Author Description

Pinyin Stories: Hunan Restaurant is a new type of supplementary reading material for people who are learning Mandarin/Chinese as a foreign language. It contains three easy to read contemporary short stories by Susan Wang. The three stories are about Chinese foreign student life in America, in simplified Chinese (jianti). Pinyin annotation is added on top of all 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. The idea is to learn Chinese through interesting story lines and memorable personalities and characters, to make the laborious language study enticing and easier to go through. Hunan Restaurant: Ai Yun, a Chinese foreign student in America, had exhausted her tuition fund and couldn t continue with her study in college. She left for the big city New York, where there re more opportunities. She applied for admission at a much cheaper college and was resolved to make money during the summer vacation. She was hired as a waitress at Hunan Restaurant in New Jersey, living in a dorm with another waitress and several kitchen workers. The story vividly depicts her life in the dorm and the working conditions in restaurant, her interactions with the owner and host of the restaurant whose own American dream story was not less than fascinating. Little Room: Hui Chi is a single woman from China, working as a computer programmer. Ever since she left college campus, she s been living a boring, secluded life by herself as she was convinced she could never find someone to love or to be loved by in this foreign country. One day she was invited to a party at a friend s house. There she met Ai Er who was serving as the DJ for the party. Ai Er was quite a character and his unique talking caught Hui s attention. Ai Er invited Hui to visit him sometimes as he s single and seldom goes out as well. His idea was, secludes should visit each o