Short Chinese TV Plays: An Intermediate Course - Textbook (C&T Asian language series) [Paperback]

Shou-Hsin Teng (Author), Liu Yuehua (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0887271685 | ISBN-13: 978-0887271687 | Publication Date: June 1, 1999 | Edition: Pap/Vhs

Short Chinese TV Plays is a course for intermediate students of Mandarin Chinese that utilizes TV dramas to teach the language of contemporary China. A video cassette and companion textbook are sold separately. In the textbook, each lesson begins with the play's script in traditional and simplified characters, followed by a vocabulary list with pinyin, a question-and-answer section in Chinese only, usage and pattern notes, and background notes on Chinese history and customs. The book includes a vocabulary index. The corresponding video cassette contains 10 carefully chosen TV dramas from China, each 10 to 40 minutes long. The vocabulary and grammar in the plays are appropriate for students at the second or third year level in a university program, and the plays become longer and progressively more complex as the course progresses.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Chinese

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Cheng & Tsui; Pap/Vhs edition (June 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887271685
• ISBN-13: 978-0887271687
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,369,105 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent way to improve your Chinese language skills., July 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Short Chinese TV Plays: An Intermediate Course - Textbook (C&T Asian language series) (Paperback)

I have found this book (and the accompanying video tapes) to be an excellent way to improve my Chinese listening, reading, and speaking skills. Because these are scripts of actual Chinese shows it reflects true spoken Chinese.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Often overlooked, but extemely good intermediate/advanced text, December 3, 2010

By 

John J. Carr, Jr. (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Short Chinese TV Plays: An Intermediate Course - Textbook (C&T Asian language series) (Paperback)

This is an older book from the Cheng and Tsui line-up that they don't seem to promote as strongly as they do some of their newer books.

The book (it is part of a set, consisting of a book and a DVD, but they may be sold separately, though this is a sin) consists of ten teleplays of TV playlets and mini-dramas between 10 to 40 minutes long from maybe as far back as the late 70s/early 80s. The dramas themselves may seem as old and out of date as the times they represent, and a few, maybe more than a few, are moralistic tales teaching you that "good is better than evil, 'cause it's nicer."* But the situations are presented in normal adult (not college student-oriented) Chinese.

And even better, in fact one of the reasons this item is so good, is that the dramas are made for Chinese, so the Chinese is a step away from the stuff found in most textbooks on the market. On the DVD, the sound quality and production values aren't up to CSI:Miami standards, but you've gotta listen a little harder, and your Chinese will be the better for it. Right now there are a lot of multimedia materials coming to market, but the sound is professional and the language and pronunciation aimed at foreign students. This collection was put together almost 20 years ago (1992), so you've got to make some concessions to the time and the equipment used, but it is worth it.

All of the plays are glossed and printed in both simplified and traditional characters. The sentence patterns singled out for explanations and examples are dictated by the plays themselves, rather than decided upon for inclusion by a language/study committee as in normal textbooks. In the latter case you get what the teachers think you need to enhance your further study of Chinese. In this book/teleplay set, you get what you need to understand the teleplay as the writer wrote it for a Chinese audience. Very different, I think you'll agree, especially after you listen to a few of these little gems.

I sincerely hope C&T doesn't decide to eliminate this old tiger from its lineup. That would be a real waste, even though the printed book and the video/DVD teleplays look like they come from a different era, as in fact they do. (And don't let anybody tell you the Chinese is out-of-date because there are no mobile phones and computers in the entire ten teleplays.) The content and the learning experience are well worth the incongruous looks they might attract as you watch them on your iPad.

* Mammie Yokum, for those who care.