#i promise ur X hobby or favorite X genre has a similar or equivalent one in ur target language

[rigelmejo]

entertainment reasons to study chinese. because i know there’s a ton of stuff out there saying “learn japanese cause of anime, entertainment etc!” and then i run into posts of people lamenting that kind of stuff is hard to find in chinese when. it really isn’t

tons of dramas, many for free on youtube (so watchable on tv, computer, or cellphone). many also available on apps like netflix, viki, iqiyi, youku. many shows (in case you want to rewatch something you’ve seen) dubbed/subbed in chinese on netflix, iqiyi, youtube. check out mydramalist.com if you have no idea where to start with the huge amount of dramas that exist. Dramas very often have hard chinese subs so you’re likely to have a very easy time finding chinese subs, often an easy time finding dual subs in chinese/english, a ton of stuff has english sub options, a ton of stuff on youtube has several language sub options, viki has ‘viki learn mode’ with dual subs and click-definitions and instant replay for audio. its incredibly easy to find dramas with whatever combo of english/chinese subs you want, and if you want no subs, viki often has versions of dramas with no subs on the actual video. 

tons of donghua (cartoons). again, many for free on youtube, also on apps like netflix etc. 

tons of manhua (comics). there’s a lot of webcomics for free on bilibili and webtoons. also if you already like a comic, you may be able to find a chinese translation if you’d like to reread (change the webtoon website language or browse for the chinese version of the title on bilibili and other comic-reading sites)

tons of audiobooks and audio dramas, a huge amount being free. check youtube, ximalaya, music.i63.com, fm.qq.com, missevan.com, bilibili (if you cannot access an app because of your region, go to the website version in your phone browser)

google/duckduckgo/search engine of your choice etc. is your friend. a large amount of chinese media can easily be found by just searching “media-title media-type online” (possibly adding “free” if needed). just search entirely in chinese. For example, you’re looking for modaozushi(Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) manhua(comic) online in chinese? Search “魔道祖师漫画在线”. You will find a lot of pages immediately with the mdzs manhua in chinese. If you don’t know the chinese name for a given media, or for a given term, put that into google translate (or translator of your choice) and/or use a websearch for “chinese title for Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation” etc. I ususally go onto novelupdates.com and look up english names of webnovels I’m reading (or comics/dramas based on them), since novelupdates.com will also list the original name in chinese under the titles area. Or I go to mydramalist.com, as that site will also list the original media name in chinese along with the english and other titles. If you’re having trouble finding something specific on youtube or bilibili (like daomubiji audiobooks 盗墓笔记有声读物), change your search terms from english/pinyin into chinese. On youtube, sometimes you can find dual english/chinese subbed audio dramas and audiobooks by varying if you search for something in chinese, pinyin, or english, so try a few combinations. 

there’s a ton of chinese webnovels accessible online. the google search result above will find you anything specific you’re looking for. and then there’s also specific sites you can browse to find new webnovels. Again, i suggest starting with novelupdates.com if you have no idea What to read at all. Then for exploring more webnovels, you can try jjwxc.net, qidian.com, 17k.com, zongheng.com, chuangshi.qq.com, faloo.com, book.douban.com, tadu.com, hongshu.com. Honestly though I’ll just find one novel through google, then browse whatever webnovel site that first novel was on (because there’s a LOT of webnovel hosting sites - some specialize in english novels translated to chinese or childrens literature etc, so if you find a particular genre you like its worth exploring the site hosting it for more similar content). 

Some VERY general recommendations on places to start for chinese media (these aren’t even specifically my favorite, so you may find you hate some of these or love some of these and not others, these ones are just quite well known so they’ll be easy to find as introductions: 

The King’s Avatar - drama, manhua, donghua, audiobook. A modern story about esports players, and slice of life. Generally well liked in all formats.

The Untamed - drama. Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation/MoDaoZuShi - manhua, donghua, novel. A xianxia bl story about two cultivators in love, about justice and war. The drama is not the highest budget/prettiest of all cdrama options, but it was well received and liked. Many people also loved the novel and donghua. 

Word of Honor - drama. Tian Ya Ke - novel. A wuxia bl story, with found family. There’s a lot more iconic wuxia shows out there (Legend of the Condor Heroes, The Handsome Siblings, maybe Evernight), but this one was quite popular last year and is on a bunch of streaming platforms. 

Detective L (drama, youtube), My Roommate is a Detective (drama, iqiyi) - they may not be perfect dramas, but both are VERY in the style of Sherlock type stories and so if you like detective shows like Sherlock, Elementary, etc then this is a taste of the similar genre stuff in chinese dramaland.

Nirvana in Fire - political historical drama, one of the most well known well loved cdramas. 

Someday or One Day - a short taiwan drama, cool concept with time travel and slice of life of a woman’s life and connections. Its mostly realism with some fantastical elements, was well received, and is a good taste of the more realistically shot/presented kinds of dramas you can find in mandarin if you go looking. (I also really like History 3: Trapped - a taiwan bl between a cop and gang leader investigating a murder case, and Bromance taiwan drama with Baron Chen a slice of life/gang boss reformed/gender-exploring drama).

Eternal Love: Ten Miles of Peach Blossom - drama, novel. (Not my favorite I really don’t love this one, same with Ashes of Love, but they’re very popular and very much embody a particular kind of romance xianxia style story that a lot of dramas are - I’d personally recommend instead though that you watch Love and Redemption, or Love and Destiny. But if you want to see the hype or maybe EL or AoL appeal to you, they’re worth checking out - regardless of your preference, they have very well known well loved actors who give excellent performances).

Dao Mu Bi Ji/The Lost Tomb/The Lost Tomb 2/Ultimate Note/The Lost Tomb Reboot (Reunion Sound of the Providence) - dramas, novels, a LOT. Basically pick one. Whatever one sounds good to you on mydramalist. If you like Indiana Jones, The Mummy, Lara Croft, these are a taste of cdrama tomb raiding genre horror/action stuff. There’s more dramas in this kind of genre (like Candle in the Tomb). dmbj dramas vary in quality, pacing, budget, etc, so not all will necessarily appeal if one does. But its good to know the genre exists. 

Under The Skin, The Bad Kids, The Long Night - dramas, pick one. Basically crime/thriller modern setting realistic drama genre. These are some of the more popular recently made ones. 

My personal recommendations (which will NOT suit everyone’s tastes so by all means feel free to ignore these): Guardian (if you like Buffy The Vampire Slayer/The X Files/Torchwood and can tolerate 90s quality special effects), Bureau of Transformer (if you like Star Trek/Black Mirror/In The Flesh and want something incredibly well written), Ice Fantasy (if you want Really Fantasy), Romance of Tiger and Rose (if/when you get used to some cdrama tropes this show excellently plays with a lot of them comedically), Till Death Tear Us Apart (bl, period piece spy romance, happy ending, full of action, very charming), Love and Redemption (my favorite romance xianxia drama), Men With Sword (NOT for everyone but its all men world of bl in fight between warring kingdoms fantasy and it is Something), The Wolf (a very fairytale esque wolf-boy/princess historical fantasy drama), Goodbye My Princess (a phenomenal fantasy historical romantic tragedy), Secret of the Three Kingdoms (I am so biased but I do adore this drama), Humans (cdrama adaptation of shows by the same name - Ma Tianyu is in this and I love seeing a futuristic sci fi cdrama).  

#rant #in fact for the record there's a lot of cool accessible media in all languages #u may have to dig a little initially to find the main sites/channels/platforms that are widely used in a given language #but once u find them. theres a TON of stuff nowadays #i promise ur X hobby or favorite X genre has a similar or equivalent one in ur target language