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If you want to dip your toe into the 四大名著, you might try reading abridged versions first. For example: Dream of the Red Chamber translated and abridged by Chi-Chen Wang The Romance of the Three Kingdoms , translated by Martin Palmer and abridged Monkey, Arthur Waley's translation and abridgement of Journey to the West Outlaws of the Marsh, an abridged version of Sydney Shapiro's translation This is a good way to enjoy the stories and get the flavour of the books.

As others say, The Story of the Stone in the Hawkes/Minford translation. Just start with one volume, you're hooked by the time you've finished it. I had the same experience with the Three Kingdoms. I think I got to about two-thirds. There are some great stories in there, but I found it hard to get through. I've read (several times) and enjoyed a Dutch retelling of the abrigded Waley translation of Journey to the West, so that translation would also be an option.

If you want to understand modern China better, I recommend reading the most recent classic, which is ‘A Dream of Red Mansions’. I've heard that this translation is quite good: https://www.amazon.com/Mansions-Chinese-Classics-Classic-Volumes/dp/7119006436/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1YU3WKOBSSBJ9&keywords=A+Dream+of+Red+Mansions&qid=1707803738&sprefix=a+dream+of+red+mansions,aps,435&sr=8-1. Times may change, but the mindset of people tends to remain the same.

Not one of "The Four" (at least not anymore, although it used to be), but we're doing a 20-week course on 金瓶梅 starting April 29, taught by Brendan O'Kane who specialized in it in grad school. He'll be using the David Tod Roy translation. He's approaching the course as a "window on Chinese culture and society," so there will also be lessons on Ming history, society, commerce, etc. to give more context for the novel. It's going to be a pretty awesome course—Brendan is a great teacher. We're also looking at doing Story of the Stone with him after this course finishes, and hopefully Water Margin with another teacher coming up in a few months.

I second Story of the Stone, almost my favourite novel in any language, have read it twice and want to go back to it.. But am ignorant of the rest, in that I had the same experience with the Three Kingdoms. I think there is a Three Kingdoms podcast fwiw, and I think there is a small cartoon version but cannot find it.

Hawkes and Minford's translation of Story of the Stone/Dream of the Red Chamber is rightly lauded and Hawkes did make an effort to give all the characters distinctive names, translating those of all the maids for instance. Very different proposition in terms of content to Water Margin or Three Kingdoms though. Arthur Waley's Monkey is supposedly a very enjoyable somewhat abridged translation of Journey to the West, but have only read short excerpts years ago in class.

I suspect so, though I had been in the country for some years by that point and spoke Chinese pretty well. Think I do recall (it is some years back) some of the doctors starting to speak to me in English anyway before realising I could understand Chinese; as cncorrect has suggested, they must deal with a lot of non-Chinese speakers. As an aside, I do recall a large group of young Chinese men being herded through the process by their employment agent who was sending them all off to work on sheep farms in Australia!

I've decided to finally plow through one of these. Not in Chinese, that's way too much, but a translation. Just so I understand China better. But which one? Long ago I tried to read 3 kingdoms, but got thrown off the plot by the sheer number of names in Pinyin. They all felt alike in my brain and I had the brief horrible thought that the novel would be easier to read with English names for all the characters. Why not Tiger, Rainbow and Tommy? I also got partway through Journey to the West but it read more like a manga than literature. (hey, there's an idea...)

Ooooh, thank you so much for the links!!! I'll get to work right away 😁 andet you know how it goes!

Aaah wow thank you Jim, that's just the insight I needed. Yes, this sound very similar. What do you think, would you have gotten along with some basic Chinese only? When we did this last time the company send us an agent to usher us from room to room, so I have no idea how difficult (or even easy?) this might have been. But then again, I arrived with almost 0 Chinese so we more than happily accepted 😁

Here is the process: https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/650390857. Here is another useful link: https://www.internations.org/shanghai-expats/forum/guide-for-expats-to-do-the-physical-exam-in-sh-1697376. As mentioned, you should search '上海国际旅行卫生保健中心' on WeChat and follow their official account (公众号). From there, you can make an appiontment, as illustrated in the attached image. The most challenging part might be communicating what you need and comprehending their directions on where to proceed and how to make the payment. Presumably, you won't need to say much during the actual medical check-up. Shanghai International Travel and Healthcare Centre (上海国际旅行卫生保健中心) is a dedicated institution for these types of services. I suspect many of the staff there are fluent in English. Why not try it yourself first? The worst that could happen is that you'll waste some time. But, you can also seize the opportunity to practice your Chinese.

