中文 · Learning Chinese

Chinese, made learnable

Everything on Mài Sắt Mindset for learning Chinese, gathered in one place — the writing system and tones, a step-by-step guide, a beginner class, and the science of remembering characters.

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The complete Chinese guide walks you through the sounds, the four tones, and the characters — with a clear roadmap for your first weeks and the common mistakes to avoid.

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Sound chart Tap any character to hear it. Playback uses a recorded clip in a single consistent voice, falling back to your device’s own voice where no clip exists.

Initials

Finals

Tones

Flashcards Study decks — open a folder to practise its cards. 24
HSK 1(3.0) 506 cards HSK 2(3.0) 209 cards HSK 3(3.0) 421 cards 笔顺 · Thứ tự nét (Stroke order) 270 cards Bộ thủ HSK 1 103 cards Bộ thủ HSK 2 30 cards Bộ thủ HSK 3 23 cards Bộ thủ · 214 bộ Khang Hy 214 cards HSK 易错 · Lỗi thường gặp (Common mistakes) 500 cards TOCFL A1 · 入門級 (Level 1) 344 cards TOCFL A2 · 基礎級 (Level 2) 483 cards TOCFL B1 · 進階級 (Level 3) 1170 cards TOCFL B2 · 高階級 (Level 4) 2338 cards TOCFL C1–C2 · 流利級 (Level 5) 2776 cards TOCFL 易錯 · Lỗi thường gặp (Common mistakes) 500 cards 成語 · Sơ cấp (Elementary) 411 cards 成語 · Trung cấp (Intermediate) 942 cards 成語 · Cao cấp (Advanced) 529 cards Từ khó nhớ · Hardest to remember 314 cards 語法 · Sơ cấp (Elementary) 189 cards 語法 · Trung cấp (Intermediate) 149 cards 語法 · Cao cấp (Advanced) 102 cards 兩岸用詞 · Đại lục vs Đài Loan 208 cards 慣用語 · Quán dụng ngữ 166 cards
Grammar drills Fill the blank, one HSK 1–3 grammar point at a time. Every answer is marked as you give it, with the reason. 140
HSK 1 20 topics
是 Sentences with 是 12 blanks 有 / 没有 有 and 没有 12 blanks 很 + 形 Adjective predicates: 很 + adjective 12 blanks 吗 · 呢 · A不A Three ways to ask 12 blanks 谁 · 什么 · 哪儿 · 几 Where question words go 12 blanks 数 + 量 + 名 Measure words: number + measure + noun 12 blanks 的 的 — possession and modifiers 12 blanks 时间 + 地点 + 动词 Word order: time, place, verb 12 blanks 在 在 — at, in, and in the middle of 12 blanks 了 了 — and why it is not a past tense 12 blanks 也 · 都 也 and 都 — where they go, and in what order 12 blanks 和 和 joins nouns, nothing else 12 blanks 年 · 月 · 号 · 点 Dates and times — largest unit first 12 blanks 多 + 形 Asking how much: 多大, 几岁, 多长 12 blanks 上 · 里 · 前面 Place words go AFTER the noun 12 blanks 姓 · 叫 姓 and 叫 are verbs 12 blanks 喜欢 + 动 喜欢 + a verb 12 blanks 太…了 · 真 · 非常 Degree: 太…了, 真, 非常, 最 12 blanks 这 · 那 · 哪 + 量 这/那/哪 need a measure word 12 blanks 每 + 量 + 都 每 and the 都 that follows it 12 blanks
HSK 2 20 topics
过 过 — ever having done it, against 了 12 blanks 在 · 正在 · 着 In progress: 在, 正在, 呢, 着 12 blanks 会 · 能 · 可以 会, 能, 可以 — three kinds of can 12 blanks 想 · 要 · 不要 想 and 要 — want, intend, and don't 12 blanks A 比 B Comparing with 比 12 blanks 因为…所以 · 虽然…但是 Linked clauses: both halves keep their word 12 blanks 就 · 才 就 and 才 — sooner or later than expected 12 blanks 从…到… · 离 从…到… and 离 12 blanks 动 + 得 + 形 得 — how well the thing is done 12 blanks 一边…一边 · 又…又 · 越来越 一边…一边, 又…又, 越来越 12 blanks 再 · 又 再 and 又 — two kinds of again 12 blanks 还是 · 或者 还是 and 或者 — or in questions and in statements 12 blanks 有点儿 · 一点儿 有点儿 and 一点儿 12 blanks 对 · 给 · 跟 Prepositional phrases go BEFORE the verb 12 blanks 动 + 时量 Duration: how long you did it for 12 blanks 次 · 遍 How many times: 次 and 遍 12 blanks 看看 · 试试 Reduplicated verbs: giving it a go 12 blanks 别 · 不要 别 and 不要 — don't 12 blanks 快要…了 · 就要…了 快要…了 and 就要…了 — about to 12 blanks 让 · 叫 让 and 叫 — having someone do something 12 blanks
HSK 3 20 topics
把 The 把 construction 12 blanks 被 The 被 passive 12 blanks 完 · 到 · 懂 · 错 Result complements 12 blanks 来 · 去 · 起来 Direction complements: 来 and 去 12 blanks V得/不 + 补 Potential complements: 听得懂 / 听不懂 12 blanks 是…的 The 是…的 frame 12 blanks 除了…以外 除了…以外 — except, or besides 12 blanks 一…就 · 只要…就 · 只有…才 一…就, 只要…就, 只有…才 12 blanks 着 着 — a state that stays 12 blanks 如果…就 · 不但…而且 如果…就 and 不但…而且 12 blanks 得 · 应该 · 必须 Must, should, have to — and their negatives 12 blanks 谁都 · 什么都 · 一…也不 Anyone, anything, not a single one 12 blanks 先…然后…最后 One thing after another: 先, 然后, 最后 12 blanks 为了 · 因此 为了 (purpose) and 因为 (cause) 12 blanks 好像 · 跟…一样 好像, 跟…一样, 差不多 12 blanks 对 · 关于 对 and 关于 12 blanks 住 · 上 · 下 · 走 More result complements: 住, 上, 下, 走 12 blanks 越…越… · 越来越 越…越… and 越来越 12 blanks 的 · 得 · 地 The three de: 的, 得, 地 12 blanks 给 · 教 · 告诉 Verbs that take two objects 12 blanks
HSK 4 20 topics
无论/不管…都 无论 / 不管 … 都 — whatever happens 12 blanks 即使/就算…也 即使 / 就算 … 也 — even if 12 blanks 既然…就 既然 … 就 — since that is so 12 blanks 难道 · 难怪 难道 and 难怪 — the rhetorical question and the penny dropping 12 blanks 反而 · 却 反而 and 却 — on the contrary, and yet 12 blanks 并 · 并且 并 and 并且 — emphatic denial and adding on 12 blanks 通过 · 经过 通过 and 经过 12 blanks 按照 · 根据 按照 and 根据 — in accordance with, on the basis of 12 blanks 以为 · 认为 以为 and 认为 — thought wrongly, and think 12 blanks 差点儿 差点儿 — very nearly 12 blanks 到底 · 究竟 到底 and 究竟 — what is it, then 12 blanks 恐怕 · 大概 · 一定 How sure you are: 一定, 大概, 也许, 恐怕 12 blanks 除非…否则 除非 … 否则 — unless 12 blanks 尽管…还是 尽管 and 不管 — two words that look alike 12 blanks 由于 · 因此 由于 and 因为 — where each may stand 12 blanks 于是 · 接着 · 结果 于是, 接着, 结果, 后来 12 blanks 稍微…一点儿 稍微 … 一点儿 — just a little 12 blanks 与…相比 与…相比 and 比 — two ways to compare 12 blanks 千万 · 最好 千万, 最好, 尽量 — warnings and advice 12 blanks 连…都/也 连 … 都/也 — even 12 blanks
HSK 5 20 topics
与其…不如 · 宁可…也不 与其…不如 and 宁可…也不 12 blanks 不是…而是 · 不是…就是 不是…而是 and 不是…就是 12 blanks 之所以…是因为 之所以…是因为 — result first, cause second 12 blanks 凡是…都 凡是…都 — anything that is … 12 blanks 未必 · 不见得 未必 and 不见得 — not necessarily 12 blanks 何必 · 何况 何必, 何不, 何况 12 blanks 以便 · 以免 以便 and 以免 — so that, and so as not to 12 blanks 果然 · 居然 · 竟然 果然, 居然, 竟然 — as predicted, or beyond belief 12 blanks 随着 · 从而 随着 and 从而 — changing together, and leading to 12 blanks 简直 · 几乎 简直, 几乎, 恨不得 — overstating the degree 12 blanks 一律 · 一概 一律, 一概, 统统 — without exception 12 blanks 势必 · 必然 · 未免 势必, 必然, 未免 — bound to, and rather too 12 blanks 时而…时而 时而…时而 and 一会儿…一会儿 12 blanks 连…带… · 又是…又是 连…带… and 又是…又是… 12 blanks 幸亏 · 多亏 幸亏, 多亏, 好在 — the thing that saved you 12 blanks 不料 · 没想到 不料, 没想到, 谁知 — who would have thought 12 blanks 甚至 · 以至于 甚至 and 以至于 — even, and to the point that 12 blanks 对…来说 对…来说 and 就…而言 12 blanks 反正 · 总之 反正, 总之, 无论如何 12 blanks 根本 · 从来 根本, 从来, 丝毫 — emphatic negatives 12 blanks
