Chinese English

Completing the Meiji Restoration that heralded the dawn of a new era for both Japan and Asia, the island nation found itself thrust into the modern world, a world of industry and conquest. Flexing its new muscles, the burgeoning power soon came to blows with the regional power that for centuries dominated the area politically and culturally: China. Also seeking to modernize in the wake of Western exploitation, China struggled to adapt to the changing times, doing everything it could to maintain a balance between modernity and tradition. Japan found that balance.

In September 2014, a Chinese company that most Americans had never heard of held the largest IPO in history - bigger than Google, Facebook, and Twitter combined. Alibaba, now the world's largest ecommerce company, mostly escaped Western notice for over 10 years, while building a customer base larger than Amazon's and handling the bulk of ecommerce transactions in China. How did it happen? And what was it like to be along for such a revolutionary ride?

Mimi is a "waste girl". A member of the lowest caste on Silicon Isle, located off China’s southeastern coast, and home to the world’s largest electronic waste recycling center. There, thousands of miles from home, Mimi struggles to earn a living for her family and dreams of a better life. Luo Jincheng is the head of one of three clans who run the island, a role passed down from his father and grandfather before him. As the government enforces tighter restrictions, Luo in turn tightens the reins on the waste workers in his employ. Ruthlessness is his means of survival.

This one-stop "instruction manual" is the essential companion to your lovable Chinese Shar-Pei. We cover everything you should know from buying a new puppy through to old age and how best to look after your precious Shar-Pei including three in-depth top breeder interviews packed with advice and tips.

Let’s take a look at the past 120 years of Chinese history, from the country’s start as a backward, struggling empire in the late 19th century to a totalitarian communist superpower.

Our Mandarin Chinese language course is designed to help learners of all levels master the language and start to build fluency. Whether you're a beginner looking to get started with the basics, or a more advanced learner looking to refine your skills, our course has something for everyone. Our experienced instructors will guide you through all the essential elements of the language, starting with a detail and comprehensive approach to Mandarin pronunciation, then introducing broadly used vocabulary, then adding some more technical vocabulary for specific situations.

Ready to learn Chinese? Whether this is your first time learning Chinese, or if you already know some basic Chinese and just want to improve your speech and expand your vocabulary, our SPEAKIT Chinese course will make speaking and understanding Chinese much easier than you ever imagined! In this course, you'll learn basic words and common sentences, so that you'll be able to understand what people are saying to you and even chat a bit - or at least say the right thing at the right time. That's something, isn't it?

In 1889, while upholding the latest in a series of exclusionary laws targeting Chinese immigrants, the Supreme Court Justice Stephen Johnson Field characterized the Chinese as “impossible to assimilate with our people” and “strangers in the land.” Today, there are twenty-four million people of Asian descent in the United States, and yet, as Luo observes in his riveting, sorrowful narrative, the question of belonging still trails them. Strangers in the Land tells the story of a people who migrated by the tens of thousands to a distant land they called Gum Shan­—Gold Mountain.

When her family relocated to rural China in 2003, Kay Bratt was thrust into a new world, one where boys were considered more valuable than girls and poverty and the one-child policy had created an epidemic of abandoned infants. As a volunteer at a local orphanage, Bratt witnessed conditions that were unfathomable to a middle-class mother of two from South Carolina. Based on Bratt’s diary of her four years at the orphanage, Silent Tears offers a searing account of young lives rendered disposable.

You’ll be amazed to discover the incredible leaps humanity made and how each ancient civilization flourished. Learn more about the culture, achievements, and religions of some of the world’s most famous civilizations. You will be surprised to learn just how much the six ancient civilizations in this audiobook had in common, despite being thousands of miles apart or even thousands of years apart! And you’ll be amazed when you hear how much their cultures have shaped our own societies today.

