We're taking a new approach to our Advanced series with this lesson, so let us know what you think. Instead of a Chinese-only discussion on a more general topic, we've got an in-depth bilingual discussion about what everyone in Beijing is talking about: the new television series of Dream of the Red Chamber. If you're not up on the latest gossip surrounding this production, join us as we complain about the bad casting, director scandals, atrocius haircuts and everything else your coworkers are griping about around the watercooler.

In addition to the regular gossip though, we also talk a bit about the book itself. Even if you've never read Dream of the Red Chamber, by the end of this podcast you'll be able to talk knowledgeably not only about what actually happens in the book, but also what should have happened. We gave Brendan and Echo free rein to complain about who was supposed to end up with whom, who was supposed to die unhappily in chapter nine, and all of the other secrets revealed in one of the most critical passages in the book: the revelation of fates in the chapter five dream sequence. If you want the book in a nutshell, this is it.
 said on
June 29, 2010
Very nice podcast. I don't mind the new format, but also liked the old totally Chinese one. Would be nice to see things mixed up depending on the topic.
 said on
June 30, 2010
I agree with barrister (totally Chinese ones are good, too)
 said on
July 5, 2010
I do like the new podcast, but like barrister's and juhuacha's comments, mixing up the formats sound good. Also, I'm the sort of person who likes something tangible in front of me, so I guess something a bit more than just a discussion would be nice? Or at least, something with some sort of text to study/learn from?

But onto the podcast, I do like it - very much so. The topic is interesting and the discussion is very natural and has information that I've never heard. This in-depth bilingual discussion is really good. Keep it up!
 said on
July 5, 2010
actually: what about a book club of sorts? Ya know, pick a book then have an advanced lesson just discussing each chapter (and sooo many Chinese books are available online).
 said on
August 4, 2010
barrister, the 1987 version is a classic. The 2010 version is horrendous. The hairdo is terrible. And Lady Wang looks like she's Baoyu's grandaunt ;(

Shi Xiangyun and Jia Baoyu's "romance" is really a figment out of Zhou Ruchang's mind. :) No evidence in the first 80 chapters hint of a romance between the two.

Really nice podcast BTW.
 said on
August 7, 2010
@juhuacha "So many Chinese books are available online". Really? Could you please share were EXACTLY they can be found? That would be very useful. Thank you very much.
 said on
August 9, 2010
Hope you can enjoy this from Beijing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RadDmAiSRXs
 said on
August 9, 2010
@davidwilljack,

Not sure which specific website, but what I usually do is to enter the book's Chinese name on Baidu and search for the free ones. There are always some websites that provide them.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
August 9, 2010
@mandel1luke,

I'm not sure what is more awful about that video, the singing or the pronunciation. Someone really needs to take the Chinese people aside for a gentle talk about this sort of thing. Whitney Houston covers should also be verboten.

Incidentally, Beijing Television is going to start broadcasting the series tomorrow by the way. I'm looking forward to watching it, even with everything negative I keep hearing about it.

 said on
August 17, 2010
I'm not anywhere near advanced, but one day decided to listen to one of the few advanced dialogues up there and was pleasantly surprised that with time and repeated (very repeated) listening I was able to follow along. In fact, this is exactly what has brought me up to intermediate level--being able to look at the text along with serious listening, repetition and constantly going back to review the vocabulary. And, ashamed as I am to admit it, I work only in pinyin (lost what characters I knew a long time ago, and when I returned to China, no time to get back to it). But this is what works for me and it works better and faster than any other method I've tried. With so few advanced lessons in this dialogue format with vocab/grammar discussion, I worry that when I am ready (okay, after a VERY long time) there will be no like method to take me even higher. So, I'm definitely for the dialogue and vocab/grammar discussion format in advanced lessons, and it would be so nice to have more of them too.
 said on
February 22, 2017
could someone please tell me the characters for how echo describes 铜钱头? it sounds like lue2xin4. much thanks in advance.