Games

Infinity Nikki 《无限暖暖》

Infinity Nikki 《无限暖暖》is a free open-world cosy exploration adventure game with dressing up that’s available on various platforms, including PC, mobile and PS5.

You accompany Nikki and her feline companion, Momo, as they travel across Miraland on a journey to discover its mysteries and uncover the Miracle outfits. Along the way, you’ll discover hidden areas, solve puzzles, complete jumping tasks, play mini-games, find collectables and much more.

As Infinity Nikki 《无限暖暖》 is an extremely popular game, there is plenty of information and reviews online about this game, particularly on YouTube. Therefore, this post won’t focus on my review of the game but instead on what it’s like to play Infinity Nikki 《无限暖暖》in Chinese and my journey with it.

Guides Journey

2024 Round Up – New blog, Chinese journey and favourite media

2024 has been a crazy year for my Chinese journey and other aspects of my life. I started this blog, I finished reading 天官赐福 in Chinese, and I finally feel that I’ve reached a comfortable spot in my Chinese journey.

In this post, I’ll talk about my blogging journey, things I’ve learnt from it, where my Chinese is, and some of my favourite media of the year.

Not only is this post for me to recap in the future but also, I hope, as an inspiration for you. I know you all love reading journey posts, so here goes…

TV Dramas

《七夜雪》 Snowy Night Timeless Love – Slow burn historical romance

Snowy Night Timeless Love 《七夜雪》 is a slow-burn romance-focused historical drama with a snowy mountain backdrop and light martial arts elements.

Being a romance-focused drama, the main plot is extremely slow, and honestly, there’s not much of it. However, surprisingly, I enjoyed Snowy Night Timeless Love 《七夜雪》!

It’s not a show I’ll recommend to everyone, but it could be a great choice when you’re in the mood for something slow but with many beautiful aesthetic scenes.

Guides

Learn Chinese to read danmei webnovels for under $100

Reading danmei in Chinese is the more cost-effective than reading the official translated versions, but the benefits go beyond the cost. It enables you to access content you otherwise couldn’t have and opens doors to new communities and fandoms.

You may think learning Chinese, especially to a high proficiency level to read danmei webnovels, will require taking an expensive course or studying for a few years in a Chinese-speaking country. This may have been true many years ago, but not in 2024.

TV Dramas

《与凤行》 The Legend of Shen Li – Slow burn historical fantasy Chinese drama

The actress Zhao Li Ying, who portrays the main female lead, attracted me to pick up 《与凤行》 “The Legend of Shen Li”, and she didn’t disappoint. She carried the show, and her character became one of my favourite female leads in Chinese dramas.

I loved her character so much that I’ve bookmarked the original book to read later this year (hopefully!). I wasn’t satisfied with certain parts of the show, so I hope that’s the problem with the adaptation, not the original work.

Guides

Improve your reading skills as a Mandarin Chinese heritage speaker

“How do I learn to read as a Chinese heritage speaker?” is a common question asked by many people of Chinese heritage all over the world.

Learning a language was a difficult challenge before the easy access to media and the availability of learning tools. Technology and the internet have changed our world in unimaginable ways, and this is much easier than before, especially for heritage speakers.

I am a Cantonese heritage speaker who has been learning Mandarin Chinese for 4 years. I’m going to show you ways you, as a Mandarin heritage speaker, can quickly and easily learn to read!

Books

《天官赐福》 by 墨香铜臭 – I wished I never read the English translation

Four years of learning Chinese, I achieved this goal and finished the 2024 edition of 《天官赐福》at the end of July 2024. This edition was heavily revised from the original. While the overarching plots and side character backstories remained the same, many individual subplots were heavily altered.

Having read the new edition in Chinese, I slightly regret reading the English translation and wish it had been a different series that got me into learning Mandarin Chinese.

TV Dramas

《玫瑰的故事》 The Tale of Rose – A strong character development drama

《玫瑰的故事》 “The Tale of Rose” tells the life-changing journey of a young woman from her early 20s to her 40s as she experiences many difficult romantic relationships.

Modern-setting TV dramas rarely spark my interest. 《玫瑰的故事》 “The Tale of Rose” only caught my attention because of the main female lead. I really liked her in 《去有风的地方》 “Meet Yourself”, so when another slice-of-life modern setting show popped up with her as the female lead, I gave it a try.

Top Picks

A Mega List of Free Danmei Webnovels with Chinese Language Difficulty Rating

Reading free webnovels is a great way to enter the world of native content. These webnovels typically do not require an account to access, which takes away the daunting task of navigating a native website to set up an account.

In this post, I’ve listed a selection of free webnovels that I’ve read and enjoyed and categorised them across different difficulty brackets.