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Improve your Chinese skills and grow your vocabulary with these 10 entertaining Chinese short stories!

Luli Wei is beautiful, talented, and desperate to be a star. Coming of age in pre-Code Hollywood, she knows how dangerous the movie business is and how limited the roles are for a Chinese American girl from Hungarian Hill—but she doesn't care. She’d rather play a monster than a maid. But in Luli's world, the worst monsters in Hollywood are not the ones on screen. The studios want to own everything from her face to her name to the women she loves, and they run on a system of bargains made in blood and ancient magic, powered by the endless sacrifice of unlucky starlets like her.

"I am learning Mandarin Chinese" : 300 essential words and phrases, 140 common expressions, the 100 most common verbs, the 1000 essential Mandarin Chinese words. Mandarin is by far the largest of the seven or ten Chinese dialect groups, spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers. How to learn a language differently ? Today, language learning is revolutionizing : you do not have to go to traditional language classes anymore. Our learning method : a selection of hundreds of phrases and essential words. You listen to them, you repeat them, and you speak.

Surviving the Dragon is the remarkable life story of Arjia Rinpoche, who was ordained as a reincarnate lama at the age of two and fled Tibet 46 years later. In his gripping memoir, Rinpoche relates the story of having been abandoned in his monastery as a young boy after witnessing the torture and arrest of his monastery family. In the years to come, Rinpoche survived under harsh Chinese rule, as he was forced into hard labor and endured continual public humiliation as part of Mao’s Communist "reeducation".

Get ready to dive into a world of dragons, emperors, ancient gods, and daring heroes – welcome to the magical world of Chinese Legends! This is no ordinary history lesson. It’s a journey through time and imagination, where dragons swim through the skies, warriors rise against impossible odds, and mystical gods shape the fate of the world.

Black Wind, Arizona is torn apart with prejudice and hatred, fueled by the greed of a ruthless town boss and his hired guns. A nearby colony of Chinese immigrants, the hapless victims of violence, turn to Clint Adams for help. A lovely Oriental enchantress persuades him to join her people and to share her bedroll. So the Gunsmith will train the Chinese laborers in the art of western warfare, until he discovers he has his own score to settle with the wild town.

Daiyu never wanted to be like the tragic heroine for whom she was named, revered for her beauty and cursed with heartbreak. But when she is kidnapped and forced across an ocean from China to America, Daiyu must relinquish the home and future she imagined for herself. Over the years that follow, she is forced to keep reinventing herself to survive. From a calligraphy school, to a San Francisco brothel, to a shop tucked into the Idaho mountains, we follow Daiyu on a desperate quest to outrun the tragedy that chases her.

Empress Wu Zetian (624-705 AD) was the only woman to be the sovereign ruler of imperial China. A teenage concubine of the Tang Emperor Taizong, she seduced his son while the emperor lay dying. Recalled from a nunnery as part of an intricate court power-game, she caused the deaths of two lady rivals, before securing her enthronement as the Emperor Gaozong's consort. She ruled in the name of her husband and two eldest sons, presiding over the pinnacle of the Silk Road, before proclaiming herself the founder of a new dynasty.

Born into the steam and starch of a Chinese laundry, Anna May Wong (1905-1961) emerged from turn-of-the-century Los Angeles to become Old Hollywood's most famous Chinese American actress, a screen siren who captivated global audiences and signed her publicity photos—with a touch of defiance—"Orientally yours." Now, more than a century after her birth, Yunte Huang narrates Wong's tragic life story, retracing her journey from Chinatown to silent-era Hollywood, and from Weimar Berlin to decadent, prewar Shanghai, and capturing American television in its infancy.

Two novellas set in Aliette de Bodard’s award-winning, critically acclaimed Xuya universe, a timeline where Asia became dominant, and where the space age has Confucian galactic empires of Vietnamese and Chinese inspiration. Contains The Citadel of Weeping Pearls and The Tea Master and the Detective.

If you have not studied Taiwanese Mandarin and simply want to master basic phrases useful for travel without getting into the details of grammar, this is the series for you. These short and effective audio lessons will also teach you travel tips and the "do's" and "don'ts" from our experienced host. This is not a vocabulary builder with just words and their translations. Unlike other audiobooks, we actually teach Taiwanese Mandarin and Taiwanese culture. Each lesson is taught by a professional, bilingual teacher.

As a child in Beijing in the 1970s, Lai lives with her family in a lively, working-class neighborhood near the heart of the city. Thoughtful yet unassuming, she spends her days with her friends beyond the attention of her parents: Her father is a reclusive figure who lingers in the background, while her mother, an aging beauty and fervent patriot, is quick-tempered and preoccupied with neighborhood gossip. Only Lai's grandmother, a formidable and colorful maverick, seems to really see Lai and believe that she can blossom beyond their circumstances.

Even if you’re stressed, unhappy, or highly anxious in everyday life and have tried fixing it before with books, videos, or even a therapist, don’t worry. You’re not alone and this guide can help you like it helped many others. While most other philosophy books will only cover basics and not go into the underlying human mechanics that actually make you tick and feel what you feel right now, this book actually helps you to get under your own skin and systematically create the habits and tools to create lasting change from the inside-out.

Do you know the stories behind delectable dishes—like the fun connection between scallion pancakes and pizza? Or how dumplings cured a village’s frostbitten ears? Or how wonton soup tells about the creation of the world? Separated into courses like a Chinese menu, these tales—based in real history and folklore—are filled with squabbling dragons, magical fruits, and hungry monks. This book will bring you to far-off times and marvelous places, all while making your mouth water.

While there are many books that explore China’s history, public knowledge is still lacking. Many people can name more than one Roman Emperor, but how many can name a Chinese Emperor?

Clever, rich, and single, the beautiful Ān Mò (Emma Woodhouse) is focused on her career as fashion designer in the glamour of 21st-century Shanghai. She sees no need for romance in her life, but when she tries to find a boyfriend for her new friend Fangfang (Harriet), her carefully laid plans being to unravel. As she ignores the warnings of her good friend Shi Wenzheng (Mr. Knightley), her decisions bring consequences that she never expected.

The son of Chinese immigrants in Washington, DC, Edward Wong grew up among family secrets. His father toiled in Chinese restaurants and rarely spoke of his native land or his years in the People’s Liberation Army under Mao. Yook Kearn Wong came of age during the Japanese occupation in World War II and the Communist revolution, when he fell under the spell of Mao’s promise of a powerful China. His astonishing journey as a soldier took him from Manchuria during the Korean War to Xinjiang on the Central Asian frontier.

The Mandarin Chinese for Beginners audiobook teaches the fundamental concepts of pronunciation, as well as the basic grammar and vocabulary needed to participate in simple daily conversations. It introduces concepts that are unique to the Chinese language, which will then provide a framework you can use to express almost anything you want.

Eighteen-year-old Shelley, born into a much-despised branch of the Zheng family in Yunnan Province and living in the shadow of his widowed father’s grief, dreams of bigger things. Buoyed by an exuberant heart and his cousin Deng’s tall tales about the United States, Shelley heads to San Francisco to claim his destiny, confident that any hurdles will be easily overcome by the awesome powers of the “Chinese groove,” a belief in the unspoken bonds between countrymen that transcend time and borders.