and is all the more tragic in light of her suicide 12 years later.
A tragic, dreamlike little essay from writer Zhang Ailing (张爱玲, English name Eileen Chang) about love and destiny. This is one of her more well-known works of micro-prose, written in 1944. HSK 5-6.
An essay from Chinese lit diva Zhang Ailing about a scene of police brutality she witnessed in Shanghai in the 1940s. HSK 6 and up.