Questions tagged [books]

Questions about books (whether printed or digital), including books that can be used as learning resources.

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16 votes
6 answers
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Are children's books a good starting place for beginners?

I was wondering if Chinese children's books might be a good starting place for adult Chinese language newbies (regardless of whether it be Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu, whatever), in particular for ...
Cocowalla's user avatar
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12 votes
4 answers
428 views

Are there standard dictionaries for Chinese? [duplicate]

Standard dictionaries have had a profound effect on languages like English. They've helped normalize spelling and pronunciation and provide reference for meanings and disambiguation. When thinking of ...
11 votes
2 answers
228 views

Are there any style guides for Chinese?

There are many different style guides for English, such as The Chicago Manual of Style and MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. Are there similar publications available for Chinese? ...
Village's user avatar
  • 2,235
11 votes
1 answer
556 views

Geopolitical History of Simplified Chinese

I've always been fascinated about the etymology of languages and believe that we are seeing a significant series of changes within chinese. There are some fairly good technical references for the ...
hafichuk's user avatar
  • 291
6 votes
5 answers
1k views

Chengyu dictionary

I am looking for a chengyu dictionary with the following caracteristics: the stories behind the chengyus in englis (or with chinese too), long, not just one or two sentence explanation, when and how ...
Stone's user avatar
  • 289
4 votes
2 answers
575 views

What is a good resources to read easy Chinese texts? [closed]

I started learning Chinese and want to find some short texts to practice my reading. I've found http://chinesereadingpractice.com/ where you can find some interesting posts, but even beginners text ...
rvnikita's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
258 views

What is the title of this Ming era picture dictionary?

I was browsing Wikipedia when I came across this picture: (source) The description says: An excerpt from a 1436 primer on Chinese characters. (better version) Original picture sourced from: ...
Flux's user avatar
  • 801
3 votes
2 answers
181 views

What is the name of the university in this seal?

I was able to read the second half (大學圖書), but not the actual name of the university. The image is cropped from a book posted here.
imrek's user avatar
  • 7,188
3 votes
4 answers
444 views

What comprehensive grammar books are available? [closed]

I have found many grammar books, but none that go beyond the low-intermediate level. Some textbook series contain lots of grammar, but this is spread out across many books and difficult to quickly ...
Village's user avatar
  • 2,235
3 votes
1 answer
86 views

Jean Pasqualini's book Prisonnier de Mao

I found this citation in wiki: Jean Pasqualini's book Prisonnier de Mao: "Prison is not prison, but a school for learning about one's mistakes" I wonder if it is a Chinese slogan of ...
Ivan's user avatar
  • 135
2 votes
1 answer
486 views

What is the meaning of the phrase 铁血丹心 ?

This is the title of a famous wuxia-novel, whose full title is 射鵰英雄傳之鐵血丹心, it is also a the name of a Cantonese song. I have searched for an explanation of this phrase. I thought, maybe it is a ...
Abdul Al Hazred's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
787 views

Learning Chinese using traditional characters [duplicate]

I believe in Taiwan people use traditional Chinese characters for writing whereas in China they use simplified characters. Assuming this information is correct I'd like to kindly request suggestions ...
Stranger's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
90 views

Which edition of《杜骗新书》contains modern parallels?

I was listening to the latest Sinica podcast, "All sorts of swindles in the late Ming society, with Christopher Rea and Bruce Rusk." At about 33:55 Christopher Rea talks about an edition of《杜骗新书》or《...
Mou某's user avatar
  • 36k
2 votes
0 answers
232 views

Assimil Chinese Old & New Editions [closed]

你好, In the 1970's, I believe, Assimil, the famous publisher in France which creates autodidactic methods, hired Phillip Kantor to write the two part textbook "Chinese With Ease," which is fairly well-...
Cody Smith's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
398 views

Does reading books with pronunciation written above the characters develop one's skills?