HSK 6 20 topics
无不 · 无一不 Double negatives: 无不, 没有…不 12 blanks 非…不可 非 … 不可 — it simply must 12 blanks 倘若 · 万一 · 一旦 倘若, 万一, 一旦 — three kinds of supposing 12 blanks 一来…二来 · 首先…其次 Listing reasons: 一来…二来, 首先…其次 12 blanks 与其说…不如说 与其说…不如说 — call it B rather than A 12 blanks 尚且…何况 尚且…何况 — even … let alone 12 blanks 鉴于 · 基于 · 出于 鉴于, 基于, 出于 — in view of, based on, out of 12 blanks 唯恐 · 生怕 唯恐 and 生怕 — for fear that 12 blanks 不止 · 不亚于 不止, 不下于, 不亚于 — more than, no less than 12 blanks 所谓 · 所在 · 所致 所谓, 所在, 所致 — three set phrases with 所 12 blanks 动辄 · 屡屡 动辄, 屡屡, 频频 — at the drop of a hat 12 blanks 姑且 · 索性 姑且, 暂且, 索性 — for now, and to hell with it 12 blanks 之际 · 之余 之际, 之余, 之下 — three phrases that close with 之 12 blanks 不失为 · 堪称 不失为, 堪称, 称得上 — worthy of the name 12 blanks 无从 · 难以 无从, 无法, 难以 — no way to 12 blanks 加之 · 再者 加之, 再者, 况且 — and one more thing 12 blanks 就此 · 从此 就此, 从此, 至此 — turning points in writing 12 blanks 与此同时 · 相比之下 与此同时, 相比之下, 反之 12 blanks 岂 · 莫非 岂, 莫非, 难不成 — rhetorical questions, raised 12 blanks 不乏 · 之嫌 不乏, …之嫌, 大有…之势 12 blanks
HSK 7–9 20 topics
之 之 — the written 的 12 blanks 其 其 — the written possessive pronoun 12 blanks 所 · 为…所 所 + verb, and the 为…所 passive 12 blanks 而 而 — linking and turning 12 blanks 以 以 — by, in order to, taking as 12 blanks 于 于 — at, in, than, by 12 blanks 则 · 乃 · 即 则, 乃 and 即 — three classical connectives 12 blanks 者 者 — the one who 12 blanks 是以 · 故 · 由此 故, 是以, 由此 — drawing the conclusion 12 blanks 然 · 然而 · 虽…然 然, 然而 and their relatives 12 blanks 不啻 · 无异于 不啻, 无异于, 堪比 — nothing short of 12 blanks 得以 · 予以 · 足以 得以, 予以, 足以, 给予 12 blanks 抑或 · 亦 · 皆 抑或, 亦, 亦即, 皆 — four words standing in for everyday ones 12 blanks 凡…者 · 举凡 凡, 者, 举凡, 均 — sweeping up a class 12 blanks 唯有…方 唯有 … 方 — only then 12 blanks 据悉 · 据称 据悉, 据称, 据…所…, 根据 12 blanks 乃至 · 以至 乃至 and 以至 — widening, and leading to 12 blanks 不宜 · 不容 · 不得 不宜, 不容, 不得, 不必 12 blanks 兼 · 并 · 且 兼, 并, 且, 兼之 — four written connectives 12 blanks 一…而… · 不…而… Four-character frames with 而 and 之 12 blanks
HSK mock exams Full-length papers with real audio — sit one, submit, and see your score. 13
HSK 2.0 · Level 1 4 papers
HSK 2.0 Level 1 — mock paper 1 40 min HSK 2.0 Level 1 — mock paper 2 40 min HSK 2.0 Level 1 — mock paper 3 40 min HSK 2.0 Level 1 — mock paper 4 40 min
HSK 2.0 · Level 2 4 papers
HSK 2.0 Level 2 — mock paper 1 55 min HSK 2.0 Level 2 — mock paper 2 55 min HSK 2.0 Level 2 — mock paper 3 55 min HSK 2.0 Level 2 — mock paper 4 55 min
HSK 2.0 · Level 3 4 papers
HSK 2.0 Level 3 — mock paper 1 90 min HSK 2.0 Level 3 — mock paper 2 90 min HSK 2.0 Level 3 — mock paper 3 90 min HSK 2.0 Level 3 — mock paper 4 90 min
HSK 2.0 · Level 4 4 papers
HSK 2.0 Level 4 — mock paper 1 105 min HSK 2.0 Level 4 — mock paper 2 105 min HSK 2.0 Level 4 — mock paper 3 105 min HSK 2.0 Level 4 — mock paper 4 105 min
HSK 2.0 · Level 5 4 papers
HSK 2.0 Level 5 — mock paper 1 125 min HSK 2.0 Level 5 — mock paper 2 125 min HSK 2.0 Level 5 — mock paper 3 125 min HSK 2.0 Level 5 — mock paper 4 125 min
HSK 2.0 · Level 6 4 papers
HSK 2.0 Level 6 — mock paper 1 140 min HSK 2.0 Level 6 — mock paper 2 140 min HSK 2.0 Level 6 — mock paper 3 140 min HSK 2.0 Level 6 — mock paper 4 140 min
HSK 3.0 · Level 1 4 papers
HSK 3.0 Level 1 — mock paper 1 40 min HSK 3.0 Level 1 — mock paper 2 40 min HSK 3.0 Level 1 — mock paper 3 40 min HSK 3.0 Level 1 — mock paper 4 40 min
HSK 3.0 · Level 2 4 papers
HSK 3.0 Level 2 — mock paper 1 60 min HSK 3.0 Level 2 — mock paper 2 60 min HSK 3.0 Level 2 — mock paper 3 60 min HSK 3.0 Level 2 — mock paper 4 60 min
HSK 3.0 · Level 3 4 papers
HSK 3.0 Level 3 — mock paper 1 83 min HSK 3.0 Level 3 — mock paper 2 83 min HSK 3.0 Level 3 — mock paper 3 83 min HSK 3.0 Level 3 — mock paper 4 83 min
HSK 3.0 · Level 4 4 papers
HSK 3.0 Level 4 — mock paper 1 85 min HSK 3.0 Level 4 — mock paper 2 85 min HSK 3.0 Level 4 — mock paper 3 85 min HSK 3.0 Level 4 — mock paper 4 85 min
HSK 3.0 · Level 5 4 papers
HSK 3.0 Level 5 — mock paper 1 110 min HSK 3.0 Level 5 — mock paper 2 110 min HSK 3.0 Level 5 — mock paper 3 110 min HSK 3.0 Level 5 — mock paper 4 110 min
HSK 3.0 · Level 6 4 papers
HSK 3.0 Level 6 — mock paper 1 125 min HSK 3.0 Level 6 — mock paper 2 125 min HSK 3.0 Level 6 — mock paper 3 125 min HSK 3.0 Level 6 — mock paper 4 125 min
HSK 3.0 · Level 7-9 4 papers
HSK 3.0 Levels 7–9 — mock paper 1 210 min HSK 3.0 Levels 7–9 — mock paper 2 210 min HSK 3.0 Levels 7–9 — mock paper 3 210 min HSK 3.0 Levels 7–9 — mock paper 4 210 min
TOCFL mock exams Taiwan's Chinese exam — traditional characters, Taiwan vocabulary and a Taiwan Mandarin recording. Listening and reading, three bands. 3
TOCFL 入門基礎級 4 papers
TOCFL Band A (Novice) — listening and reading mock paper 1 120 min TOCFL Band A (Novice) — listening and reading mock paper 2 120 min TOCFL Band A (Novice) — listening and reading mock paper 3 120 min TOCFL Band A (Novice) — listening and reading mock paper 4 120 min
TOCFL 進階高階級 4 papers
TOCFL Band B (Intermediate) — listening and reading mock paper 1 120 min TOCFL Band B (Intermediate) — listening and reading mock paper 2 120 min TOCFL Band B (Intermediate) — listening and reading mock paper 3 120 min TOCFL Band B (Intermediate) — listening and reading mock paper 4 120 min
TOCFL 流利精通級 4 papers
TOCFL Band C (Advanced) — listening and reading mock paper 1 120 min TOCFL Band C (Advanced) — listening and reading mock paper 2 120 min TOCFL Band C (Advanced) — listening and reading mock paper 3 120 min TOCFL Band C (Advanced) — listening and reading mock paper 4 120 min
Literary periods and their representative works

