The Lady in the Painting

I don't know enough Chinese to actually read it, but I'm excited that there's something out there to read that is attainable with minimal effort.

A. Matthias has written the previous review in 2005, I would like to join to his opinion in certains points and not to agree with him in others points. The book contains the old characters that is true, but there are only a few characters which are different from the simplified ones, and if someone buys it with the book titled Read Chinese Book One, it could not cause difficulties. So I think even though it was written by the old characters, one can read it. I do not think the handwriting style could make difficulties, because the text is very clearly visible. The illustrations are very beautiful and they fitt well with the handwritten style of the book. So altogether I am glad to buy this book. The point in which I absolutely agree with Matthias that stories published with simplified characters would be well greeted by people studying Chinese!

I used an older edition of this book after completing Wang's "Read Chinese 1", which teaches 300 characters of high frequency in their traditional forms. I found that this book greatly increased my reading speed and solidified my ability to recognize these characters. There are also about 20 - 30 extra characters introduced in this book that are not of high frequency but are essential to the story (e.g. pigeon, horse racing, tears, etc.). Some of these extra characters recur later in the story without explanations, which forces you to flip through to earlier pages trying to find that elusive footnote. The only English that appears is in the footnotes, glossary, and the brief introduction explaining the purpose of the book. Everything else, including the author's preface, is in Chinese. Also, the attractive black and white drawings help clarify the plot for those having trouble understanding the text. The only problem (probably resolved in the latest edition) is that the pictures occur a few pages before the actual events are read. This sort of spoils the plot, as it shows you what's going to happen next. Other than that, it's flawless.