I've got some books in Chinese, written both in characters and pinyin. Can reading such a book develop anything when it comes to my Chinese? I started reading it by hiding the pronunciation with a ...
musialmi's user avatar
  • 850
1 vote
2 answers
409 views

Where can I find a graded reader with pinyin alongside the simplified characters?

Recently I started learning the Chinese language. So far I've been focusing on the spoken Mandarin, so there are many words for which I know pinyin but not the character. To build the associations I ...
Boris's user avatar
  • 113
1 vote
2 answers
153 views

A question about the official Chinese translation of two passages from Nietzsche's books

It can be inferred form Wikipedia that the tilte of Nietzsche's book "Menschliches, Allzumenschliches" is officially translated as 人性的,太人性的 to Chinese (cf. Chinese Wikipedia). My question ...
Christoph Mark's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
439 views

Is the layout of the Chinese characters relevant to the meaning?

I am new to Chinese but have seen documents where the layout of the characters seems to fit certain patterns, and I'm wondering if it is significant in some way. For example, one is this: 是以成神,名曰石拆神,...
Lance's user avatar
  • 1,236
1 vote
2 answers
123 views

关于荷爾德林的希波淋的一本中文版本

I found out on Baike Baidu (cf. here) that the novel Hyperion by Hölderlin is translated to 希波淋 where the author has the transcription 荷爾德林. On the other hand, many questions are left open and I don't ...
Christoph Mark's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
2k views

What is the sequence of the Boya Chinese textbooks?

I have some Boya Chinese textbooks and want to buy more to have a complete set to work through. Searching for the books, I find very strange naming conventions. Here are some examples: Elementary 1 ...
Village's user avatar
  • 2,235
1 vote
4 answers
4k views

Chinese/English/Pinyin Books For Young Adult Readers

I'm looking for some medium level Chinese books to read. Most of the books I can find in Chinese are aimed at more fluent speakers or for the very beginners but I'd like somewhere in between. Ideally ...
starbirdr's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
245 views

Is it possible to get novels written in Chinese and English on the same page to download?

Is anyone aware of where I can find novels for download which contain both English and Chinese on the same page?
king Muffy's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
258 views

Which Mandarin learning textbooks have the largest amount of practical exercises?

I recently bought "Integrated Chinese Level 1 Part 1" (Traditional Characters version) after some recommendations on a few language blogs and have worked through a few chapters. I feel that it's ...
ChrisWindsor's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
180 views

Which book or website is recommended for learning Chinese grammar in 2022?

Yesterday I've started learning Chinese, and I've been using Duolingo only for now. The most thing which I am irritating about Duolingo is that phonetic alphabets (Pinyin) are omited frequently in ...
TG24's user avatar
  • 626
0 votes
2 answers
9k views

Book and material to prepare for TOCFL "Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language"

你好, I have hard time finding books and material to prepare specifically for TOCFL "Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language", NOT HSK. I am interested in the first level and of course traditional ...
AJN's user avatar
  • 183
0 votes
1 answer
69 views

What's the font used in the 1st edition of the book series New Practical Chinese Reader?

Table of contents The context The problem What I've tried The context The book series "新实用汉语课本" (New Practical Chinese Reader) has 6 volumes and some of those volumes have 1, 2 or 3 ...
rdrg109's user avatar
  • 233
0 votes
2 answers
116 views

On the Chinese translation of some words "by" Christopher Columbus

In the famous biography of Christopher Columbus by Jakob Wassermann, we find in Chapter 3 the frequently cited passage: Ich nenne mich Cristobal Colón, bin ein Seefahrer aus Genua und muß betteln, ...
Christoph Mark's user avatar
0 votes
4 answers
124 views

How to literally translate this: 小人书,是一种以书的形式出版的连环画?

小人书,是一种以书的形式出版的连环画。 This is the initial sentence of the Standard Course Book of HSK5, chapter 20. Please help me make the literal translation of it. 小人书(comic),是(is)一种(a kind of)以(?)书(book)的形式(form)出版(...
Konstantinos's user avatar
  • 1,211
0 votes
2 answers
91 views

Where to find Iron John in Chinese?