A language’s literature is not confined to one country. Each period below names the places where the language is native, with a few works that stand for the whole era.

TCN 1000–221 Pre-Qin: the classics and the beginning The Yellow River and Yangtze basins

Everything afterwards refers back to here. The folk poetry, philosophy and myth of this period became the stock of images and allusions that Chinese literature drew on for the next two thousand years. Four characters in a Tang poem can summon an entire story from the Book of Songs.

  • 詩經

    Shījīng · Kinh Thi

    佚名 · khuyết danh · TCN ~1000–600

    The oldest anthology, 305 poems, most of them folk song. Confucius told his students that without it they would have nothing to say.

  • 楚辭 · 離騷

    Chǔcí · Lísāo

    屈原 Khuất Nguyên · TCN ~300

    The first individual voice in Chinese poetry — an exiled official wandering between heaven and earth. The Dragon Boat Festival still commemorates him.

  • 論語

    Lúnyǔ · Luận Ngữ

    孔子門人 · môn đệ Khổng Tử · TCN ~450

    Not literature in the narrow sense, but its phrasing entered the language so deeply that people quote it without knowing they are quoting.

  • 莊子

    Zhuāngzǐ · Trang Tử

    莊周 Trang Chu · TCN ~300

    Philosophy written as fable and paradox. His butterfly dream is the most-reused image in all of East Asian literature.

  • 道德經

    Dào dé jīng · Đạo đức kinh

    老子 Lão Tử · TCN ~400

    Five thousand characters arguing that power belongs to whatever yields. The most translated Chinese book there is.

  • 孟子

    Mèngzǐ · Mạnh Tử

    孟軻 Mạnh Kha · TCN ~300

    Confucianism with a temper: people are good by nature, and a ruler who forgets it forfeits the throne.

  • 左傳

    Zuǒ zhuàn · Tả truyện

    左丘明 Tả Khâu Minh · TCN ~400

    Two and a half centuries of court intrigue, and the first Chinese prose that tells a story rather than logs one.

  • 孫子兵法

    Sūnzǐ bīngfǎ · Tôn Tử binh pháp

    孫武 Tôn Vũ · TCN ~500

    Thirteen short chapters on winning without fighting, read today by more executives than generals.

  • 山海經

    Shān hǎi jīng · Sơn hải kinh

    佚名 · khuyết danh · TCN ~300

    A geography of a world that never existed, and the source of half the monsters in Chinese fantasy since.

  • 韓非子

    Hán Fēizǐ · Hàn Phi Tử

    韓非 Hàn Phi · TCN ~240

    The case for law over virtue, by the man whose ideas built the Qin empire and whose old classmate had him killed.

  • 荀子

    Xúnzǐ · Tuân Tử

    荀況 Tuân Huống · TCN ~250

    The other Confucian answer: human nature is crooked, so ritual and study are what straighten it.

  • 尚書

    Shàng shū · Thượng thư

    佚名 · khuyết danh · TCN ~600

    Speeches and edicts of the earliest kings: the hardest classical Chinese there is, and the model every later memorial copied.

TCN 206 – CN 589 Han and the Six Dynasties: history and retreat Han China, then the north–south division

The Han fixed how history is written; the wars of the Six Dynasties produced pastoral poetry and the beauty of withdrawal. Both took root: Chinese prose is learned from Sima Qian, and the idea of retreat from Tao Yuanming.

  • 史記

    Shǐjì · Sử Ký

    司馬遷 Tư Mã Thiên · TCN ~91

    History written as literature, with portraits so alive that two thousand years later they still read like fiction.

  • 古詩十九首

    Gǔshī shíjiǔ shǒu

    佚名 · khuyết danh · CN ~100–200

    Nineteen anonymous poems on separation and the shortness of life, startlingly direct for their age.

  • 桃花源記

    Táohuāyuán jì

    陶淵明 Đào Uyên Minh · CN ~421

    A village hidden outside time. Peach Blossom Spring has meant utopia across the whole Sinographic world ever since.

  • 漢書

    Hàn shū · Hán thư

    班固 Ban Cố · CN ~111

    The history of one dynasty rather than all of them, which fixed the format every official history used for the next 1,800 years.

  • 孔雀東南飛

    Kǒngquè dōngnán fēi · Khổng tước đông nam phi

    佚名 · khuyết danh · CN ~200

    A mother-in-law breaks a marriage and the couple kill themselves. The longest narrative poem of the Han, and still the angriest.

  • 木蘭辭

    Mùlán cí · Mộc Lan từ

    佚名 · khuyết danh · CN ~500

    Three hundred characters in which a daughter goes to war for her father. Everything the world knows as Mulan starts here.

  • 短歌行

    Duǎn gē xíng · Đoản ca hành

    曹操 Tào Tháo · CN ~208

    A warlord drinks, counts how little life is left, and asks where the talented men are. Poetry by the villain of the Three Kingdoms.

  • 洛神賦

    Luò shén fù · Lạc thần phú

    曹植 Tào Thực · CN ~222

    A river goddess appears, is described for four hundred lines, and leaves. The most painted poem in Chinese art.

  • 歸去來兮辭

    Guī qù lái xī cí · Quy khứ lai hề từ

    陶淵明 Đào Uyên Minh · CN 405

    A magistrate quits his post rather than bow for a salary, and goes home to farm. The founding text of the Chinese resignation letter.

  • 世說新語

    Shì shuō xīn yǔ · Thế thuyết tân ngữ

    劉義慶 Lưu Nghĩa Khánh · CN ~440

    Over a thousand anecdotes about clever people saying clever things. Gossip raised to the level of literature.

  • 文心雕龍

    Wén xīn diāo lóng · Văn tâm điêu long

    劉勰 Lưu Hiệp · CN ~501

    The first systematic theory of literature in Chinese, written fifteen centuries before anyone called it literary criticism.

  • 蘭亭集序

    Lán tíng jí xù · Lan Đình tập tự

    王羲之 Vương Hi Chi · CN 353

    A drinking party by a stream, and then the thought that everyone at it will die. Also the most famous piece of calligraphy ever written.

618–907 Tang: the summit of poetry The Tang empire, from Chang’an to Central Asia

If you could read one period to understand Chinese literature, this is it. Tang poetry was an examination subject, a social currency and a way of confessing feeling at once — popular and refined together. Children across China, Vietnam, Japan and Korea have memorised a few of these.

  • 靜夜思

    Jìng yè sī · Tĩnh dạ tứ

    李白 Lý Bạch · ~730

    Twenty characters about moonlight and homesickness — quite possibly the most memorised poem in human history.

  • 春望

    Chūn wàng · Xuân vọng

    杜甫 Đỗ Phủ · 757

    Written during the An Lushan rebellion. If Li Bai is the immortal, Du Fu is the conscience: he records what history costs ordinary people.

  • 長恨歌

    Cháng hèn gē · Trường hận ca

    白居易 Bạch Cư Dị · 806

    A long narrative on the emperor and his consort. Bai Juyi wrote deliberately plainly, and that is why his poems travelled as far as Japan.

