One bizarre thing happened last month after Hong Kong DSE (Diploma of Secondary Education) English exam, which used some excerpts from the former US First Lady Michelle Obama’s memoir Becoming in one reading section.

After the exam, many students went on to Michelle Obama’s social media account and left unseemly comments, blaming her for the exam being too difficult and for their own failures.

May 4th 2023 is coming. 

It’s time to commemorate the May Fourth Movement that happened on May 4th, 1919, and revisit the irrevocable changes happened to China and the Chinese language.

April 22, 2023, is the third day of the third month in Chinese lunar calendar. 1670 years ago, on the same day, i.e. the third day of the third month in 353CE, a great calligrapher, and also a great poet, composed and wrote a poem in the semi-cursive script. 

This writing eventually became the most well known masterpiece of brush calligraphy in Chinese history. And it is this masterpiece that appears on the covers of all Chinese Reading and Writing series.

Despite harsh penalties, cheating has never been stamped out in schools. The advent of ChatGPT, or generative AI in general that is widely available, is making the situation worse. 

Before ChatGPT, the following ways are considered cheating: students pay someone to write papers for them; they copy papers from other students; they plagiarise sections from other sources; they present translated materials from a foreign language as their own; they describe ideas of others as their own; they do not give proper credit to others.

I’m not a bar person, but I regularly visit a nearby bar on Tuesday evenings. It is because that night is the jam night. Each musician gets to choose two songs to play or to sing. Other musicians will go along with these choices and stage a performance. The sounds of keyboard, guitars, bass, drums, vocals, and sometimes a saxophone, are fused together and exemplified by loud speakers.

Although I am always a spectator, I find the whole experience fascinating.

On the surface, it may not look any different. But MSL Master website had just went through a massive software upgrade over the weekend. I was told that there were many benefits that this new upgrade would bring. However, an immediate problem is that the upgrade seemed to be able to rewrite old URLs, and my tech support guys couldn’t figure out why.

I admit that it is very very “disruptive”, a fitting term used so often in the technology community. And I’m very sorry about the problems that readers will likely to experience when browsing the website, a ton of “404” pages.

International Women’s Day (March 8) is coming. It is a highly celebrated day worldwide. In Chinese, it is called 妇女节, 三八节, 三八妇女节, or 国际妇女节. 

As MSL Master is 100% female led and operated, and also because I’m in a profession that is predominantly female, I am happy to contribute to this special occasion and introduce three must known Chinese women in history.

The fifteenth day of the Chinese New Year is a special occasion, a festival within a festival. According to Lao She (老舍), this is the climax of the Chinese New Year. It is the brightest and the most beautiful festival. 

In 2023, this brightest and most beautiful Yuanxiao Festival (元宵节) falls on Feb 5.

Meet Luiz Antonio Gonçalves Neto, everyone!

Last year there were a few beautiful poems included in Easy-to-Read Chinese Short Stories, Book 2, a collection of the best entries of Chinese Writing Contest 2022. 

And I said to myself, wouldn’t it be nice if at least one of these poems could be made into a song?

Thanks to Luiz, it’s going to happen.

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. 

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!