I've done a medical for a residence permit before, which I presume will be similar. The designated clinic was a one-stop shop where you went from room to room clutching your paperwork to see different doctors/clinicians who administered the various tests, then paid separately at the main desk for them to courier the results round once they came out a day or two later. Various bloods and breathing tests as I recall, can't remember if eyesight was included, nothing too alarming at any rate. Since they are the designated clinic, they will produce a stamped set of results that meet the requirements.

I took the TOCFL CAT exam for the first time on April 13th. I wanted to post my experience in a blog article here, but I don't have permission to create one. Anyway, here is a write up I did detailing my experience and feedback on the CAT format. https://elliottjones.substack.com/p/my-first-attempt-at-the-tocfl-exam?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2

Here is some interesting background information about Asian "chops": https://www.ptl-group.com/guides/the-red-seal-that-cuts-the-deal/

I'm working on that but haven't found anyone who has done the complete Health Check within China, so far. Most expats will have this done at home before they leave for China, just like I did when I arrived with the S2-visa. This is a bit special case as I'm already staying in China and am not planning on making an extra travel for this - also doesn't make any sense to me . True, I did enquire in the morning, seems I am lucky. That's only part of the question though, the other is if it can at all be done in a private hospital or if - this being an governmental requirement - has to be done in a public hospital. As they want to make money they said yes of course. I'll have them confirm this at lengths before doing the tests. That's an interesting one. My dictionary did not reveal anything fitting at all, so I doubt a little it really "entered English" with this but thanks for the explanation! Next time I come around I'll know. Thanks, but better not be to quick about it. It's already the 4th time I'm starting over with this process and it never worked out in the past - I'm not yet enthusiastic, to be honest. Hopefully soon 😅

I have just finished Volume 1 of 射鵰英雄傳 by Jin Yong (and commented on it in the related "Book of the Year" thread). I think I'll finish the remaining 3 books at some point, but I don't want to slog straight through a 1200+ page book (especially one that uses a somewhat outdated, literary style of Chinese that isn't as useful for learning the contemporary language), so I'm stopping for now. I have to admit, though, that the story is really fun. I've never read Wuxia novels before, but I can now appreciate the appeal. I am now 1/3 of the way through Liu Cixin's 球状闪电, which is about a scientist who is obsessed with researching the "ball lightning" phenomenon; on his 14th birthday, his parents were incinerated by ball lightning right in front of him, and he can't stop thinking about it. However, ball lighting is relatively rare, unpredictable, defies all known mathematical models, has no practical applications that make it profitable or attractive to investors, etc., so his research efforts seem doomed from the very beginning. This is my 5th Liu Cixin book, and I'm already noticing certain predictable aspects of his style. He has several stock phrases that he repeats a lot, his characters often don't act like real people (they just serve as vehicles for abstract ideas, and they often interrupt the flow of the story to give long academic lectures), and the way he portrays female characters can be particularly awkward (I understand that many others have commented about that fact). His earlier works seem to be precursors to the "Three Body Problem," and they share a lot of similarities. It's almost like these earlier books were rough drafts of TBP. However, Liu's writing is interesting and clear enough to hold my attention, even though it can sometimes be silly/cheesy/awkward enough to make me laugh. Since I started reading native-level Chinese books in Fall 2019, my informal goal has been to read through 50 books, and this is my 49th. After one additional book, I'd like to focus more on my listening comprehension (which has actually already greatly improved in comparison to a few years ago!). In American health and fitness culture, we have a saying: "Don't skip leg day." If you work out your upper body and neglect your lower body, you might get a bulky upper body and pencil-thin legs. Well, in much the same way, I have unfortunately skipped "listening day." My reading skills are much better than my listening skills, so I'd like to shift my focus and read much less (though I will still read). So perhaps I will be on this thread much less often soon!