  • 鹿柴

    Lù zhài · Lộc trại

    王維 Vương Duy · ~750

    Landscape poetry steeped in Chan Buddhism: no people, only an echo and late light slanting into the woods.

  • 將進酒

    Qiāng jìn jiǔ · Thương tiến tửu

    李白 Lý Bạch · ~752

    Drink, because the Yellow River does not come back and neither does your black hair. The loudest poem in the language.

  • 琵琶行

    Pípá xíng · Tỳ bà hành

    白居易 Bạch Cư Dị · 816

    A demoted official hears a former courtesan play on a moored boat and realises they have had the same life. Six hundred and sixteen characters.

  • 茅屋為秋風所破歌

    Máowū wèi qiūfēng suǒ pò gē · Mao ốc vị thu phong sở phá ca

    杜甫 Đỗ Phủ · 761

    The wind takes the poet's roof, and his wish is not for a new one but for ten thousand houses to shelter everyone poor.

  • 登高

    Dēng gāo · Đăng cao

    杜甫 Đỗ Phủ · 767

    Fifty-six characters, every one of the eight lines perfectly parallel. Often called the finest regulated verse ever written.

  • 楓橋夜泊

    Fēngqiáo yè bó · Phong Kiều dạ bạc

    張繼 Trương Kế · ~756

    A sleepless traveller, a frosty night, and a temple bell at midnight. Four lines that made a bridge in Suzhou world-famous.

  • 錦瑟

    Jǐn sè · Cẩm sắt

    李商隱 Lý Thương Ẩn · ~858

    Eight lines nobody has ever agreed on. A thousand years of commentators, and the poem is still not telling.

  • 山居秋暝

    Shān jū qiū míng · Sơn cư thu minh

    王維 Vương Duy · ~740

    Rain has just stopped, moonlight is in the pines, and washerwomen are coming home through the bamboo. Painting done with words.

  • 江雪

    Jiāng xuě · Giang tuyết

    柳宗元 Liễu Tông Nguyên · ~810

    Twenty characters, and the first character of each line spells out that a man is fishing snow alone. Exile as a landscape.

  • 涼州詞

    Liángzhōu cí · Lương Châu từ

    王之渙 Vương Chi Hoán · ~720

    The frontier as the Tang saw it: a river climbing into cloud, a lone fort, and a flute complaining about willows that do not grow there.

  • 遊子吟

    Yóuzǐ yín · Du tử ngâm

    孟郊 Mạnh Giao · ~800

    A mother sews her son's coat before he leaves, stitching tightly because she fears he will be slow to return. Every Chinese child learns it.

  • 春曉

    Chūn xiǎo · Xuân hiểu

    孟浩然 Mạnh Hạo Nhiên · ~730

    You wake late in spring, hear birds, remember the rain in the night, and wonder how many blossoms came down. Usually the first poem a child memorises.

960–1279 Song: the ci lyric and the essay Northern and Southern Song

Under the Song the ci — words written to existing tunes — became the leading form. Because it followed music, its lines are of uneven length, and it could hold nuances too unruly for the balanced Tang regulated verse.

  • 水調歌頭 · 明月幾時有

    Shuǐdiào gētóu

    蘇軾 Tô Thức · 1076

    The most famous mid-autumn lyric, written for a distant brother. Its closing wish — that we endure, however far apart — is still sung.

  • 聲聲慢

    Shēng shēng màn

    李清照 Lý Thanh Chiếu · ~1150

    The greatest woman poet of classical Chinese, writing after losing her husband and her country. Her opening fourteen reduplicated syllables are a feat of language.

  • 岳陽樓記

    Yuèyánglóu jì

    范仲淹 Phạm Trọng Yêm · 1046

    The essay that states the scholar’s ideal: worry before the world worries, rejoice after it rejoices. The line became a motto for East Asian intellectuals.

  • 念奴嬌 · 赤壁懷古

    Niànnújiāo · Chìbì huáigǔ · Niệm nô kiều · Xích Bích hoài cổ

    蘇軾 Tô Thức · 1082

    A middle-aged exile stands at the wrong battlefield, thinks about a young general who won everything, and laughs at his own grey hair.

  • 前赤壁賦

    Qián Chìbì fù · Tiền Xích Bích phú

    蘇軾 Tô Thức · 1082

    A boat, a guest complaining that life is short, and a host answering that the river has never actually gone anywhere.

  • 醉花陰

    Zuì huā yīn · Tuý hoa âm

    李清照 Lý Thanh Chiếu · ~1101

    She misses her husband and ends by saying she is thinner than a chrysanthemum. He tried fifty imitations and could not beat that line.

  • 雨霖鈴

    Yǔ lín líng · Vũ lâm linh

    柳永 Liễu Vĩnh · ~1020

    The definitive Chinese farewell: cicadas, a cold evening, and the question of where he will wake tomorrow.

  • 滿江紅

    Mǎn jiāng hóng · Mãn giang hồng

    岳飛 Nhạc Phi · ~1136

    A general's vow to take back the north, written by the man his own court then executed. Sung as a patriotic anthem ever since.

  • 青玉案 · 元夕

    Qīngyù'àn · Yuánxī · Thanh ngọc án · Nguyên tịch

    辛棄疾 Tân Khí Tật · ~1174

    A lantern festival, a search through the crowd, and then she is standing where the lights have burned low. The most quoted last line in Chinese poetry.

  • 破陣子

    Pò zhèn zǐ · Phá trận tử

    辛棄疾 Tân Khí Tật · ~1188

    Drunk, he trims the lamp and looks at his sword, dreams of the whole army, and wakes up old with nothing done.

  • 遊山西村

    Yóu Shānxī cūn · Du Sơn Tây thôn

    陸游 Lục Du · 1167

    Lost among hills and streams, and then a village appears. The line about the way out is now what Chinese people say when a problem finally cracks.

  • 醉翁亭記

    Zuìwēngtíng jì · Tuý Ông đình ký

    歐陽修 Âu Dương Tu · 1046

    A demoted governor drinks with the locals and admits the point was never the wine. Twenty-one sentences end with the same particle.

  • 六國論

    Liù guó lùn · Lục quốc luận

    蘇洵 Tô Tuân · ~1050

    Six ancient states fell because they bought peace with land. Ostensibly history, actually an attack on his own government's tribute payments.

1279–1911 Yuan, Ming and Qing: drama and the novel China, and circulating across East Asia

The centre of gravity shifts from poetry to long narrative written closer to spoken language. The four great novels appear here, and they still feed film, games and opera across East Asia.

  • 紅樓夢

    Hóng lóu mèng · Hồng Lâu Mộng

    曹雪芹 Tào Tuyết Cần · ~1791

    Widely held to be the greatest novel in Chinese. The decline of an aristocratic house, with hundreds of fully drawn characters. It has an entire scholarly field to itself.

  • 西遊記

    Xīyóu jì · Tây Du Ký

    吳承恩 Ngô Thừa Ân · ~1592

    A monk and a stone monkey travel west for scriptures. Sun Wukong may be the most widely known fictional character in Asia.

  • 三國演義

    Sānguó yǎnyì · Tam Quốc Diễn Nghĩa

    羅貫中 La Quán Trung · ~1400

    Historical fiction on the Three Kingdoms. In Vietnam, Japan and Korea it is read as a manual of strategy and loyalty.

  • 牡丹亭

    Mǔdān tíng

    湯顯祖 Thang Hiển Tổ · 1598

    A kunqu opera in which a girl dies of longing and returns. Still staged, and still nearly a full day long.

  • 水滸傳

    Shuǐhǔ zhuàn · Thuỷ hử truyện

    施耐庵 Thi Nại Am · ~1400

    A hundred and eight outlaws driven into the marshes by corrupt officials. Banned repeatedly for exactly the reason it is loved.

  • 金瓶梅

    Jīn Píng Méi · Kim Bình Mai

    蘭陵笑笑生 Lan Lăng Tiếu Tiếu Sinh · ~1610

    The first Chinese novel about ordinary domestic life, notorious for its sex and remarkable for its accounting of household money.

  • 儒林外史

    Rúlín wàishǐ · Nho lâm ngoại sử

    吳敬梓 Ngô Kính Tử · ~1750

    Satire of the examination system by a man who failed it, including a scholar who goes mad on finally passing.

  • 聊齋誌異

    Liáozhāi zhìyì · Liêu trai chí dị

    蒲松齡 Bồ Tùng Linh · ~1740

    Nearly five hundred tales of fox spirits and ghosts, in which the supernatural characters are usually the decent ones.

