Energy words + 6 Substack newsletters on China to read
👋 Welcome to this week’s issue of the Giant Mandarin newsletter (the new name for the Chinese Is Hard newsletter). This week I cover words on the topic of energy. I also include six recommendations on other Substack newsletters on China to follow.
🎯 Words
能源 néngyuán - energy; resources; energy sources
电 diàn - electricity; electric 💡
发电 fādiàn - to generate electricity ⚡️
发电站 fādiànzhàn - power station
化石能源 huàshí néngyuán - fossil energy; fossil fuels
化石燃料 huàshí ránliào - fossil fuels
油 yóu - oil
石油 shíyóu - petroleum; oil
汽油 qìyóu - gasoline; petrol; gas ⛽️
煤炭 méitàn - coal 🪨
天然气 tiānránqì - natural gas
可再生能源 kězàishēng néngyuán - renewable energy; renewable resources
太阳 tàiyáng - sun ☀️
太阳能 tàiyángnéng - solar energy
太阳能板 tàiyángnéng bǎn - solar panel
风 fēng - wind 💨
风能 fēngnéng - wind energy; wind power
风力 fēnglì - wind power
风力发电 - wind power generation
水力 shuǐlì - hydro power 💧
水力发电 shuǐlì fādiàn - hydroelectric power generation
核能 hénéng - nuclear energy ☢️
💭 Thoughts
📚 Six Substack newsletters on China to read
1. Lillian Li’s Chinese Characteristics
📖 Substack page: Chinese Characteristics
🎯 One-line description: “Chinese tech longform analysis”
👇 Described in the author’s own words:
The Chinese tech ecosystem has become a mirror world to the West tech world, innovating in divergent and parallel ways to their counterparts. English information on the state of Chinese tech is limited and refracted through narratives that do not deliver reality. This newsletter wants better for its readers.
2. Andrew Methven’s Slow Chinese
📖 Substack page: Slow Chinese
🎯 One-line description: “A resource to help you learn, use, and understand Chinese language the way people speak it today”
👇 Described in the author’s own words:
There are two ways you can enjoy the content depending on your language learning needs:
Free subscribers. As a free subscriber you receive a ‘words of the week’ email every Saturday morning with around 20 words, phrases and slang picked out from the news and social media chatter that week. It includes example sentences for each word, as well as background and context. You can catch up with 12-months of content in the Substack archive here.
Members of the community. As a member of the Slow Chinese 每周漫闻 community, you want to use the content as a resource to help take your Chinese language skills to the next level. Members get access to the audio newsletter, and an ever-growing library of dictionary downloads and an amazing vocabulary database with over 1,300 words and phrases updated every week!
3. Jeff Ding’s ChinAI Newsletter
📖 Substack page: ChinAI Newsletter
🎯 One-line description: “Jeff Ding's weekly translations of writings from Chinese thinkers on China's AI landscape”
👇 Described in the author’s own words:
Through translating articles and documents from government departments, think tanks, traditional media, and newer forms of “self-media,” etc., ChinAI provides a unique look into the intersection between a country that is changing the world and a technology that is doing the same.
4. Jordan Schneider’s ChinaTalk
📖 Substack page: ChinaTalk
🎯 One-line description: “Weekly analysis of US-China policy and translations of Chinese-language sources on tech, politics and the broader economy”
👇 Described in the author’s own words:
I’m Jordan Schneider, host of ChinaTalk podcast, China tech analyst at The Rhodium Group, and an adjunct fellow at the American think tank CNAS. In this newsletter, I translate and analyze primary-language sources on US-China and China's tech ecosystem.
5. Krish Raghav, Tianyu Fang and other contributors’ Chaoyang Trap
📖 Substack page: Chaoyang Trap
🎯 One-line description: “A regular exploration of contemporary China, one important niche at a time”
👇 Described in the authors own words:
Chaoyang Trap is a newsletter about everyday life on the Chinese internet. It’s a regular, usually fortnightly, exploration of contemporary China, one important niche at a time. We’re interested in marginal subcultures, tiny obsessions, and unexpected connections.
We want to feel like the best group chat you’ve ever been in.
6. Bill Bishop’s Sinocism
📖 Substack page: Sinocism
🎯 One-line description: “Get smarter about China”
👇 Described in the author’s own words:
Expert insight delivered directly to your inbox four times a week;
Analysis, commentary, occasional original reporting and curated links of Chinese and English language news and reports;
Trusted by diplomats, policymakers, investors, executives, journalists & academics;
Access to an elite community of China watchers through regular online discussions and a Sinocism Discord server.
👀 Recommendations
Chronicles of a Bubble-Tea Addict (January 2021), Jiayang Fan, The New Yorker
Boba and I spent our adolescence as scrappy, enterprising immigrants at America’s periphery. For a new generation, it’s a ubiquitous, Instagram-friendly mark of Asian identity.
What did you think of this week’s newsletter? Please get in touch to let us know what you think. I’ll read every message.
Thanks for reading and see you next Thursday!
Giant Mandarin (@GiantMandarin) is written by David Wu (@davidwuio).