Romance of the Three Kingdoms podcast

[lingshu8]

I just discovered a great new podcast.  A Chinese fellow named John Zhu is re-telling the Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三國演義)  in English with commentary:

 

http://www.3kingdomspodcast.com/

 

His readings are entertaining and insightful.  I especially enjoy his explanatory side commentaries, such as in Episode Three when he tells us that He Jin distrusted Cao Cao because of Cao's family history with eunuchs (his father was adopted by a eunuch). 

 

He also throws in several intentionally anachronistic comments that are colorful and amusing (e.g. he calls Dong Zhuo "the poster child for failing upward in the Han court" LOL).  I think this really helps bring the story to life for us modern listeners.

(I just hope he will have the stamina to keep this up for the whole novel.  加油！加油！)
 

If you have any interest in Chinese history in general or The Three Kingdoms in particular, you should definitely check it out!

[Meng Lelan]

Thanks for posting this. Would like to see if there will be transcripts as well. His wording is awesome already right from the start. The famous opening scene of the three friends pledging allegiance to each other in the garden, he calls it Bromance of the Three Warriors. 

[abcdefg]

Great find! Thanks for posting it. I will probably become a devout fan.

[kikosun]

I'll definitely be keeping tabs on this. Thanks for finding this resource!

[Meng Lelan]

The podcaster guy is completely awesome. Within minutes of my request for transcripts he started posting them up. 

[carlo]

This is great. One of the best moments of my Chinese learning career was when I discovered a 评书 version of ROTK that had a full transcript in book form (also ~95% accurate). Now we even get an English version, and a map! 

 

Here's the links to the Chinese 评书 version I'm referring to (one of several) and the transcript.

[rotkpodcast]

Hi all. This is John from 3kingdomspodcast.com. Just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to check out the podcast (and thanks to Lingshu8 for pointing the folks here to the show). Knowing someone is listening definitely gives me extra motivation to keep going. If you have comments or suggestions, drop by the site and leave me a note. Thanks!

[Sinolingua]

Hi John, I'm a native speaker and I really admire your work in introducing  this Chinese classical novel to Chinese learners. 加油！P.S. Your Chinese pronunciation is perfect, is Chinese your mother tongue? 

[roddy]

Good to see you posting John, and best of luck with the project. 

 

There used to be an excellent comic take on the Three Kingdom's drawn by a guy who used to post on here as Peng. I spent some time going through the archives on here to try and find it, but all the links were dead. Kind of a shame, as it was great and it'd be a shame if it was lost. Then I slapped myself on the forehead, Googled 'Three Kingdoms webcomic', and there it was...

 

Cao Cao with a sniper rifle is still my favourite bit. 

[skylee]

Thanks roddy. The comic is so cute.

[rotkpodcast]

Thanks Roddy! And that comic is awesome!

 

Sinolingua, yes, Chinese is indeed my native tongue. Well, technically Cantonese, but like any kid who came up in the Chinese education system, I learned mandarin in school. 

 

Speaking of 评书, my earliest exposure to ROTK was probably listening to it on the radio. If you speak Cantonese, here's a great stash of 评书, including ROTK, from one of the masters of the craft: http://www.pingshu8.com/special/msp_220.htm.

[Meng Lelan]

Googled 'Three Kingdoms webcomic', and there it was...

 

 

Uh, took a look, it's ghastly...

 

Back in the 1980s and 1990s I used to buy the 連畫 in color (like the photo of my copy of 西遊記 here)

 

http://miparentscouncil.org/2013/05/12/developing-literacy-in-chinese-part-1/

 

I don't know if they make anything like that for 三國。 

[roddy]

评书 is great fun. If I could be famous in China for something, I'd be famous for that. 

[Lanchong]

Here's a link to a Mandarin pingshu of ROTK

I tried to listen to it a few months ago (not knowing the ROTK story) and couldn't follow anything. But after listening to the English podcast, the Mandarin version is easier to follow.

You'd think they would include a little pingshu in advanced proficiency tests, but then perhaps there's a good reason I'm not in charge of the HSK...

[lingshu8]

I love 袁闊成's Three Kingdoms 評書.  He's a master storyteller. My Mandarin got a big boost by listening to his pingshu alongside a transcript. 

 

You can download the complete transcript here.  The pingshu is here (same link Lanchong posted above).

[StChris]

I just wanted to say thanks for the great podcast. I'm planning on reading the Chinese version soon, so it's nice to get to listen to this English version first. Storytelling is a lost art form, but I think you do it really well. Looking forward to episode 6.

 

(I'm having some trouble listening to ep 5 though. It's just downloading really slowly, but maybe it's just the crappy Chinese internet connection, rather than a problem with the site itself)

[rotkpodcast]

Thanks StChris. Are you still having trouble with episode 5? I just tried and it downloaded pretty quickly.

[roddy]

Was just reminded of this and thought I'd give this a bump to see if anyone was following - or if anyone new wanted to catch up. 27 episodes up now!

[Meng Lelan]

A coincidence you posted this, I was just now catching up on episode 27 though I read the transcripts and then read the original trad character edition afterwards. 

[French]

Thanks, that is great work.