  • 西廂記

    Xīxiāng jì · Tây sương ký

    王實甫 Vương Thực Phủ · ~1300

    A student, a minister's daughter, and a maid who does all the actual plotting. Chinese romantic comedy starts here.

  • 竇娥冤

    Dòu É yuān · Đậu Nga oan

    關漢卿 Quan Hán Khanh · ~1290

    An innocent woman is executed and swears that snow will fall in midsummer to prove it. It does. The greatest Yuan tragedy.

  • 桃花扇

    Táohuā shàn · Đào hoa phiến

    孔尚任 Khổng Thượng Nhậm · 1699

    A love story used to tell the fall of a dynasty, ending with both lovers becoming monastics instead of marrying.

  • 長生殿

    Chángshēng diàn · Trường sinh điện

    洪昇 Hồng Thăng · 1688

    The emperor and his consort again, this time as opera, and this time the rebellion is his own fault.

  • 警世通言

    Jǐngshì tōngyán · Cảnh thế thông ngôn

    馮夢龍 Phùng Mộng Long · 1624

    Forty stories collected from what storytellers actually said in the markets, and written in the spoken language rather than the classical one.

  • 老殘遊記

    Lǎo Cán yóujì · Lão Tàn du ký

    劉鶚 Lưu Ngạc · 1907

    A travelling doctor watches the empire fail, and makes the case that an incorruptible official can do more damage than a corrupt one.

  • 浮生六記

    Fúshēng liù jì · Phù sinh lục ký

    沈復 Thẩm Phục · ~1808

    A poor clerk's memoir of his marriage, unusual in classical Chinese for treating a wife as a friend and equal.

1917–1949 May Fourth and the modern turn Republican China — Beijing, Shanghai

A revolution in language before it was one in literature: writers abandoned classical Chinese for the vernacular people actually spoke. Within a few years an entire literature changed its voice.

  • 狂人日記

    Kuángrén rìjì

    魯迅 Lỗ Tấn · 1918

    The first modern vernacular short story. Its narrator reads the words eat people between the lines of the histories.

  • 駱駝祥子

    Luòtuo Xiángzi

    老舍 Lão Xá · 1937

    A Beijing rickshaw puller ground down by poverty. Its Beijing speech is the benchmark for literary colloquial Chinese.

  • 傾城之戀

    Qīng chéng zhī liàn

    張愛玲 Trương Ái Linh · 1943

    A wartime romance between Shanghai and Hong Kong, written in cool, image-laden prose. She is the single largest influence on contemporary Sinophone writing.

  • 阿Q正傳

    Ā Q zhèngzhuàn · A Q chính truyện

    魯迅 Lỗ Tấn · 1922

    A day labourer who reinterprets every defeat as a spiritual victory. The name became the Chinese word for that habit.

  • 家

    Jiā · Gia

    巴金 Ba Kim · 1933

    Three brothers in one Confucian household, one of whom obeys, one of whom leaves, and one of whom dies of obeying.

  • 邊城

    Biānchéng · Biên thành

    沈從文 Thẩm Tùng Văn · 1934

    A ferryman's granddaughter on the Hunan border, written in prose so gentle that the tragedy arrives almost politely.

  • 雷雨

    Léiyǔ · Lôi vũ

    曹禺 Tào Ngu · 1934

    Everyone in one house turns out to be related to everyone else in the wrong way. The most performed Chinese play of the century.

  • 圍城

    Wéichéng · Vi thành

    錢鍾書 Tiền Chung Thư · 1947

    Marriage as a besieged city: those outside want in, those inside want out. Probably the funniest sentences in modern Chinese.

  • 子夜

    Zǐyè · Tý dạ

    茅盾 Mao Thuẫn · 1933

    Shanghai capitalism in 1930, told through a silk magnate losing a market war. A novel written like an economic report, deliberately.

  • 再別康橋

    Zài bié Kāngqiáo · Tái biệt Khang Kiều

    徐志摩 Từ Chí Ma · 1928

    A goodbye to Cambridge, waving at a cloud. The single best-known modern Chinese poem, and the one people quote at graduations.

  • 女神

    Nǚshén · Nữ thần

    郭沫若 Quách Mạt Nhược · 1921

    The collection that proved Chinese poetry could be written in the spoken language, shouted rather than chanted.

  • 生死場

    Shēngsǐ chǎng · Sinh tử trường

    蕭紅 Tiêu Hồng · 1935

    Village women in occupied Manchuria, where birth and slaughter are described in the same flat voice. She was twenty-four.

1949 đến nay Contemporary: the mainland and Taiwan Mainland China · Taiwan · Hong Kong · the Sinophone diaspora

After 1949 Chinese literature developed along separate branches for decades. Taiwan had a modernism of its own; the mainland reopened after the reform era. This is one language with several literatures, not one literature with appendices.

  • 台北人

    Táiběi rén

    白先勇 Bạch Tiên Dũng · 1971

    Taiwan. Fourteen stories of mainlanders living in Taipei with their hearts in a place that no longer exists. A foundation stone of modern Taiwanese literature.

  • 活著

    Huózhe

    余華 Dư Hoa · 1993

    Mainland. A peasant recounts his life across the whole of twentieth-century China. The prose is plain to the point of cruelty.

  • 紅高粱家族

    Hóng gāoliang jiāzú

    莫言 Mạc Ngôn · 1986

    Mainland. Nobel laureate 2012. Magical realism transplanted to a Shandong village under Japanese occupation.

  • 楊牧詩集

    Yáng Mù shījí

    楊牧 Dương Mục · 1978–2013

    Taiwan. The major Chinese-language modern poet of the later twentieth century, joining the classical tradition to European verse.

  • 白鹿原

    Báilù yuán · Bạch Lộc nguyên

    陳忠實 Trần Trung Thực · 1993

    Fifty years of two clans on the Shaanxi plain, from the last emperor to the Cultural Revolution, with the land outlasting all of it.

  • 平凡的世界

    Píngfán de shìjiè · Bình phàm đích thế giới

    路遙 Lộ Dao · 1986

    Two brothers from a poor village trying to get out through work and study. Still the book Chinese students say changed their lives.

  • 許三觀賣血記

    Xǔ Sānguān mài xiě jì · Hứa Tam Quan mại huyết ký

    余華 Dư Hoa · 1995

    A man sells his blood every time the family needs money, across four decades. Comedy and horror in the same sentences.

  • 三體

    Sān tǐ · Tam thể

    劉慈欣 Lưu Từ Hân · 2006

    First contact begins in the Cultural Revolution. The book that made Chinese science fiction a global export.

  • 長恨歌

    Cháng hèn gē · Trường hận ca

    王安憶 Vương An Ức · 1995

    Forty years of Shanghai through one beauty-pageant runner-up, from the 1940s alleys to the property boom. Borrows the Tang title on purpose.

  • 孽子

    Nièzǐ · Nghiệt tử

    白先勇 Bạch Tiên Dũng · 1983

    Gay men thrown out by their fathers, finding each other in a Taipei park. The first major Chinese novel to say so plainly.

  • 家變

    Jiā biàn · Gia biến

    王文興 Vương Văn Hưng · 1973

    A father walks out and a son searches for him. Written at roughly thirty characters an hour, and it reads that way on purpose.

  • 巨流河

    Jù liú hé · Cự lưu hà

    齊邦媛 Tề Bang Viên · 2009

    A memoir of leaving the mainland for Taiwan in 1947, written at eighty. The other half of a story usually told from one side.

  • 我城

    Wǒ chéng · Ngã thành

    西西 Tây Tây · 1975

    Hong Kong seen by young people who simply live there, written in a deliberately childlike voice. The founding text of Hong Kong literature.

  • 黃金時代

    Huángjīn shídài · Hoàng kim thời đại

    王小波 Vương Tiểu Ba · 1992

    Two people exiled to the countryside decide that the way to survive a confession campaign is to enjoy themselves and write it all down.

2020– The 2020s: still being written Mainland China · Taiwan · Hong Kong · Malaysia

A decade still running cannot have a settled canon, and saying so is more honest than presenting a provisional list as though it were fixed. What the books below have instead is evidence: a major prize, a wide readership, or a translation record.

