After spending six years in China studying Mandarin and working, I took a several-year haitus and returned to my native country. It was alarming how quickly my language skills began distinegrating. I searched online for Chinese reading materials, and though I found plenty of dictionaries and flash card sources, I had a very difficult time finding something that was at an appropriate reading level, was different than the typical textbook-y stuff available online, was presented in a way that was easy to read, and that I was sure I could get through. I ended up spending more time looking for something that was suitable than actually doing any reading.

As someone who organizes her thoughts into a series of domain names, it was inevitable I'd eventually start a website about it, and here you are. I post here whenever I have a few minutes to practice a bit of reading, or enter something interesting I've picked up.

This site doesn't exist to teach you Chinese from scratch - there are plenty of sites and programs that do that. But this collection might help you keep your skills fresh, or pick up the occasional new vocabulary word.
<h4>About the Translations</h4>
Many of the translations on this site are done by me, and I don't post anything unless I've checked it several times, but that doesn't mean I haven't missed something. Do feel free to comment if you see anything that ought to have a better translation - it won't be taken amiss. Quite a few of the translations, however, are done by others, are taken from old Chinese textbooks or hardcopy magazines I picked up overseas, or were sent in by a third party.

It's often quite difficult to do a word-for-word translation, as Chinese words that fit well into a particular Chinese sentence read very awkwardly after they've been translated - sometimes a direct translation just sounds "off". This is more and more true the higher your reading level. I stick to a word-for-word translation when it's appropriate, but I'll often change a sentence a little so that it makes sense or reads well in English.

You'll also notice that I often remove commas, split long Chinese sentences into two or more English sentences, or rearrange the order of clauses, which is necessary to accommodate Chinese grammar.  The translation is meant as a guidepost to help point you in the right direction and keep you grounded in the text when needed - it's up to you to dissect sentence structure.

Enjoy, and good luck with your studies.