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What are the best Chinese books? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6781 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes  Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 1 of 4 24 July 2015 at 6:18pm | IP Logged |
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By best I mean what have you read that appealed most to you? What genre?
Anyone here a Chinese literature buff? I'm referring to contemporary books, not classical. Edited by numerodix on 24 July 2015 at 6:19pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| smallwhite Pentaglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5306 days ago 537 posts - 1045 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin, French, Spanish | Message 2 of 4 25 July 2015 at 6:20am | IP Logged |
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Wisely Series
衛斯理 series. My first book was 「老貓」 and I think it's a good starting point and a good preview to the series. It's actually this protagonist, 衛斯理, who inspired me to learn multiple languages. He's an intelligent man highly-skilled in everything like combat and languages, much like James Bond. I grew up reading this series, and thus grew up believing that being multilingual is very handy. Unlike James Bond, 衛斯理 has a wife and is faithful to her. So he uses his languages with colonels and pilots, instead of with hot Russian girls. The series has an extraterrestrial theme, but the major part of each book is adventure, mystery-solving, interaction between 衛斯理 and his friends or other people, and only a small part involves extraterrestrial beings and crafts. 衛斯理 is to Hongkongers (not sure about Chinese people elsewhere) as James Bond, Harry Potter or Sherlock Holmes are to English speakers. The author, 倪匡, is described as a Hongkonger but he's actually an immigrant and his native language is not Cantonese (he speaks it with a strong accent), so I believe he writes in proper Mandarin Chinese. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| audiophile Groupie United States Joined 5114 days ago 44 posts - 81 votes Studies: French | Message 3 of 4 02 August 2015 at 5:38pm | IP Logged |
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You can start with 王朔, very humorous, Beijing-style Chinese. Also, 海岩‘s TV series are very popular. So if
you watch TV drama, you can also read his novels. https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/王朔 http://baike.baidu.com/view/31403.htm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| parasitius Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5996 days ago 220 posts - 323 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Cantonese, Polish, Spanish, French | Message 4 of 4 30 August 2015 at 7:32am | IP Logged |
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I'm a sick individual and I really love 余华 , it was so rewarding to be able to read
his stuff starting from only my 2nd book ever in Chinese, and to encounter specialized vocab someone strange like me would have randomly memorized in advance, example: 阉割. The other wonderful thing about having read his book is I realized audiobooks exist for most of them! Thank means I can go back and double-dip on all the learning, my familiarity will make the audiobooks that much easier to understand and leverage to improve my listening. My first book ever was 三个女人的秘密 , found it really enjoyable because it was so modern and about being a rich guy. Was very easy to fantasize about being in the protagonist' role and having all the chicks. I had no idea I could read anything at length until I picked that book up... was a really exciting realization, after having had the goal for so long and thought I'd never get there. The main thing I found hard to understand in it was descriptions of scenery. That was fine though because it has no impact on the story's progression!! 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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