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    Introducing the First Capturing Chinese Kindle Book

    New Capturing Chinese E-book for a limited time price of only $2.99!

    We are very proud to announce our first e-book.

    Revamping the print version of Capturing Chinese into an easy to use e-book has proved quite a challenge.  After months of brainstorming, we think that we have found the perfect way to transfer the Capturing Chinese format into e-book form. Now we are giving you the chance to try The New Years Sacrifice Kindle Version for the very cheap price of $2.99. The book is still in beta phase so if you find a bug or something funny, please let us know.  We'll be making improvements and will release a modified version in September (previous customers will be able to update for free). Remember, the Kindle version still includes everything great about Capturing Chinese including the free audio files. This deal will not be lasting long.  Act now!  The price will be going up to $9.99 on September 1st or after the first 50 sales, whichever comes first. Just follow the link below: Want more ebooks from Capturing Chinese?  Want other formats? Let us know by replying to this email. Cheers, Kevin Founder of Capturing Chinese    

    Lu Xun's A Village Opera

    Village Opera  is my favorite story in Lu Xun's Nahan.  The story recreates scenes from a China that seems from a bygone era.  Lu Xun talks fondly of his mother's village and describes his days when they took a boat to watch an opera from the river.  For an introduction to Lu Xun, then follow this link to An Introduction to Lu Xun.  Otherwise keep reading for a longer introduction to Village Opera.  

    Village Opera

    社戏

    Shè Xì

    社戏 was first published in November 1922 in Shanghai's Fiction Monthly (小说月报 Xiǎoshuō Yuèbào). The story is an autobiographical story about Lǔ Xùn's different experiences with Chinese opera.  The story begins while Lǔ Xùn is living in Běijīng.  His friend insists that Běijīng opera is the best and he must experience one.   The cling and clang of the opera deafens Lǔ Xùn causing him to run out of opera house shortly afterward.  He sees one more in Běijīng before bidding farewell to Chinese opera forever.  He insists he is ill-suited for opera. However, he remembers seeing a truly great opera when he was younger in his mother's hometown, a small village near Shàoxīng (绍兴城).  In the summers Lǔ Xùn spent time with his mother visiting her hometown.  In this village all the people were related and surnamed, 鲁.  Lǔ Xùn chose his pen name of 鲁迅 in honor of his mother whose maiden name was also 鲁. In this village, Lǔ Xùn plays with the peasant children and catches shrimp with them.  Every year the neighboring village held a village opera, a 社戏.  Since this area around Shàoxīng is full of canals, much of the transportation was and still is done by boat.  The children rent a boat for the evening and row 5 li (2.5 kilometers) to the neighboring town and watch the opera from their boat.  After watching for a while, they get bored and begin rowing back home.  Taking a break halfway from home, they steal some Arhat beans from one of the kid's father's fields and enjoy the snack on the boat in the middle of the river. They arrive back to their village past midnight, where Lǔ Xùn's mother is anxiously waiting for them.  Looking back at this day, Lǔ Xùn can't remember tasting better Arhat beans or experiencing a better opera. Village Opera 社戏
    Would you like to read this Chinese short story with pinyin, footnotes with definitions, historical summaries, and cultural references, as well as Chinese audio files of two native speakers, one male and one female, reading the story? Get your copy of Capturing Chinese today! See the Capturing Chinese Catalog
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    Lu Xun's Some Rabbits and a Cat

    Some Rabbits and a Cat  is another short and easy story by Lu Xun.  For an introduction to Lu Xun, then follow this link to An Introduction to Lu Xun.  

