Learn to Read Chinese Newspapers: Practical Tips and Resources

Reading news in Chinese is one of the best ways to improve your Chinese comprehension skills. I started reading Chinese newspapers when I was trying to go beyond textbooks, so I’ll share useful strategies and newspaper recommendations to get you started. 

It’s also a nice initial step before diving into Chinese literature, since you’ll learn modern, relevant vocabulary.

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Tips for Reading Chinese Newspapers

You’ll probably hesitate before picking up the papers because the huge walls of text can be intimidating—but that’s just at the start. As you keep reading, it’ll get easier. 

Here are some practical tips for diving into Chinese newspapers: 

1. Choose your favorite section

Whether it’s the section on entertainment, finance, lifestyle, sports or world news, you’ll find reading the papers more enjoyable when you’re reading something that interests you.

The good thing about reading news is the vocabulary tends to be repetitive if it’s about the same topics, so you’ll also remember vocabulary better this way.

2. Check the first paragraph

News articles usually put the most important information in the first paragraph, so you can get a summary right away of the article. This also lets you gauge the style and level of the article.

If the first paragraph doesn’t intrigue you already, then skip to the next article.  

3. Use a Chinese reader app

To make reading Chinese news easier, you can copy-paste the content onto Pleco’s Reader. This way, you can tap on new words you don’t know and even save them as flashcards right away.

My favorite reader tool, though, is MyLingua. It also curates authentic Chinese news for you based on your level.

For working up to actual news articles, there’s The Chairman’s Bao, which gives you learner-friendly material. 

4. Consult the translation

Most of the Chinese papers below have translations in English (or other languages) readily available on their website. If not, you can always use Google Translate for free.

One nifty tool is the Zhongwen Chrome extension. It lets you click on any Chinese word on a webpage and then see the dictionary entry for that.

Try to check any major unknown words first, then guess the meaning of the sentence on your own. If the structure is still confusing, then peek at the English translation of the whole sentence. 

5. Focus on one article at a time

Take it slow. Don’t be too hard on yourself if it takes a while to read a Chinese article all the way through.

After all, you likely need to know at least 2,500 characters (the minimum for literacy), so pace yourself and focus on reading for overall comprehension rather than fixating on memorizing each new word. 

Popular Chinese Newspapers

To help you choose the right Chinese newspaper, I’ve listed down well-known papers for you to choose from.

Note that all these have English and Chinese (for those originally written in English) translations available on their websites. Go on, take your pick!

中国日报告 | China Daily

This is the most popular newspaper in China that is written in English. It’s published to serve the needs of foreigners, not only for those currently staying in China but also throughout the globe—US, Europe, Africa and a majority of the countries in Asia.

Their website also features the Chinese and French versions.

人民日报 | People’s Daily

If you’re interested in politics and the view of the Chinese government on its policies and national affairs then, this one’s for you. This is the official newspaper of the government. Written in Chinese, the paper has Russian, French, English, Spanish, Korean, Arabic and Japanese translations.

环球时报 | Global Times

This one’s a daily tabloid that is published by the same office as People’s Daily. There’s an English version available on their website.

But unlike other papers that are mere translations of the Chinese paper, it’s different. The English version reports on the news in China while the Chinese version reports more on international news.

So if you’re reliant on the English version for the translation of the Chinese characters then, I suggest you pick some other paper.

世界日报 | World Journal

This must be the most familiar paper for most of you. It’s not a paper from China. Rather, it’s published in New York and is readily available to Chinese communities in the United States and Canada.

Still, it’s written in Chinese—although the English version is available on their web.

光明日报 | Guangming Daily

If you’re into science, technology, culture and education, then choose this as your daily reading. It has the best, if not the very best, articles in those fields. There’s also an English version.

经济观察报 | Economic Observer

Unlike the rest of the papers listed here, this one’s a weekly paper focused on the market or business news.

If your learning is geared towards this area then, pick this one. You can compare the characters with the English translation so you can better understand the terminologies.

中国青年报 | China Youth Daily

This one has high readership among the Chinese youth and professionals. Their articles are focused on their interests so if you’re one of them, read this one. After all, it takes one to know one. If they enjoyed this, so will you.

Why Read the News in Mandarin Chinese?

There are plenty of compelling reasons to try reading the news in Chinese:

• It increases your vocabulary. With news, you’ll pick up tons of vocabulary related to society’s issues today, like 气候变化 (qìhòu biànhuà) — climate change and 贫富差距 (pínfù chājù) — wealth gap. It’ll expose you to buzzwords too that you can discuss with Chinese speakers, like 直播 (zhíbō) — live streaming.

• It’s interesting and will surely capture your attention. When I started reading Chinese news, it became addicting because I kept discovering surprising things, from how electric vehicles are incredibly common in China to memes on Weibo.   

• You don’t have to love current events to read newspapers. The first thing that pops into your head when you hear “newspapers” would be current events. But that’s not all there is to it—you can also read about travel, sports and culture. 

• It’s readily available online. You can access it anytime, anywhere! You don’t need to be near a Chinese community to get a copy of the papers. Some online Chinese newspapers even have an English translation, and you can read them on apps too. 

 

So I’ve already provided you with the essentials to get started in reading Chinese newspapers. All you need now is to remember the tips, forget your fears and read on.

Aside from Chinese news articles, you can also try listening to current event podcasts or Chinese news videos to practice your listening.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)