I created a site for Chinese learners that analyzes the top 10 Zhihu questions each week

[Zhihu Digest]

This resource is probably more intended for intermediate to advanced learners. I've personally been studying for about 9 years and work in translation full-time now, and I've always used Zhihu as a tool for studying Chinese and staying abreast of the current Chinese zeitgeist.

 

On Zhihu Digest, each week I take a look at the top 10 questions and analyze the language involved (from a Chinese learner's perspective) as well as any relevant cultural aspects.

Some of the interesting tidbits from this week include what exactly it means for a person to 废掉, different ways of talking about steroids, and what grade levels 中小学 comprises.

 

https://www.zhihudigest.com/

 

All feedback, whether regarding content or the site itself, is welcome. Cheers.

[roddy]

Even before I look at the site, that's a brilliant idea. Good luck. 

[Jan Finster]

This is great.

One suggestion: would you mind to include a hyperlink to the Zhihu article you are discussing?

[roddy]

Having had a quick look, I really like this. I have a few suggestions on the site, but it's all stuff that would require more work, so...

 

1) Rather than a single post every week, I'd suggest individual posts for each question. You could then tag / categorise by broad topic area, and have a more specific title for the post. Users could home in on topics they're interested in, and it'd allow you to have ten posts over a week (using auto-scheduling to make life easy for yourself) which I suspect will build a more loyal audience. You'd also have bite-sized content suitable for mobile users. Or maybe list the questions at the top of the entry, linked to the actual discussions  below.

2) I think if you're having both English and Chinese on the page, and your target audience is Chinese learners, give the English the greater prominence in titles. Simple fact is that it's easier to scan quickly, and people won't miss a question they're interested in because they don't know the vocab yet. So I'd probably flip where the Chinese question and the idiomatic translation are. 

3) Do add the links, as suggested above. 

 

But like I say, I like it, keep going!

 

[Moki]

I just read through most of it. I agree with the others, this is awesome and I hope you are able to stick with it.

 

I will definitely continue to check it out, its a very quick way to stay up to date and pick up new vocab/learn new things. Thank you for the great resource!

[Zhihu Digest]

Thanks a lot for the feedback guys. I'm glad others find it useful as well. I will add the links for sure.

 

@roddy I will have to give it a bit more thought, but I am almost certain I will take your idea of doing one question per post. Not only does it allow for more content and categorization of posts like you said, but it also lets me dive deeper into individual questions. Also swapping the English and Chinese seems to make sense to me as well. Appreciate the feedback!

[roddy]

Excellent. Couple of other things (and like I say, I'm aware this is all extra work and not necessarily what you want to be doing). 

1) I hate to say it, but I don't think any new site starting today can ignore the socials: Facebook, Twitter, Wechat, even Instagram. If you've thought about it and discarded the idea, grand, if not, might be worth a think. I'd set it up to copy posts automatically though, I wouldn't be writing specific content. 

2) If making the switch to single-question posts, maybe a look at how the site appears on mobile at the same time. I see you've added (or did you already have?) tags, but currently on mobile they're right at the end of a very long scroll. 

[Zhihu Digest]

Hey @roddy Thanks again for the feedback. Agreed on the social media--to be honest, I wasn't sure if anybody would be interested in the idea at first, so I just made the site and Wechat account. The feedback all around has been quite positive though, so I will definitely open all the socials in the coming days. Noted re: mobile users too. I am somewhat limited because it's a Squarespace site, but I imagine I can still tweak it a bit to make sure it looks good on mobile too. And yeah, I just added the tags today.

[Badger]

This is fantastic. I am planned on starting to look at zhihu more for chinese learning. I will give you more feedback as I get more into it.