Do you find it hard to retain your Chinese language skills?

Would you like to constantly improve your Chinese vocabulary?

We have got the perfect solution for you!

Read, Read, And Read!

Reading Chinese novels can also practice your language skills when you're no longer a beginner and can more or less understand Chinese characters without the help of pinyin. In this article, we will introduce some of reading resources for Chinese beginner, intermediate and advance level.

《三毛流浪记 Sānmáo Liúlàng Jì》

San Mao the Orphan

Author: 张乐平 Zhāng Lèpíng

Genre: Drama

Level: Beginner

A symbolic of the struggle which many Chinese people went through regarding poverty and hunger, San Mao is essentially a Children's story with an adult message.

The setting is during the war in the 1920’s, San Mao is a homeless orphan. Despite the situation he finds himself in, he is kind and nice. Each story he features in, he always makes sure to help others, no matter what the cost to himself.

《活著 Huózhe》

To live

Author: 余华 Yúhuá

Genre: Neorealism

Level: Intermediate

The story is about a man called 富贵, an unsympathetic compulsive gambler and local rich man, and the transformation he goes through as he gambles away his entire fortune, is forced to join the army of Chinese civil war and gradually loses everything he loves and cares about in this world.

To Live has been referred to as one of popular Chinese fiction books due to its honesty and truthfulness about what life was like back then. An important lesson for China’s youth.

《三体 Sāntǐ》

The Three-Body Problem

Author: 刘慈欣 Liú Cíxīn

Genre: Science-fiction

Level: Advanced

The story saying Ye Wenjie, a Chinese astrophysicist trying to avert a crisis in the face of an impending alien invasion. As the story deepens, black and white become the shades of grey and characters we believe we can trust, and we begin to doubt.

Here are five reasons why you should start learning reading Chinese books in Chinese:

1. It enhances your vocabulary

2. It helps retain your learnings

3. It helps improves your sentence structure

Novels are still one of good way to explore and understand more about Chinese culture. Understanding culture is vitally important to being able to speak and understand a language fluently. Good luck reading!