    Rabbits and a Cat

    兔和猫

    Tù Hé Māo

    兔和猫 was published in October 1922 in Běijīng's Morning Post Supplement (晨报副刊 Chénbào Fùkān) 兔和猫 is about Third Missus, Lǔ Xùn's sister-in-law, buying a couple of rabbits.  The kids find the rabbits adorable and love to play with them.  Since the rabbits begin eating the furniture and wall paper, Third Missus moves them into the courtyard under the mulberry tree.  The rabbits manage to scare away the birds that come looking to eat some of the berries from the tree, but the family is most concerned with the neighborhood cat who likes to strut across the courtyard wall.  Lǔ Xùn's dog, "S," is relied upon to guard the rabbits from this pesky feline. A few days later, the two rabbits disappear.  No one has seen them for quite some time and they begin to worry.  However, the two rabbits return from their burrow along with a couple of baby rabbits.  The children find this particularly entertaining. A few days later the rabbits disappear again.  The family worries after the rabbits don't reappear for quite some time.  Third Missus begins digging into their burrow in search of the rabbits, but only finds rabbit fur, a sure sign that the cat found them. Third Missus checks a second, new burrow and there finds the two parent rabbits along with seven new baby rabbits.  Not willing to take any more risks, she brings the whole bunch inside and raises the baby rabbits herself.  Since the parent rabbits don't seem to being doing a very good job, she makes sure that each of the baby rabbits gets their fair and equal share of the mother's milk. While the Third Missus focuses on tending to the rabbits, Lǔ Xùn has his eye on some potassium cyanide hoping to avenge the rabbits by poisoning the cat. Lǔ Xùn wrote this story when he had a Russian poet, Vasily Eroshenko, who visited him in Běijīng.  He also wrote A Comedy of Ducks (鸭的喜剧), which is more about his experience with the Russian poet.

    Some Rabbits and a Cat 兔和猫
    Would you like to read this Chinese short story with pinyin, footnotes with definitions, historical summaries, and cultural references, as well as Chinese audio files of two native speakers, one male and one female, reading the story? Get your copy of Capturing Chinese today! See the Capturing Chinese Catalog
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    Learn Chinese Through Chinese Stories - Lu Xun's Medicine

    This week we would like to introduce Medicine, another one of Lu Xun's most famous short stories.  If you missed the introduction to Lu Xun, then follow this link to An Introduction to Lu Xun.

    Medicine

    Yào

      药 was first published in New Youth (新青年 Xīn Qīngnián) in May of 1919. The story is about a little boy who has contracted tuberculosis and whose parents go out desperately in search for a cure. According to a Chinese myth, human blood is a guaranteed cure to fight tuberculosis and therefore his parents seek out and find the blood of a young revolutionary who had recently been executed.  Even with the fresh human blood, the boy still dies shortly afterwards. The story takes place in Shàoxīng (绍兴城), Lǔ Xùn's hometown.  The revolutionary in the story refers to the real anti-Qing revolutionary, Qīu Jǐn (秋瑾) (1879?-1907). Her older cousin, Xú Xílín (徐锡麟), led a failed uprising against the Qing empire in July 1907 by assassinating the provincial governor of Ānhuī Province hoping to trigger a wider rebellion.  After Xú Xílín's capture and execution, Qīu Jǐn, who was planning a coordinated attack in Zhèjiāng Province, was arrested at her school (Dàtóng Academy for Girls), tortured, and then decapitated in her hometown, Shàoxīng, a few days later.  The father in the story buys a mántou filled with the blood of Qīu Jǐn. As discussed in the preface to Nàhǎn, Lǔ Xùn's father died in 1896 of an illness, likely to be tuberculosis, which Chinese medicine and doctors failed to treat.  During his youth, Lǔ Xùn would pawn the family's goods in order to buy esoteric and expensive Chinese herbs and medicines.  The ingredients would be items such as roots of reeds gathered in the winter, or Japanese ardisia herb that had formed seeds.  While these items proved difficult to procure, they did nothing for his father's illness.  He died after four years of using this expensive medicine.  His father's death from inadequate medical care inspired Lǔ Xùn to study Western medicine in the first place (which he later quit to pursue literature) and he continued to be very skeptical of Chinese medicine. Lǔ Xùn also discussed traditional Chinese medicine in his story, Tomorrow (明天). Medicine 药  
    Would you like to read this Chinese short story with pinyin, footnotes with definitions, historical summaries, and cultural references, as well as Chinese audio files of two native speakers, one male and one female, reading the story? Get your copy of Capturing Chinese today! See the Capturing Chinese Catalog

    Sample the book before you buy! Get Your FREE Sample Chapter

    Don't take our word for it.  Take yours.  Download a FREE sample of "A Small Incident." [wp_eStore_free_download_ajax_fancy id=22]

    Enjoy and 加油!

