Late to the party, but I’ve been reading 方丹。Another Japanese mystery / thriller that is quite popular in China ATM.

Another very good book for people wanting to dip their toes into a full novel. Aside from keeping track of the names it is very easy to follow and be hooked in.

I use a Boox Leaf for reading as well. Whilst not the most beautiful solution, I think the pleco reader works really well on it. You can link it to anki to add new words you look up to your flashcards which is pretty handy.

Very glad to see this and your general efforts over the last few months to keep here alive!

Would always be happy to act as an extra pair of hands with moderation if you ever need it.

Whoops - I actually used the auto suggest title feature, but clearly not to great effect…

I watched two of the big recent domestic hits of Chinese cinema.

好东西 （Her Story) - I really enjoyed this. It sort of reminded me of a little bit of 90s/00s UK romcoms in terms of the vibe. Language and topics are everyday, so good for learners.

哪吒2 (Nezha 2) - Obviously the hype for this one was crazy given it’s success financially. The animation is superb, and I thought it was a solid story generally. Lots of Chinese fantasy concepts / tropes, so a bit difficult to appreciate everything if you have less familiarity with the genre.

Also a very good choice for first novel!

I have been reading 祈祷落幕时 by 东野圭吾. These are Japanese murder mystery novels (Agatha Christie style). I have read 5 of them now in Chinese and would really recommend them to someone looking for their first full length novel. Aside from the Japanese names which can be hard to keep track of, these are very straightforward and compelling reads.

Truly life being stranger than fiction, in that he was recently in the news after being acquitted in the US.

He had this to say on the American legal system at the time: “the reason I’m sitting here, let’s be honest, is not only because I was innocent… but because I had enough money not to be swept away by a process that’s set up to sweep you away”.

Most of my Chinese time has been taken up recently playing a game called Murders on the Yangtze Rivers (山河旅探). It is basically an ace attorney detective style game but with the setting being in historic China. I’ve really enjoyed it and it has voice acting which is always a plus.

I’d say to play fully in Chinese it’s something HSK5+ would enjoy, but someone could also play in English with the audio in Mandarin and get some benefit from it.

English trailer

These were the best graded readers I ever came across. I liked that they were a continuous series that gradually expanded the vocabulary as you went along.

Have finally put attempt no. 3 out there.

I can make another post this coming weekend, see if it fares a little better!

Sad it had to happen, but thanks very much to all involved for working on a replacement. Looking forward to signing up as this UK instance has been the best part of the ‘fediverse’ for me.

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They’re not uncommon in the UK either!

An extremely uplifting song about regicide.

I do think the geopolitical angle they are going with is a bit overplayed. It looks like Mandarin is only a bit below the trend for foreign languages in general. Personally, I think part of that is just people realising over time that studying Mandarin won’t necessarily lead to business or career success.

It does explain why all the niche communities I visit have gone from quiet to abandoned.

Due to being a Chinese learner, I have been playing a lot of Chinese developed games over the last few years. Gujian 3, in particular, makes me less sceptical about Black Myth than others are as Gujian 3 was so close to being a genuinely solid game. I just really hope they don’t skimp on the translation.

Nothing better than using the language - is tandem mostly text or audio?