The Fat Woman Pinyin Book (Chinese Edition)

The Fat Woman Pinyin Book is a new type of supplementary reading material for people who are learning Mandarin/Chinese as a foreign language. It contains six short stories written by contemporary writers currently residing in mainland China. Each story is printed in two versions: simplified Chinese(jianti), and traditional Chinese(fanti). Pinyin annotation is added on top of all jianti characters. Armed with a Chinese/English dictionary, one could easily read through. The readers who could benefit most from the book are those who have learned pinyin system and some basic Chinese or those who are already familiar with fanti and want to learn pinyin and jianti. The texts are marked with line numbers for convenient reference. The idea is to learn Chinese through interesting story lines and memorable personalities and characters, and a realistic depiction of modern China, to make the laborious language study enticing and easier to go through. The book contains 13 black and white photos of modern era China after the economic reform. The Fat Woman and Her Skinny Husband: describes the life of farmers in a small village in rural Northern China. Main characters are the fat woman and her skinny husband, and their relationship with the attractive widow of their old family friend, and of course, the comical government official bully: the village head. Yearnings of the Farm Fields: A farmer s family in Si-Chuan area struggling in extreme poverty vowed to send the two sons to college so as to achieve higher accomplishment in life and leave the poverty of their family s farming life behind. The story draws a vivid picture of the traditional Chinese belief that one s life could only be transformed for the better through higher education. The Adventure of Gallbladder Removal: A poor peasant family mining gold in Shan-Xi province suddenly struck gold and became rich. The old father had been sick for years in need of a surgery of gallbladder removal which they had not been able to afford, and their recent fortune sent him to the county hospital. The story describes the family s treacherous adventure at the county hospital, exposing China s corrupted medical system. To Fly: A young and pretty saleswoman, decided to get rich quickly by sleeping with a middle-aged merchant. The story reflects the high anxieties experienced by many young women in the free-market China where many get rich overnight, and the society in general holds wealth above virtue and morality. Who Laughs Last: The three were close friends in high school. It was the time of Great Cultural Revolution, when being from a rich or merely well-to-do family was a crime by itself and punishable by being sent to labor camps on remote farms. The writer and the woman were condemned to a poor farm for labor, while their friend, who did not have to go, also volunteered. The story describes the three friends intriguing relationships and ends with a surprising, penetrating note. The Bloody Color of Life: The husband found an advertisement on in-vitro fertilization in a big hospital in Beijing and launched the wife s many heartrending trips. The story offers readers a realistic peek at the hospital experiences in Beijing.