  • 晚熟的人

    Wǎnshú de rén

    莫言 Mạc Ngôn · 2020

    His first collection after the Nobel, on how his own home county has changed.

  • 文城

    Wénchéng

    余華 Dư Hoa · 2021

    A man searches for a city that may not exist. Considerably easier reading than To Live.

  • 夜晚的潛水艇

    Yèwǎn de qiánshuǐtǐng

    陳春成 Trần Xuân Thành · 2020

    Fantastical short stories by a young writer, widely praised as the finest prose of his generation.

  • 秋園

    Qiūyuán

    楊本芬 Dương Bản Phân · 2020

    Its author began writing at eighty, recounting her mother’s life across the twentieth century. A large seller.

  • 鬼地方

    Guǐ dìfāng

    陳思宏 Trần Tư Hoành · 2019

    Taiwan. A family in small-town Changhua, narrated by many voices, the dead among them.

  • 潮汐圖

    Cháoxī tú · Triều tịch đồ

    林棹 Lâm Trạo · 2022

    A giant frog narrates the nineteenth-century Pearl River delta and the empire arriving by sea. Written in a Cantonese-inflected Chinese.

  • 燕食記

    Yàn shí jì · Yến thực ký

    葛亮 Cát Lượng · 2022

    A century of Cantonese cooking, from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, told through the apprenticeship of pastry chefs.

Books worth reading

A curated list by age, fiction beside non-fiction. Reading widely builds vocabulary in a way no wordlist can.

Primary Roughly 6–11 — short sentences, pictures, and enjoying it before anything else. 5 books

Fiction

  • 三毛流浪记 · 1935

    张乐平 · Tam Mao lưu lãng ký

    A comic about a three-haired orphan on the streets of Shanghai. Almost wordless, told in pictures, so it can be read very early.

    A comic; the pictures carry it.

  • 没头脑和不高兴 · 1962

    任溶溶 · Không đầu óc và Không vui

    Two boys — one forgetful, one permanently sulking. Short repetitive sentences, exactly right for reading aloud.

    Very short. There is an animated version to go with it.

  • 稻草人 · 1923

    叶圣陶 · Bù nhìn rơm

    The first collection of fairy tales written for Chinese children by a Chinese author. Sadder than fairy tales usually are, and children still love it.

    Short stories; each stands alone.

Non-fiction

  • 成语故事

    （民间） · Truyện thành ngữ

    Each four-character idiom is a story. Vietnamese readers have a real advantage here — 守株待兔 is the same waiting by the stump they already know.

    One story per page; dip in anywhere.

  • 十万个为什么 · 1961

    （少年儿童出版社） · Mười vạn câu hỏi vì sao

    The classic Chinese children's science encyclopedia. Its scientific vocabulary maps almost one-to-one onto Sino-Vietnamese.

    A multi-volume set. Pick the volume by what interests the child.

Lower secondary Roughly 11–15 — longer stories, harder characters, ideas that start to weigh something. 5 books

Fiction

  • 城南旧事 · 1960

    林海音 · Chuyện cũ phía nam thành

    Beijing in the 1920s through a small girl's eyes. Clear, unhurried prose — among the most readable of the modern classics.

    About 200 pages in five separable parts.

  • 草房子 · 1997

    曹文轩 · Ngôi nhà mái cỏ

    A childhood in a Jiangsu village. Cao Wenxuan was the first Chinese winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award, children's literature's Nobel.

    About 250 pages. Longer sentences, still clear.

  • 西游记（青少版） · 1592

    吴承恩 · Tây du ký (bản thiếu niên)

    An abridgement of one of the Four Great Classical Novels. Vietnamese readers already know the plot, so all the attention can go on the language.

    Read the abridgement first; the original is in early vernacular Chinese.

Non-fiction

  • 朝花夕拾 · 1928

    鲁迅 · Nhặt cánh hoa sớm lúc chiều tà

    Lu Xun's memoir essays about his childhood. The gentlest way into modern China's most important writer.

    Ten short essays; no need to read them in order.

  • 明朝那些事儿 · 2006

    当年明月 · Chuyện triều Minh

    Ming dynasty history told in a joking, conversational voice. It made history readable for an entire generation of Chinese students.

    Seven volumes. Volume one is enough to know whether it suits you.

High school Roughly 15–18 — difficult prose, adult subjects, read to think rather than to find out what happens. 5 books

Fiction

  • 活着 · 1993

    余华 · Sống

    A man loses everything across half a century of Chinese upheaval. The prose is plain to the point of brutality; not a word is decorated.

    About 190 pages. Easy characters, heavy content.

  • 骆驼祥子 · 1937

    老舍 · Tường Tử — con lạc đà

    A Beijing rickshaw puller and the life that grinds him down. Lao She wrote in Beijing vernacular, so you hear how people actually spoke.

    About 230 pages, thick with Beijing colloquialisms.

  • 边城 · 1934

    沈从文 · Biên thành

    A riverside town in western Hunan and a love that never quite happens. Shen Congwen's prose is quietly beautiful, closer to poetry than to plot.

    About 100 pages. Light on plot, dense in language.

Non-fiction

  • 乡土中国 · 1948

    费孝通 · Trung Quốc làng xã

    The classic sociology of rural China. It explains a good deal about Vietnamese society that no Vietnamese book states outright.

    About 150 pages. Academic but clearly written.

  • 人间词话 · 1910

    王国维 · Nhân gian từ thoại

    Classical poetics in short aphoristic entries. Its concept of 境界 became the shared vocabulary of Chinese criticism.

    Short but hard. Get an annotated edition.

Adult No ceiling on length or difficulty — the ones worth returning to. 5 books

Fiction

  • 红楼梦 · 1791

    曹雪芹 · Hồng lâu mộng

    The greatest novel in Chinese. Four hundred characters, one family's decline, and the finest Chinese ever written.

    Over 1,000 pages. Worth reading alongside a Vietnamese translation.

  • 围城 · 1947

    钱锺书 · Vây thành

    Chinese intellectuals in wartime, satirised without mercy. Qian Zhongshu's wordplay is the most sophisticated in modern Chinese.

    About 350 pages, dense with allusion and puns.

  • 平凡的世界 · 1986

    路遥 · Thế giới bình thường

    Two peasant brothers in Shaanxi across the 1970s and 80s. Long, unhurried, and reread more than almost any other contemporary Chinese novel.

    Three volumes, about 1,100 pages. The characters are not the hard part.

Non-fiction

  • 美的历程 · 1981

    李泽厚 · Hành trình của cái đẹp

    A history of Chinese aesthetics from neolithic pottery to Ming novels. Written in Chinese, for readers of Chinese.

    About 240 pages. Some historical grounding helps.

  • 我们仨 · 2003

    杨绛 · Chúng tôi ba người

    Yang Jiang writes about her husband and daughter after both had died. She wrote it at ninety-two, in the calmest Chinese ever set down.

    About 170 pages. Easy characters, hard reading.

Cultural highlights

Things a foreigner keeps getting wrong until somebody says them out loud — the customs, taboos and habits of mind sitting behind the language.

面子 (face) is a social asset that can be given, lost and saved

It is a person's standing and dignity in the eyes of their group. You give face through public praise and cause loss of face by contradicting or correcting someone in front of others. Direct criticism in a meeting is therefore best avoided, while the same point made privately is fine. A great deal of otherwise puzzling behaviour — lavish hosting, fighting over the bill — becomes clear through this lens.

关系 (guanxi) is a network of reciprocal obligation, not mere acquaintance

It is built from small favours over time and creates genuine obligation rather than general friendliness. If someone helps you, you owe them, and the debt has no clear expiry. This is why business often begins with long meals well before any contract appears. Westerners routinely mistake guanxi for friendship and are surprised when the debt is called in years later.

Show the other 50
Never give a clock — the phrase means attending a funeral

送钟 (giving a clock) is homophonous with 送终 (seeing someone to their death). This is among the most serious of the taboos and the recipient will genuinely be upset. The same logic makes a pear (梨, lí) sound like 离 (to part), so you do not split one with someone close, and an umbrella (伞, sǎn) sound like 散 (to break up). A wristwatch is entirely fine, because it uses a different word.

Eight is lucky, four is unlucky, and it moves real prices

八 (bā) sounds close to 发 (to prosper), while 四 (sì) sounds close to 死 (death). Number plates, phone numbers and apartment numbers heavy with eights sell for substantially more, and floors 4 and 14 are often missing from lifts. Six is associated with 流 (flowing smoothly) and is also favoured. This is not fringe superstition but something that visibly moves property prices and plate auctions.

