文化 · The music and films
Study hours are finite. Listening hours are not. The fastest way to add Chinese to a day is to put it in the places you were already going to spend on music and films, and the only way that survives contact with a real week is if the music is good on its own terms. Everything below is here because it is worth listening to or watching, not because it is at your level.
音乐 · Music
Start with a band rather than the shuffle. Pick one, listen to a whole record, and let the same voice repeat for a few days. Repetition is the point: the fourth time through a song you are no longer hearing sound, you are hearing words.
Taipei. Loud, flat-voiced, furious about being young. The gateway band.
Spotify YouTubeSame scene, softer edges, funnier and sadder lyrics.
Spotify YouTubeTaiwanese indie with big choruses. The easiest listening on this list.
Spotify YouTubeShijiazhuang. Trumpet, long build-ups, some of the best writing in Mandarin rock.
Spotify YouTubeReverb and murmured Mandarin. Good for listening while reading.
Spotify YouTubeNortheastern folk opera dressed as a rock band. Nothing else sounds like it.
Spotify YouTubeThe playlist, song by song
Every track opens a search in Spotify for that title and artist, which lands you on the song without us guessing at a link that will break.
- 蒼南夜語 Gatsby in a Daze
- 對你愛不完 Aaron Kwok 郭富城
- 海闊天空 Beyond
- 一場遊戲一場夢 Dave Wang 王傑
- 太傻 巫啟賢
- 是否我真的一無所有 Dave Wang 王傑
- 寒冷的夜 U.TA 屋塔
- 捲 U.TA 屋塔
- 交雜隕石 skip skip ben ben
- 不標準情人 Freckle
- 別急著說妳愛我到天長地久 Sticky Rice
- 喬治克隆人 Sticky Rice
- 你 Dadado Huang 黃玠瑋
- 跟你出去玩 Dadado Huang 黃玠瑋
- 也許像星星 929
- 等你等到我心痛 巫啟賢
- 夢醒時分 Sarah Chen 陳淑樺
- 關憶北 宋冬野
- 獨角獸 告五人
- 在世界的每個早晨 Summer Lei 雷光夏
- 失去尼歐 Fragile Girls
- The Little Finger World's End Girlfriend
- 天文特徵 HUSH
- 衷心 Suming 舒米恩
- 夢遺少年 宋冬野
- 妳是我的 Wifi 夜貓組 (Leo王 + 春艷), Gordon
- 爛泥 No Party For Cao Dong 草東沒有派對
- 我還年輕 我還年輕 老王樂隊
- 你啊你啊 Waa Wei 魏如萱
- 快樂 deca joins
- 浴室 deca joins
- 煙霧瀰漫 (軟嘴唇 Remix) Soft Lipa 蛋堡
- 關渡口 deca joins
- 成名 15 秒 Cosmos People 宇宙人
- 大風吹 No Party For Cao Dong 草東沒有派對
- 空港曲 宋冬野
- 金賭蘭 Soft Lipa 蛋堡
- 致姍姍來遲的你 A Si, Yoga Lin 林宥嘉
- 偷偷 Soft Lipa 蛋堡, 閻韋伶
- 療程 Gordon
- 少年維持著煩惱 蛋堡, Dadado Huang
- 買榜 Kumachan, Julia Wu 吳卓源
- 我的新衣 VAVA, 王倩倩, Ty.
- 沙豬 Leo王
- 熱水澡 Soft Lipa 蛋堡
- 猛犸 Queen Sea Big Shark 后海大鯊魚
- 飛行少年 Enno Cheng 鄭宜農, Elephant Gym 大象體操
- 別人的天使 Summer Lei 雷光夏
- 大夢初醒 Awaken JADE EYES
- 我愛你但那與你無關 Obviously
- 兄弟沒夢不應該 Sorry Youth 拍謝少年
- 擱淺的人 KST
- 山海 No Party For Cao Dong 草東沒有派對
- Riyoko (好友已滿) Kumachan
- 長大十八歲 Leo王
- 補習班的門口高掛我的黑白照片 老王樂隊
- 想你點煙 Random
- 2017 太空漫遊 夜貓組 (Leo王 + 春艷), DJ Didilong
- 魚 PA PUN BAND
- 殺死那個石家莊人 萬能青年旅店
- 方向感 1976
- 揪心的玩笑與漫長的白日夢 萬能青年旅店
- 允許部分藝術家先富起來 Second Hand Rose 二手玫瑰
- 一無所有 Cui Jian 崔健
- Goodbye My Love A Wa 阿瓦
- Careful Motives Fan Yuanyuan 范曉萱
- Chinese Morning The Geek x Vrv
- Shanghai Nights Saib
- Ms. Ho Onra
- 靠腰毛里森 巨大的轟鳴 Gigantic Roar
- 有無 林生祥
- Sleep Till Afternoon DSPS
- 白鷺鷥 TUDI-VOICE
- 低賤的人 我最討厭搖滾樂
- 坔地無失業 生祥樂隊
- WORLD WAR ZERO VOOID
- 夢 deca joins
- Rainy season Cheng Bi 程璧
- I want to waste time with you Cheng Bi 程璧
- 月娘總是照著我們 甜梅號
- 生活的答案 [UK Surf] VOOID
- Where I'm From Onra
- Autumn Moon Shining Over the Calm Lake Onra
- 穩定生活多美好 三年五年高普考 老王樂隊
- 我多麼想成為你的鹿 南瓜妮歌迷俱樂部
- The Sweet Revolution DSPS
- 捲菸 Amazing Show 美秀集團
- 希望我們腦袋都壞掉 周大派
- Shi Hun Yu SilHungMo
- 紫霧 City Flanker
- Lichen Prune Deer
- 盛夏的舞 Heyo, Jill Vidal 衛蘭
- 迷惘美 李優 URIKO, Kumachan
- 半心 ZANI
- 怎麼開始的 HUSH
- 微不足道的存在 黃宇韶
- 壞習慣 Freckle
- 烏鴉 Orangegrass 橙草
- 小雀斑 南瓜妮歌迷俱樂部
- 觀眾 Lure JADE EYES
电影 · Films
Watch with Chinese subtitles on if you can stand it, English if you can't. Either beats not watching. The trailer link is the trailer, not the film: buy or rent these where you normally do.
How to actually use this
Songs first, films second. A song is three minutes, survives a hundred repeats, and teaches you a handful of lines you will keep. A film is two hours you only have once. Put one album on repeat for a week, look up the four or five words that keep coming back, and add them to a deck. That is the whole technique.
Words you meet in a song are worth keeping. Look one up in the dictionary, save it, and it comes back on a schedule that fits how you forget. The whole course, HSK 0 through HSK 6, is $49 once for lifetime access.
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