If you’ve ever studied Chinese, then you are aware of just how frustrating tonal pronunciation can be at times. With a language like Chinese, it is important to pick only the best Chinese audiobooks. Doing so will ensure that your language learning process is as smooth as possible. In this article, we’ll be going over some of the most efficient and effective audiobooks for Chinese language learning.

Epic Adventures in Chinese

The Star Wars Series

The sci-fi approach to language learning has always and will always be my favorite. If your imagination and visualization skills have gotten a bit rusty then what better way to test them out than to listen to laser beams and lightsabres? The Star Wars series is bound to keep your attention throughout the entire audio playback. Lasers, explosions, epic dialogue, are all geared towards re-kindling your imagination and creative powers. Not to mention you’ll learn some epic words like 星系 Xīngxì (Galaxy)  or 机器人 Jīqìrén(Robots)

Now, if you are one of the few unfortunate souls who doesn’t know the lore of Star Wars, then allow me to explain in the simplest of ways possible.

There are two factions at first who are fighting for their specific reasons to maintain the balance of the universe (that’s right, the universe, you’ll get to imagine up some sick looking aliens from the audio). While these factions are fighting each other, rebellion arises in one of them (won’t say which one) and things begin to get a little bit hectic. This rebellion forces the entire lore to take a nose dive into a heroic adventure filled with romance, tragedy, and action.

Below, I’ve linked the transcript here so that you can import into LingQ. By pairing the transcript with the audio into LingQ, you’re already giving yourself more interactive content to help your studies.

Learn About Modern China

The True Story Of Ah Q

During the 20th century China experienced a major shift in the realm of intellectualism. The message “RISE UP!” rang throughout the country as certain individuals began to use their pens as swords. One intellectual in particular took the Chinese society (upper and lower brackets) by storm using clever works of fiction to get his message across. The True Story of Ah Q is a tale that will continue to  echo throughout generations of not only China but also the literary framework of the entire world.

To summarize, Ah Q is a man who has no primary purpose in life. He spends his days committing tom foolery, stealing, attacking old women and in general just being an awful human-being. Lu Xun used Ahq in this literary work as a metaphorical representation of China’s apathy at the turn of the 21st century.

The full transcript can be found here. Paired with the audio (in the link above), you can create interactive lessons on LingQ and read exciting content to help you study efficiently.

Amazon Audible for Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced Learners

If sci-fi isn’t cutting it for you, then maybe you want something that still has that adventure aspect of things, but with softer overtones. Literary adventure books can be a wonderful way to distinguish yourself from other language learners. At times they use overly complex grammar devices and wording that can make you sound a Shakespearean if you’re not careful. However, these kinds of books don’t forget the beginners since the story-line is often focused on comprehension friendly themes.  Here are two recommendations you to consider:

Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland 

爱丽丝奇境历险记 – 愛麗絲夢遊仙境

Alice, the main character in the story is a girl who falls through a rabbit hole and gets transported to a magical world. You’ll be exploring Chinese audio related to adventure, identity, and scenery (colours, atmosphere, landscape, etc.). This audiobook is suitable for beginners as well since it mentions the basic stuff in language learning like animals, numbers, weather, and facial features)

The Wizard Of Oz

绿野仙踪 – 綠野仙蹤

Dorothy, a little girl from Kansas, is sucked into a twister and teleported to another world. It is similar to Alice in the Wonderland because it invokes a sense of wonder and amazement. The most important thing to consider in audio learning is whether the content is interesting. These two books are guaranteed to keep your attention the entire time while providing fun, comprehensible content.

Import Your Chinese Audiobooks Using LingQ

As already mentioned, LingQ has the ability to import your transcripts and audio and create interactive lessons for you to study. Here’s a post that will show you how to import ebooks as well.

LingQ’s main feature is to assist the language learner (that’s you) with personalized lessons, and most importantly, letting you study using Chinese content you love (such as podcasts, blogs, and YouTube videos). So what are you waiting for? Check out LingQ to discover how to learn Chinese from content you love!

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Short Writers Bio: Kiandro is an enthusiastic language learner. He holds a B.A in Asian Studies and is currently studying Japanese, Chinese and Korean. He favourite foods are ice cream and lobster tails.