chinese audio books

[carlo]

If anyone could attempt to explain the discrepancy between the chapter numbering, that would be great.

Watch out: the 三国演义 is a 评书, not an audiobook. Ie it's a retelling of the original story. Three Kingdoms is written in 14th century classical Chinese, while this is a modern version where not only chapter numberings, but also the ordering of the events are not the same.

[atitarev]

Takeru47, I'd like to get some of the bilingual books with audio you were talking about, sounds very interesting. I heard that there are Chinese audio-books of Harry Potter, which I wasn't able to find.

(Sigh), the movies/series don't work for me as well as the books with audio. I finished the first novel of Graded Chinese Reader, volume 2. It's 2 hours and 10 minutes listening (slow pace) + plus you have the Chinese text and pinyin. I made a review for volume one (Free Chinese textbooks thread), might do for the 2nd volume.

[Takeru47]

After doing some more research into the matter of bilingual texts, I came across this page, which has 王小波's 黃金時代 and one of his essays in parallel text form (with pop-up pinyin and pop-up dictionary annotation). Sadly, I was not able to find an audio book of this novel; however, I did find audio books for many 金庸 novels, though I am not sure which revision.

I am currently creating a parallel text of 射鵰英雄傳 using a fan-translation. The only problem is that I still don't know which edition of the novel is being read in the audio book, nor which edition I have in text form (or the translation either). Once I can get that sorted out, I can continue compiling the text. If anyone else is interested in any of this, please let me know so that I can send you information/material for creating parallel texts. If parallel text creation (of novels in the public domain) can be split up amongst even a small group of individuals, the process will be much less taxing and everyone will be able to benefit much sooner. Take a look at THIS to get an idea of what I am doing (I am planning on using that pop-up dictionary as well).

Having the texts aligned just right (parallel to each other, paragraph-to-paragraph) and using a pop-up dictionary means that this method will now be simple to use for Chinese --the only problem is creating such texts. It doesn't take too long to make parallel texts if you use some shortcuts (which I can explain if you would like, though I just learned how to create the texts), though. If anyone would like to be a part of this project, please let me know. As a community we could get a lot done, but individually it would be hellish to have to create a parallel text of every single novel. It could be viewed as a sort of "Gutenburg Project," but for bilingual English/Chinese texts

Here is Pride and Prejudice in parallel text format annotated via a pop-up dictionary.

Since nearly all of 魯迅's works are available online in both English and Chinese, I think it would be a great idea to make parallel texts of those as well. I am having trouble finding 魯迅 audio books though, even though I know where to get the audio book for 阿Q正傳. If anyone knows where to get an audio book of 黃金時代, please let me know!

Edited March 20, 2009 at 07:57 PM by Takeru47

[renzhe]

Which fan translation of 射鵰英雄傳 are you using? The one on spctv.net (or something like that) forum is the second edition. The wuxiapedia fan translation is not finished yet.

here is a list of the changes in the 3rd edition (2004), if your Chinese version is older than 2004, then it's most likely 2nd edition. I read the 3rd edition.

I found the fan translation to be very useful for understanding tricky parts, though it is somewhat lacking in language quality overall (the translators are obviously not native English speakers).

[imron]

I did find audio books for many 金庸 novels, though I am not sure which revision.

Same caution above that carlo gave about Three Kingdoms. Are these actually audio books, or are they 评书, and are therefore a retelling of the basic story in a format more suitable for an audio recording.

[Takeru47]

Same caution above that carlo gave about Three Kingdoms. Are these actually audio books, or are they 评书, and are therefore a retelling of the basic story in a format more suitable for an audio recording.

I spent some time investigating the matter and have concluded that everything matches up: the original text, the translation, and the audio book. They are all 2nd edition as far as I know. I only spot-checked it, but the audio book follows the text exactly --which means that it will be perfect for this method. I believe that this audio book is from a 金庸 collection on verycd, though I obtained it elsewhere.

Renzhe, thanks for the information on the translations.

[xueshengDan]

Hello everyone, I am searching for books on cd, mainly stories that are geared for advanced speakers. Do to having to spend a lot of time driving, I'd like to utilize this time to developing my listening skill. Here in the States, audio books are pretty popular due to our commutes, but I have a feeling that in China audio books arent yet that popular. If anyone has any audio book suggestions I would appreciate it. Also, Happy New Year.

[OneEye]

I found a free iPhone app a few minutes ago (actually several, but I've only downloaded the one) called 有声小说大全(海量+更新). Seems pretty good so far. On a quick search, I found lots of 金庸, some 張愛玲, etc.