"Stare at the Screen""The Toy Book"2 Short Story Series(CD,Text)

“Why Are You Staring at the Screen?” & “What Can A Tiny Toy Book Hold?” Two Short Story Series in Chinese & English (CD, Text in Mandarin Simplified Chinese Characters & English, Hanyu Pinyin).  Listen to a story in standard Mandarin by not just a Chinese native speaker but a professional performer.  This is an effective tool to enhance your language learning ability and your knowledge about Chinese Culture.  Written and narrated by Bilu Zhang, a language and China expert.  Produced by mzGlobal  © 2012 mzGlobal  All rights reserved.

About “Why Are You Staring at the Screen?” and “What Can A Tiny Toy Book Hold?” Two Short Story Series

It is a story about a child’s curious mind and traveling experience on a trip to Shanghai, China, which introduces a Chinese idiom “Xin Xiang Shi Cheng” – What is in your heart and mind will for sure happen. Followed by a story about a child’s dream to fly back to the destination he visited as well as children’s connections to the people they met half way around the globe.  In searching for Chinese language and culture materials performed in standard Mandarin for her young children, Bilu was not satisfied.  She then wrote and recorded a series of short stories which dive into thousands of years of rich culture combined with her personal experiences in the East and West.  Some are based on conversations she had with her children. “Why Are You Staring at the Screen?” and "What Can A Tiny Toy Book Hold" are two of those stories, for the purpose of introducing the traditional values to the younger generation.

How to Use it as a Learning Tool:

Narrated in standard Mandarin Chinese and English. Transcript in Chinese and English is included to assist learning.  Also included is Hanyu Pinyin, which is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into Latin script, and it is often used to teach Mandarin Chinese, spell Chinese names in foreign publications, or as an input method to enter Chinese characters (hànzì) into computers.  Whether you are a beginner or you have studied Chinese, whether you are self-taught or have a tutor, this is an effective tool to enhance your language learning ability and your knowledge about Chinese Culture.  You have everything you need to master the words and phrases in the story, and it is a powerful self-teaching tool for reading, writing and listening comprehension, or just get yourself familiar with the speech of a native speaker.  It can be used as useful teaching material by educators. CD can be conveniently played for students in the classroom and children who are in bed longing for more story time, or travelers who have a few minutes transitioning between flights.

About the Author 

Bilu Zhang, MA, MBA, multilingual, is an American producer, entrepreneur and China expert, with extensive business experiences with Fortune 500 and startups.  Growing up, Bilu was an active member of Shanghai Children’s Club, Shanghai Youth Club, Shanghai Radio Station, and Shanghai TV Station. She acted in a number of feature films, TV series, and language teaching programs, and did film dubbing.  She co-hosted the first National English Contest in China.  She was one of the trainers for Peace Corp’s China One Project in Washington D.C., and taught Chinese as a second language at college level.  Her works are archived at Shanghai Film Dubbing Studio, Shanghai Film Studio, and Shanghai International Audio and Video Publishing House.