Fighting over the bill is a ritual, and splitting it is odd

One person pays for everyone, and the tussle at the till is an expected performance. The host, the elder or the person of higher standing usually wins. It works over the long run: next time is your turn, and that is precisely how the relationship is maintained. Among younger friends, splitting over WeChat is now common, but at a formal meal offering to split still sounds cold.

A first refusal is usually just politeness

Offered more food or a gift, people typically decline once or twice before accepting. The host is therefore expected to offer again, and taking it immediately can read as slightly greedy. Conversely, if you decline once and your host stops offering, you may simply have lost the dish. The convention is fading in cities and among the young, but it remains clear at a family table.

Red envelopes come with rules about colour, amount and timing

红包 are given at New Year, weddings and birthdays, and the amount should be even — except at funerals, where odd numbers are used. Avoid any figure containing a four, and amounts ending in eight are favoured. White and black belong to funerals, so never wrap a celebratory gift in them. Most envelopes now travel by phone, but the same rules still apply.

Compliments are answered with self-deprecation, not thank you

Praised for your Chinese, the standard reply is 哪里哪里 or 还差得远呢 (I'm still far off). Accepting a compliment flatly can sound boastful, though young people are far more relaxed now. It also means that when someone praises your Chinese, it is usually courtesy rather than assessment. The safe move is to deflect modestly and then compliment something of theirs.

Tapping two fingers on the table thanks someone for pouring tea

When someone fills your cup, tap the table lightly with your index and middle fingers instead of speaking. The custom is strongest in Guangdong and Hong Kong, and legend ties it to an emperor travelling incognito whose subjects thanked him discreetly. It lets you acknowledge the gesture without interrupting the conversation. Whoever holds the pot should also watch it and serve others before themselves.

Seats at a round table are assigned by rank, not by chance

The seat of honour usually faces the door and sits furthest from it, reserved for the guest or the person presiding. The host takes the seat facing the entrance so they can summon staff. If unsure, wait to be placed — sitting in the honour seat by accident is hard to undo. Dishes turn on a lazy Susan, and the eldest is invited to take from a new dish first.

Never stand chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice

The image repeats the incense sticks planted in a bowl for the dead, so it points straight at a funeral. Rest them across the bowl or on a chopstick rest instead. Tapping chopsticks against a bowl is also avoided, being associated with begging. Pointing at people with them while talking is rude in the same way as pointing a finger.

The script encodes meaning rather than sound, and that changes everything

Because characters do not record sound, a Cantonese and a Mandarin speaker can read the same text while saying something completely different. That held a single written world together for two thousand years despite spoken divergence. It also means speaking and reading are not the same achievement, in either direction. For a learner it is why vocabulary and characters have to be built as two parallel jobs.

Chinese is a family of languages, not one language

Cantonese, Hokkien, Wu and Mandarin are not mutually intelligible when spoken, though English lumps them under one label. Mandarin (普通话) is the national standard and what most learners aim at, but in Guangzhou or Hong Kong you will hear something else entirely. Older people in many regions still use the local language at home. Calling Cantonese a dialect is more a political statement than a linguistic one.

A wrong tone is not an accent, it is a different word

mā (妈, mother), má (麻, hemp), mǎ (马, horse) and mà (骂, to scold) differ only by tone. Native speakers usually recover the meaning from context, but with short utterances or proper nouns they genuinely cannot. Vietnamese learners have a real advantage here, since Vietnamese is also tonal, although the tone systems do not map onto each other. Never learn a new word without its tone — repairing it later costs far more.

Filial duty is still an obligation, and there is a law about it

孝 (filial piety) is a central Confucian value and still shapes the care of ageing parents. The Elderly Rights Law, amended in 2013, requires adult children to visit their parents, although enforcement is largely nominal. The pressure about marriage and grandchildren at New Year comes from the same frame. Foreigners routinely underestimate how binding this feels to the children involved.

Hot water is drunk year-round and iced water is thought harmful

Asking for 热水 (hot water) in a restaurant is entirely ordinary, even in midsummer. The idea comes from traditional medicine, which weighs hot and cold balance within the body. Women during menstruation or after childbirth avoid cold things particularly strictly. Ordering ice water is not wrong, but do not be surprised by a concerned look.

The zodiac is not decorative — it affects real decisions

Twelve animals run on a twelve-year cycle, and asking someone's animal is a polite way of asking their age. Many families time births for a favoured animal, and birth rates visibly move as a result — dragon years typically spike. Your own zodiac year (本命年) is considered unlucky, and people wear red underwear to counter it. Animal signs are also used to discuss compatibility in marriage.

Questions about salary, age and marriage are not considered private

A new acquaintance may ask what you earn, what your rent is, whether you are married and why not. This counts as interest rather than intrusion, and an approximate answer is perfectly acceptable. You are not obliged to be precise; deflecting vaguely is normal. But visible offence will confuse the asker, who meant none.

Red belongs to celebration, white belongs to mourning

Traditional brides wear red, celebratory envelopes are red, and New Year decoration is overwhelmingly red. White and black belong to funerals, which makes white flowers a gift to avoid. Western white wedding dresses are now common and many weddings use both. But when wrapping a gift or choosing a card, the older colour rule still holds.

A single app carries almost all of daily life

微信 (WeChat) is messaging, wallet, social network and government services portal at once. Cash has all but disappeared in cities, and many small shops cannot take international cards. Swapping QR codes has replaced exchanging business cards in many situations. Visitors can now link foreign cards, but it is worth setting up before you arrive.

干杯 literally means dry the cup, and sometimes it is literal

At a formal banquet the host will toast repeatedly, and each one may mean emptying the glass. Clinking with someone older, hold the rim of your glass slightly below theirs. If you do not drink, say so early and toast with tea — this is increasingly accepted. Drinking without inviting anyone to join you reads as slightly odd at a banquet.

Greetings involve far less touching than in the West

A nod or a light handshake is enough; hugging and cheek-kissing are not the norm, even between acquaintances. Handshakes tend to be softer than Western ones, and a firm grip is not read as confidence. With someone older, a slight bow of the head while shaking hands is courteous. Close friends of the same sex, by contrast, may walk arm over shoulder quite comfortably.

The Sino-Vietnamese word you already know may have drifted for centuries

This is at once the greatest advantage and the greatest trap for a Vietnamese learner. 困难 is indeed khốn nạn, but in Chinese it means merely difficult, while in Vietnamese it has become an insult. 表情 is biểu tình, but in Chinese it means facial expression. 大家 is not đại gia, a tycoon, but everyone. The safe rule: be glad the character is guessable, and always check the modern sense.

Refusing a gift two or three times is manners, not refusal

The giver will offer again, and you accept on the second or third pass. Taking it immediately reads as eager; refusing flatly and stopping there makes the giver lose face. Vietnamese readers recognise this at once because they have it too, but in China the number of rounds is usually higher. The same applies to fighting over the restaurant bill — that struggle is a ritual, not a disagreement.

关系 is not networking; it is a real ledger of obligation

The word is usually rendered as connections and then understood as Western networking, which misses what matters. 关系 implies a two-way debt of obligation that can be called on and that runs down if drawn on without being replenished. Asking someone for a favour is not merely asking — it spends the balance. Outsiders commonly err by asking too early, when nothing has been put into the account.

People ask your age to know how to address you, not out of nosiness

The question arrives early in an introduction, and it has a real function: it decides whether you are 哥 or 弟, 姐 or 妹. Vietnamese readers are used to this because Vietnamese is stricter still. Westerners often find it intrusive, and in international workplaces Chinese colleagues now ask less. If you would rather not say, giving your zodiac animal instead of a number is an accepted dodge.

Numbers carry meaning because they sound like other words

四, four, sounds close to 死, death, so many buildings have no fourth floor and some skip the fourteenth and twenty-fourth as well. 八, eight, sounds like 发, to prosper, so number plates and phone numbers thick with eights sell for a great deal. 九, nine, sounds like 久, lasting, which suits a wedding gift. Vietnamese has the same logic through Sino-Vietnamese readings, but the results do not always match — do not reason across from Vietnamese.

