ERYA CHINESE·THE BASICS OF CHINESE CULTURE (I) has a total of 15 lessons, each composed of sections such as learning goals and pre-lesson questions, text, new words, cultural notes, proper nouns, and exercises. The texts are about the most representative Chinese cultural topics, e.g., historical sites, food, literature, arts, folk customs, martial arts, and clothing, aiming to help students form a general idea of Chinese culture and have a feel of its long history and unique charm. Meanwhile, the texts were made as lively and appealing as possible, explaining profound knowledge in plain language and taking foreigners’ perspectives into account so as to motivate them to keep learning and spreading Chinese culture. The new words are provided with pinyin and Chinese paraphrases and include a selection of cultural terms uncommon in other courses. The cultural notes succinctly introduce the cultural contexts of words and notions in the text to help students better understand the text. The exercises come in diverse forms, such as blanking filling, matching, true or false, multiple-choice, discussion, and presentation, reinforcing students’ knowledge and encouraging them to express their own opinions.

Erya Chinese·The Basics of Chinese Culture (II), a cultural reader for intermediate students, can be used by international students at Chinese colleges or universities taking Chinese Language or International Education of Chinese Language majors in the second semester of their second year. It can also be used as a textbook for teachers to teach Chinese culture or as an extracurricular reader for students interested in Chinese culture in countries other than China..

1. In the teaching process, it is suggested that teachers make full use of multimedia technology to guide learners to fully understand the profound connotation of Chinese culture by means of specific language environments and various forms such as sound, image and text..

2. To develop students’ cross-cultural awareness and self-learning ability, teachers should explicitly ask students to consult relevant graphic materials and prepare an oral report titled “Let Me Talk Today” before the beginning of each lesson. They should also make a timetable for the class reports (usually 3 to 5 minutes for each student)based on the topics students chosen.“Let Me Talk Today” is designed after the first text of each lesson, to let students have enough time to prepare after class and make presentations and communication in classroom study.

3. Volume 2 can be used in a semester (or 16 weeks, 32 class hours). Each lesson takes 4 class hours, and on average, a text is completed using 2 class hours. Teachers can also arrange their teaching schedules with flexibility based on their teaching needs.

Li Chunyu, Doctor of Letters, is a professor and PhD tutor in the Chinese Language and Culture College of Beijing Normal University. Li received several teacher and talent awards in 2012 and 2013. During 2009 and 2010, Li went to West Point to be a visiting professor in the Department of Foreign Languages. Li’s research interests include “modern and contemporary Chinese literature and culture” and “cultural transmission of international Chinese teaching”. She has published more than 10 academic books, over 40 articles in different journals, and hosted several state- and city-level research projects.