Sample Chapter of “Capturing Chinese Short Stories from Lu Xun’s Nahan”

[knadolny]

I’m writing to introduce my new book called “Capturing Chinese Short Stories from Lu Xun’s Nahan”. The book focuses on helping intermediate and advanced Chinese learners read Lu Xun’s Nahan (鲁迅－呐喊).

A sample chapter of 一件小事 (A Small Incident) can be downloaded from this link. This story is the shortest and probably the easiest from Lu Xun’s collection, Nahan.

My book attempts to get around problems students face when reading Chinese literature for the first time. Each story has a short introduction. Pinyin is provided for the entire text. Definitions for the difficult vocabulary are footnoted, and historical explanations accompany the many famous people and places that show up throughout his stories. The book is a collection of Lu Xun’s short stories which make them bite size and a good stepping stone for longer works.

I’ve gotten favorable feedback from teachers and customers so far. You can see their comments on my website (www.capturingchinese.com) or on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

Please let me know what you think and enjoy.

虎年快乐！

Kevin

[Daan]

That was the first Lu Xun story I ever read in its entirety. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you for the great work. I'll definitely look into buying a copy when I'm back in Europe.

[Kenny同志]

Lu Xun's works were superb at his time and are profound, however one should be on the lookout for his Anglicised Chinese. Of course, not all his works are pervasive with 欧化文字.

See this video

[knadolny]

Thank you for the great work.

I appreciate the compliment.

See this video

For some reason tudou.com doesn't work in my area. (is that a reverse great firewall?) Do you have a link to another source? I would be interested in watching to it.

You're right to bring attention to Lu Xun's style. He was a pioneer of the movement to write serious academic works in the vernacular (白话文) instead of using literary Chinese (文言文). Therefore, the Chinese you find in literature today is a bit different. However IMHO, his works are too important not to read. Not to mention they are also quite good.

[Kenny同志]

see 7 楼

or this blog.

[chrix]

is tudou locally blocked in Japan now?

[knadolny]

I believe so. I am in Tokyo and can't watch the video at home or at work.

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out this evening.

[knadolny]

I have been a fan of The China Beat since I ran across them last year. They publish very good articles relating to events in China and Taiwan and I enjoy their academic perspective on the issues.

They ran an email interview with me about my book yesterday so I would like to add the link here to this thread. If you are interested please visit the link below.

http://www.thechinabeat.org/?p=1741

Cheers,

Kevin

[rmpalpha]

Reading the excerpt in the book makes me wonder what level of students the book intends to target. Would it be most appropriate for, say, a student who has finished one year of language study, or a second-year student, or beyond? I am currently in the middle of my first year, and I only recognize some of the undefined characters. Just wondering

[knadolny]

Would it be most appropriate for, say, a student who has finished one year of language study, or a second-year student, or beyond?

Good question. I have targeted the book for intermediate and advanced students. The sample chapter includes the easiest story in the book so that gives a benchmark for the rest of the stories.

When I was studying Chinese I found a lot of good textbooks at the beginner and lower intermediate level, but that the advanced level texts were lacking in quality.

By advanced I mean either two years of college level study, one year of an intense Chinese course (in Beijing or a course like Cornell's FALCON), or the equivalent of four years of high school or night school study.

My book might be a bit too advanced for your level now, but hopefully you can find it useful in the future.

Cheers,

Kevin