    Learn Chinese Through Chinese Stories - Lu Xun's Kong Yiji

    Kong Yiji was my first short story to read in Chinese and gave me the passion to pursue the Capturing Chinese series.  After reading Kong Yiji, I wanted to dive into more of Lu Xun's literature.  The story ranks as one of my all time favorites.  If you missed the introduction to Lu Xun, then follow this link to An Introduction to Lu Xun.

    Kong Yiji

    孔乙己

    Kǒng Yǐjǐ

      孔乙己 was first published in April 1919 in New Youth (新青年 Xīn Qīnnián). Kong Yiji is about a Chinese intellectual, named Kǒng Yǐjǐ, who never passed the civil service examinations and as a result struggles to make a living.  While Kǒng Yǐjǐ can recite obscure texts and can write a character in its many alternate forms, he doesn't have any concrete skills that he can use to support himself.  Since he never passed the exams, all his studying becomes irrelevant and his pride keeps him from doing tasks deemed unfit for a gentlemen. He copies old texts to get by but usually resorts to stealing.  People treat him like dirt and laugh at him every time he visits his favorite local bar, the Xián Hēng Jiǔdiàn (咸亨酒店).   Due to this disrespect, Kǒng Yǐjǐ enjoys talking to children by either teaching them the characters, reciting old phrases for them, or just sharing his bar treats with them. Kǒng Yǐjǐ doesn't have much money, but he always pays off his tab at the local bar. After not seeing him for a few days, the bartender and his assistant wonder what has happened to Kǒng Yǐjǐ.  They find out he was caught stealing from a Selectman (举人 jǔrén – someone who did pass the exams).  The Selectman had tied him up and had given him an all night beating, leaving both his legs broken.  Surely, a beating such as this would keep him from stealing, but it also robbed him of his only livelihood.  Justice is achieved by reducing Kǒng Yǐjǐ to dragging himself around by his two hands. Kǒng Yǐjǐ drags himself into the local bar for one last bowl of wine.  While the people at the bar still laugh and make fun of him, he enjoys his wine and leaves, never to come back.  Kǒng Yǐjǐ surely died shortly after. This story is based on one of Lǔ Xùn's uncles, Zhōu Zǐjīng (周子京) who lived in the family compound in Shàoxīng and helped teach Lǔ Xùn the classics in Lǔ Xùn's younger years.  He spent years studying for the civil service exam, yet repeatedly failed to pass.  He was something of a nuisance in the family compound and did not contribute much except to teach the children the classics. Lǔ Xùn's uncle and Kǒng Yǐjǐ highlight one of the flaws in the civil service exam in feudal China.  While the system prepared people very well in the classics of China, it also produced many people who never passed the exams, but yet had spent years and years in preparation.  After their failure they lacked any other skills to support themselves and their families.  Lǔ Xùn's uncle eventually committed suicide by lighting himself on fire and jumping off a bridge into the water below.  He died a few days later. Kong Yiji 孔已己  
    Would you like to read this Chinese short story with pinyin, footnotes with definitions, historical summaries, and cultural references, as well as Chinese audio files of two native speakers, one male and one female, reading the story? Get your copy of Capturing Chinese today!   See the Capturing Chinese Catalog

    Sample the book before you buy! Get Your FREE Sample Chapter

    Don't take our word for it.  Take yours.  Download a FREE sample of "A Small Incident." [wp_eStore_free_download_ajax_fancy id=22]

    Enjoy and 加油!