A compliment is deflected, not accepted

Praised for your Chinese, the standard reply is 哪里哪里 or 还差得远, not 谢谢. Taking a compliment straight sounds like self-regard. This is shifting among urban young people but still holds with older speakers. The reverse is worth knowing too: when you praise someone and they deny it, do not read false modesty — repeat the compliment, which is what completes the exchange.

Seating at a meal is assigned, and everyone knows it but you

At a round table the seat facing the door is the host’s; the guest of honour sits to the host’s right; the person paying, or the most junior, sits nearest the door to deal with the waiters. Do not choose a chair — wait to be placed. If offered the honoured seat, decline once and then sit, exactly as with a gift. Vietnamese readers will find this familiar, though the specific positions do not always match.

Clinking below the other glass is how you show respect

When touching glasses with someone older or senior, keep the rim of yours below theirs. The greater the gap, the greater the deference. 干杯 literally means dry the cup, and at a formal meal it is meant literally — if you cannot drink, say so at the start rather than refusing partway. Koreans have a comparable custom, with the addition of turning the head away while drinking.

The red envelope has rules about the sum, and the sum must be even — except at funerals

Wedding money should be an even sum, because joy comes in pairs, and four should be avoided. Funeral money is the reverse: it must be odd. Eight is always good; 168 and 888 are prized because they read as a road to prosperity. Most red envelopes now travel through WeChat, but the numerical rules are unchanged — the app even has a red-envelope interface.

There are two words for face, and they differ

面子 is prestige, social standing — something that can be given, kept or lost. 脸 is deeper: it is moral character, and to lose 脸 is to forfeit standing as a decent person. Calling someone 不要脸 is far graver than saying they have 没面子. Vietnamese has mất mặt but does not split the two so sharply, which makes it easy to misjudge the severity.

不方便 and 再说吧 both mean no

A flat refusal is rude, so refusals are wrapped: 不方便, it is inconvenient; 我考虑一下, I will think about it; 再说吧, let us discuss it another time. If you hear these and press again, you are forcing someone to be blunt, which costs face on both sides. Vietnamese readers recognise it instantly, since Vietnamese has để xem đã. Westerners commonly mistake it for an opening.

The default drink is hot water, even in summer

Order 水 in a restaurant and you will usually get hot water. For cold you must specify 冰水 or 常温水. The reason is partly traditional medicine — cold is held to harm the digestion, particularly for women — and partly the habit of boiling water from a time when the tap was not safe. A vacuum flask is a permanent accessory for a great many people, the young included.

Chopsticks standing upright in rice is an image from the altar

It looks exactly like incense set in the bowl of ash offered to the dead, and it reads as an omen immediately. Vietnamese and Japanese diners avoid it for the same reason. A few more: do not tap chopsticks on a bowl, which is what beggars did; do not point them at a person; and do not pass food chopstick to chopstick, a gesture that matches the passing of bones after a Japanese cremation.

Some things must never be given as gifts

A clock: 送钟 sounds like 送终, attending a funeral. An umbrella: 伞 sounds like 散, to separate. Shoes: 鞋 sounds close to 邪, evil. Pears: 梨 sounds like 离, to part — so do not cut one to share, either. Handkerchiefs suggest tears. These are homophone taboos, so they do not carry into Vietnamese, where the same words do not sound alike.

People disparage their own children in front of others

Praising your own child in front of others is boasting, so parents say the reverse — 他很笨的, he is not clever — even when the child has just come top of the class. The listener understands this as modesty and praises the child back. The difficulty is that the child hears it too, and this is now being argued about in China itself. Vietnamese has the same habit, so do not translate the line literally when repeating it to a Westerner.

The dialects are in fact separate languages

Cantonese, Hokkien, Wu and Hakka are not mutually intelligible in speech — the distances between them exceed that between Italian and Spanish. They are called 方言 because they share the Chinese script and one country, not because they sound alike. A Vietnamese learner with good Mandarin can still land in Guangzhou and understand nothing.

户口 decides where you may go to school and see a doctor

The household registration ties a person’s public entitlements to where they are registered, usually their ancestral place rather than where they live. Someone from the countryside who has worked in Shanghai for twenty years may still be unable to put a child in a state school there. This underlies the phenomenon of 留守儿童, children left behind with grandparents. Vietnam had a comparable system but has loosened it considerably further.

Mooncakes are a business gift, not a dessert

Before the Mid-Autumn Festival companies send boxes of mooncakes to clients and partners, and the box is often worth considerably more than the cakes inside. Many boxes are passed along through several hands without anyone eating them. The cake itself is intensely sweet and plenty of Chinese people do not much like it. Vietnam has the same gifting custom, so Vietnamese readers will recognise it at once.

Personal space is narrower, and standing close is not rudeness

In queues, lifts and trains people stand closer than a Westerner finds comfortable. Stepping back to preserve distance can be read as ceding your place, and someone will fill it. This is changing in the large cities, where queueing has become far more orderly than it was twenty years ago. Vietnamese readers will find it familiar.

Red is for joy, white is for mourning

Weddings are saturated in red; funerals use white and black. That is why a Western white wedding dress once disturbed the older generation, though it is now common — many weddings simply use two outfits, white then red. Do not wrap a gift in white paper, and do not write someone’s name in red ink: red was used for the names of the condemned.

Dishes are ordered for the table; nobody orders their own

The host orders for everyone, and usually orders more dishes than there are people — running short costs the host face. Clearing every plate can imply the host under-ordered, so leaving a little is polite, though this is shifting under food-waste campaigns. Vietnamese readers understand it immediately, since a Vietnamese meal is shared the same way.

996 is a real word, and a contested one

It means working nine in the morning to nine at night, six days a week, and it belongs to the tech industry. It was once praised by company founders as a blessing, then widely resisted and ruled contrary to labour law. Its opposite is worth knowing too: 躺平, lying flat, meaning a deliberate refusal to compete. Both words appear constantly on Chinese social media.

WeChat is not a messaging app; it is infrastructure

One app covers messaging, payment, taxis, hospital appointments, bills and business cards. Someone without WeChat can barely function in China, and in practice many places no longer take cash. For a new arrival, getting a payment account linked to a bank is usually the first real obstacle.

The surname comes first, and using the full name is normal

In 王小明, 王 is the surname. Classmates and colleagues often use all three syllables, which in English would sound very formal. For someone older, 老 plus the surname (老王); for someone younger, 小 plus the surname (小王). Vietnamese readers are used to surname-first order, but calling someone by their full name in daily life differs from Vietnamese habit.

Many people have two birthdays, lunar and solar

Older people commonly keep their birthday by the lunar calendar, so the solar date moves each year. The traditional count also adds a year at birth, so the age someone gives may not match the one on their documents. Vietnam has a comparable system, while South Korea formally abandoned its traditional age count in 2023.

You change into slippers indoors, and the host will hand you a pair

Every home keeps indoor slippers for guests by the door. Walking in with outdoor shoes is a plain discourtesy. Many homes also keep a separate pair for the bathroom, not to be mixed up. Vietnamese and Japanese households share the custom; the difference is that in Japan the boundary is marked by the raised 玄関 step at the entrance.

Tapping two fingers on the table thanks the person pouring tea

When somebody pours your tea, tap the table lightly with your index and middle fingers. It thanks them without interrupting the conversation. The story goes that it began with an emperor travelling in disguise, whose attendants had to show gratitude without revealing who he was. It is most common in the south, particularly Guangdong and Hong Kong.

The 高考 is two days that decide much of a life

The national university entrance examination falls in June, and the country arranges itself around it: building sites near exam halls stop work, traffic is diverted, police ferry late candidates. Entry thresholds differ by province, so household registration becomes decisive once again. Vietnam has a comparable examination, but the social pressure around the 高考 is greater still.

对不起 is much heavier than sorry

English speakers say sorry for brushing past someone. In Chinese, 对不起 is a genuine admission of fault. For minor collisions the word is 不好意思, which also opens a request for directions or any small imposition. Using 对不起 for a trifle sounds odd; using 不好意思 for a real fault sounds insincere.

What sounds like an argument is usually just conversation

Because Chinese uses tone to distinguish meaning, pitch cannot roam freely to carry emotion as it does in English. Feeling is carried instead by volume, speed and sentence-final particles such as 啊, 呢 and 吧. Outsiders therefore often mistake an ordinary conversation for a heated one. Vietnamese readers misread it less, since Vietnamese is tonal too.

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