Capturing Chinese Stories: Prose and Poems by Revolutionary Chinese Authors: Including Lu Xun, Hu Shi, Zhu Ziqing, Zhou Zuoren, and Lin Yutang

The essays included in this Capturing Chinese Reader are some of the best from revolutionary China. Reading the great literature of Lu Xun, Hu Shi, Zhu Ziqing, Zhou Zuoren, and Lin Yutang is essential for a comprehensive understanding of Chinese history, and literature.

Due to its complex writing system, Chinese is one of the most difficult languages in the world. Full literacy of Chinese requires a working knowledge of three to four thousand Chinese characters and breaking into reading Chinese literature is a daunting task. Capturing Chinese Stories: Prose and Poems by Revolutionary Chinese Authors presents some of the most influential works of modern Chinese literature as a comprehensive tool to help students of Chinese read Chinese literature in its original form.


Footnotes highlight the more difficult vocabulary and pinyin is provided for the entire text. There is no need to constantly consult a dictionary or to look up difficult characters by radical. Historical events, people, and places are explained throughout. The text used in this book is in simplified characters.

* Full story unabridged in simplified Chinese
* Pinyin for the entire text
* Definitions for difficult vocabulary
* Historical explanations and summaries
* Author illustrations
* Free MP3s read by two native speakers (now available!)

Free audio files of Capturing Chinese Stories: Prose and Poems by Revolutionary Chinese Authors are also included with the purchase of this book and are available for download from the publisher's website. The audio files include both a woman and male speaker. (now available!)

The following stories are included:

Zhu Ziqing: Haste, Spring, The Silhouette of His Back, The Moonlit Lotus Pond, The White Man -- God's Proud Son and Thinking of Mr. Wei Woqing
Lu Xun: Excerpts from Wild Grass: Epigraph, Autumn Night, Hope, and The Evolution of the Male Sex
Hu Shi: Mr. Almost Man, My Mother, and In Memory of Zhimo
Lin Yutang: My Turn at Quitting Smoking
Zhou Zuoren: The Aging of Ghosts