In The White Mirror, Li Du, an imperial librarian and former exile in 18th-century China, is now an independent traveler. He is journeying with a trade caravan bound for Lhasa when a detour brings them to a valley hidden between mountain passes. On the icy planks of a wooden bridge, a monk sits in contemplation. Closer inspection reveals that the monk is dead, apparently of a self-inflicted wound. His robes are rent, revealing a strange symbol painted on his chest.

Lalu Nathoy's father called his thirteen-year-old daughter his treasure, his "thousand pieces of gold," yet when famine strikes northern China in 1871, he is forced to sell her. Polly, as Lalu is later called, is sold to a brothel, sold again to a slave merchant bound for America, auctioned to a saloonkeeper, and offered as a prize in a poker game. This biographical novel is the extraordinary story of one woman's fight for independence and dignity in the American West.

Considered encyclopedic due to its detailed descriptions of upper class life in the 18th century Qing Dynasty China, this masterpiece is one of China's four great classical novels, and it vividly narrates the rise and fall of the aristocratic Jia family. An exceptionally large cast of major characters—such as Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu, Xue Baochai, and Wang Xifeng—are depicted in a way that is at once vivid and cutting. Their stories of joy, sorrow, love, and hatred are universally known throughout China.

One autumn morning, Jia Jia walks into the bathroom of her lavish Beijing apartment to find her husband dead. One minute she was breakfasting with him and packing for an upcoming trip, the next, she finds him motionless in their half-full bathtub. Like something out of a dream, next to the tub Jia Jia discovers a pencil sketch of a strange watery figure, an image that swims into Jia Jia's mind and won't leave.

Shanghai, 1930s; it was a haven for outlaws from all over the world: a place where pasts could be forgotten, fascism and communism outrun, names invented, and fortunes made - and lost. “Lucky” Jack Riley was the most notorious of those outlaws. An ex-US Navy boxing champion, he escaped from prison and rose to become the Slots King of Shanghai. “Dapper” Joe Farren - a Jewish boy who fled Vienna’s ghetto - ruled the nightclubs. This is the story of their rise to power, their downfall, and the trail of destruction left in their wake.

Bruce Lee was a Chinese American action film star, martial arts instructor, filmmaker, and philosopher. His Hong Kong- and Hollywood-produced films elevated the traditional martial arts film to a new level of popularity and acclaim. Through such films as Way of the Dragon and Enter the Dragon, Lee helped to change the way Asians were presented in American films, and in the process he became an iconic figure known throughout the world.

China, 1957: Chairman Mao has declared a new openness in society. “Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend.” Many intellectuals fear it is only a trick, and Kai Ying’s husband, Sheng, a teacher, has promised not to jeopardize their safety or that of their young son, Tao. But one July morning, just before his sixth birthday, Tao watches helplessly as Sheng is dragged away for writing a letter criticizing the Communist Party and sent to a labor camp for “reeducation”. Once again, Tsukiyama brings us a powerfully moving story of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances with grace and courage.

Smartphone Mandarin Intensive is the most effective and versatile basic Mandarin Chinese audio program in the industry. It can be used anywhere for any duration of time to teach to you speak authentic Mandarin Chinese while in your car, at home, or on your smartphone! Designed specifically for use while on the go, this challenging, versatile and fast-paced program introduces the basic sentence structures necessary for effective communication. It then reviews and challenges you to interact successfully with a trained and educated Mandarin Chinese speaker.

For listeners of Pachinko and The Mountains Sing, a gorgeously poetic family saga that begins at the dawn of the Chinese Revolution and spans 100 years to trace the intricate lives of four generations of Chinese and Chinese American women grappling with history, obligations, betrayal, and love in order to come into their own power and learn not just how to survive but flourish.

Cherished Chinese Proverbs is a bilingual collection of classic stories that have been passed down to generations of Chinese speakers. This work was originally designed as a supplement for students of Chinese as a Second Language, but in this publication we have broadened the focus. In offering these classic stories in both Chinese and English, it is hoped that native Chinese speakers might also benefit.