Does anyone know if there is a Chinese translation of the book Iron John written by Robert Bly and if there is a translation, is there any website where an e-book version could be purchased? Any ...
pizi's user avatar
  • 103
0 votes
1 answer
91 views

How to learn pronunciation effectively with help of books? [closed]

I'm learning Chinese on a book and it shows the words sometimes in Latin alphabet such as Ni-hao, but it doesn't show how to spell the word with the right pronunciation. Can someone help how I can ...
Salmush's user avatar
  • 109
0 votes
1 answer
87 views

On the Chinese translation of some words by 歌德

I am curious about the official Chinese translation of a few words by 歌德. The first occurs on this webpage advertised as an aphorism, namely Man weicht der Welt nicht sicherer aus als durch die Kunst,...
Christoph Mark's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
56 views

About a passage from a published Chinese translation of Kafka's "The Trial"

According to Bing-AI, Kafka's novel "The trial" (German: "Der Prozess") was translated many times into Chinese by different translators and in different times up to only recently ...
Christoph Mark's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
140 views

About the Chinese translation of two passages in the notes of Laurids Brigge by Rilke

According to Bing-AI, the notes of Laurid Brigge by Rilke were translated two times into Chinese (1986 and 2007), cf. screenshot. I am curious about the translation of two passages for my calligraphic ...
Christoph Mark's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
353 views

Books for learning characters through progression diagrams and glyph origins?

Just as knowing PIE and etymology can assist with learning vocabulary, I desire to learn Chinese characters from fathoming e.g. progression diagrams and their glyph origins. Your book recommendations ...
user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
88 views

What does this say?

I need to find out the publication details of a Chinese book. I've taken an image of what I believe is the info box that gives them. Could any kind person please tell me what this says? I'd really ...
And Finally's user avatar
0 votes
3 answers
83 views

Is it a joke or an overstatement about 素书?

I saw the title of this book素书 yesterday and it was said to be the most wonderful book in the world(天下第一奇书) according to the author writing the introductory article. But when I inquired about this ...
NanningYouth's user avatar
  • 2,667
0 votes
0 answers
69 views

About a chapter title from Adolf Wölfli's 简历

In the short 简历 (Lebensbeschreibung) of Adolf Wölfli (I don't know how the name of this artist is officially transliterated in Chinese publications - if you can help with this with a reference, it's a ...
Christoph Mark's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
50 views

Where to officially get the videos of "New Practical Chinese Reader" (1st edition)?

Table of contents The context The questions Additional context The context I'm enrolled on a course where we are using the "New Practical Chinese Reader" (1st edition), so I'm looking the ...
rdrg109's user avatar
  • 233
0 votes
1 answer
232 views

Are there translations of 汉字字源字典 dictionary to english?

If I will go here https://www.yw11.com/zidian/5416/ I will see this image from the book 汉字字源字典 or 汉语字源字典 (ISBN: 9787301046791) are the there translations of this book to english? are there high-...
srghma's user avatar
  • 111
0 votes
0 answers
61 views

What are some free eBooks to help my kids learn Chinese?

My son, who is 6 years old, really loves learning Chinese now. I want to find some free Chinese teaching e-books for my children. What resources did you use if you learn Chinese? Please share it, ...
Amy Stewart's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
154 views

Books/websites for learning Chinese business letters [duplicate]

Does anyone know/recommend books/websites for learning to write business letters in Chinese?
Angela Tsai's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
416 views

HSK5 level novel to help prepare

Just got HSK4, and so the real work begins... Looking for novels to read whose level would be appropriate, any recommendations? Also looking for TV shows recommendation. I just finished watching ...
J.C's user avatar
  • 207
-2 votes
2 answers
2k views

Where to start learning mandarin [closed]

I'm about to start learning mandarin chinese myself, without any teachers but with a help of textbooks and video (audio) lessons. My question is: where do I start, I mean, is it better to start with ...
Bohdan's user avatar
  • 57