Quoting from the South China Morning Post: Where I grew up in Singapore, we often had to get things "chopped". It's probably used throughout various British colonies. I think Hong Kong also uses this word. I imagine it's more appropriately Hinglish/Inglish rather than Chinglish. lol. Congrats on the job.

'Stamped' would perhaps be a good translation. 盖章 is the Chinese. No insight on your actual question, I'm afraid. Last time I had this circus done it was before I came to China. If you're not the first foreigner in your new company, perhaps your company and/or a future colleague has some advice? It's quite possible that the whole thing is very straightforward and routine once you get to the right doctor at the right hospital. As to whether your health insurance covers this, can you perhaps just contact them and ask? And congratulations on the job! No more bore-out then, hurray.

So, it looks like I might have found a good job in China. We are already living in China, I am currently accompanying my husband on an S2-Visa and will therefore have to change to a Z-Visa. I had a first talk with HR about the necessary documents today and it seems like they have not had the case of a foreigner changing visa types yet. My actual question revolves around the health check. I had this check done in my home country in order to enter China on the S2 visa, but as this was about 1 year ago I was told I would have to repeat the check. The company now literally send me the form and the location of the "Shanghai International Travel and Healthcare Centre" today and that I should get a doctor to fill in the form and then have it "chopped" (any ideas on this chinenglish word?!?) at the Centre. We have an agent from my husband's company but she wouldn't say anything and will only do so for extra cash, of course. So, my question: has anyone ever been through this process within China? Is it difficult and therefore worth getting an agent for this? Everything else for the visa will be organized by the company. Or is it really just... make doctor's appointment and make second appointment then to have the results checked and signed at the Centre. I have no idea if my insurance would cover this health check in the nice international hospital I usually have the privilege to go to. My Chinese is basic to intermediate at best, so I certainly would not be able to handle any medical questions in Chinese. Simple instructions like go there, sign here, pay here... would probably be ok. Any suggestions, experience? Thanks for sharing.

運は天に在り。This is a sentence of Classical Japanese. It's a well-known saying of UESUGI Kenshin上杉謙信，meaning "the destiny depends on the heaven (so it cannot be changed according to humans' wishes.)".

Well, how the exam is organised depends on professors. Generally in my university profs tend to choose paper-based exam if there is a final exam or quizzes. Yet for students in Division of Humanity or Division of Social Sciences, considerable(but not all) courses require thesis rather than a final exam. Nowadays profs prefer electronic documents more so as far as you can type in Chinese it'll be okay for you to handle with these theses. (Although academic Chinese is still a skill to be learnt if you want to do some academic writing in Chinese.)

No I haven't fallen off the bandwagon... yet lol day 10 I revised coursera HSK 1 - not sure why i did it was too easy, but I'll believe it was reinforcement, continued with vocab learning day 11 to 15, vocab on anki, it has been slow going because I'm travelling soon and work is busy. So I plan to sue my transit and waiting for flights time to do the rest of the coursera and start on edex courses so for now just anki, only about 50 words learnt for HSK4 and still have HSK 3 leeches grrr I had hoped to have all my vocab by the 20th... not sure I'll make it so I hope I cover grammar by then and then just keep working on the vocab till month end

This raises an interesting question. How will we know if someone's HSK Level 4 certificate is based on HSK 2.0 or HSK 3.0? There is a 2004 cumulative word difference between Level 4 of the HSK 2.0 and 3.0, wildly different levels of ability. Maybe we judge based on date of test, but we don't actually know exactly when the HSK 3.0 word lists will start to be used, right?

Hello, I am organising university exchange. My major is politics and I would like to study in China. I can read, listen and speak Chinese fine (hsk6-7), but cannot write a single character. Will Chinese universities that teach humanities subjects in Chinese have handwritten tasks or exams? If so its not a big deal as I can take english subjects, it's just that i'd rather use my Chinese at a tertiary level. Thanks.

Here is another worth-reading post with similar information https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/60732-first-impressions-of-the-bilibili-manhua-app/