After January 1st, the next big event is Chinese New Year, 春节 (Chūn jié), also known as the Spring Festival. It’s probably the most important Chinese festival. 

This year, the first day of the Chinese New Year falls on January 22, 2023, bringing the Year of the Rabbit to us. 

For this special occasion, it’ll be handy to know some Chinese New Year greetings. Whether it is for friends or for business connections, for emails or greeting cards, being able to say or write something nice and auspicious is always a plus.

What has magnificent 2023 brought us?

A new office!

MSL Master just moved in to its brand new office, located at Bonham Strand. It’s a very lively neighbourhood with so many restaurants, shops and convenient stores. It is very close to the old neighbourhood where the previous office was, about five minutes on foot, yet it’s so different. It is definitely appropriate to say 新年新气象!

The much anticipated holiday season is here. We are saying goodbye to 2022, and saying hello to 2023!

Got plans? Travelling? Planning multi occasions for drinking and eating? Having time reserved for binge watching? There is also of course playing video games, shopping and what not. I hope it’s going to be a great holiday for you!

What about learning Chinese? 

It’s here! 

Time to give the gift of creativity and inspiration!

This year we saw 14 talented writers stood out in the second Chinese Writing Contest. Their works were included in Easy-to-Read Chinese Short Stories, Book 2, which was just released. 

Send this book as a gift and let it encourage and inspire someone to learn and to be creative. 

The final prize for Chinese Writing Contest 2022 is coming out. It is an old fashioned paper book that gives bragging rights to all fourteen authors who have written remarkable short stories and powerful poems. 

Following the previous book in the series, the title of this book is Easy-to-Read Chinese Short Stories, Book 2. It’s ready for shipping starting Dec 1, 2022.

Chinese Writing Contest 2022 is coming to an end. It has been fantastic to read so many high quality entries that really blew me away!

Thank everyone for your support, all the contestants, sponsors, collaborators, voters, evangelists, and all the readers. Without you, this event wouldn’t have had a chance. And you made it exciting and interesting. Thank you all very much.

It’s time for the final result.

If you ask any Chinese people to name a day for them to customarily go hiking in the mountains, they will probably answer that it is the ninth day of the ninth month in the lunar calendar. That day is Chong Yang Jie (重阳节), the Double Nine Festival. This year, it is Oct 4, 2022.

Have you ever thought about learning classical Chinese but are discouraged by its difficulties? Here is a good news. A series of mini video lessons that teach some must known classical Chinese is now available! 

NCACLS (National Council of Associations of Chinese Language Schools ) annual conference is a great place for ideas. I was in one a few years ago and I still remember that a teacher shared how she used kites to inspire her students and to build connections between learning Chinese language and doing scientific experiments.

A few days ago, I returned to this marvellous event, the eighth annual conference this time, sharing my idea to a roomful of (or rather, a screenful of) Chinese teachers from the other side of the world. 

This is an important question! I’m glad it is asked.

For people who get their creativity going, it’s very likely that they can write more than one story or poem or mini play. All writings are written using the 320 Chinese characters, and all are really good.

This question has been asked a few times. One of them was particularly elaborate on why the limitation of Chinese characters made no sense.

When reading this particular email, I was really touched, as I knew this email was from someone who really loved the Chinese language and really enjoyed writing in Chinese.

Things happen in Google often make into the news. This time, it is about an engineer who was placed on paid leave because he claimed that Google’s A.I. is sentient. 

From a language learning point of view, this story reveals the power of A.I.’s ability to process language is far better than any human beings. It probably won’t be long when we think that “artificial intelligence” is convincing enough to be considered as “authentic intelligence”. 

Chinese Writing Contest is intended to be an open event that connects people. Anyone can have some fun with it. Therefore, the requirement is about what to write, not about who can participate. It is also about how to let everyone have a say in selecting the winners.

How to keep the selection process as open and as fair as possible is an important question. Voting on Twitter makes it very transparent and open. But, will that be fair?

Learning Chinese has so many layers of meanings. To capture some of them, new products are now offered at MSL Master. They are printable posters with drawings and printable Chinese character posters. 

Attending a big event, such as NCLC, was always something worth talking about. It was especially cool to be a speaker, even a small one as I was among all the big shots. It was a good opportunity to learn and to share some of my experience.