China’s influence on the international stage has grown significantly over recent decades. Alongside the rapid development of its economy, the country has come to play a key role within the global configuration of politics and diplomacy. It has therefore become vital that students of Chinese acquire advanced language skills. This book familiarises students with the use of the formal register, allowing them to extend their proficiency to the advanced level in the skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. In this way, students may also increase their understanding of China’s cultural heritage, politics, and international relations.

The texts chosen are written in a variety of styles and employ various forms of Chinese discourse in order that students may achieve greater breadth and depth in their knowledge of grammar and syntax. Moreover, students will find that there is ample opportunity to develop the tools with which to express opinions appropriately, both orally and in writing. The selection of materials in the book has been based on the CEFR (Common European Framework for Reference) B2 and above, the Advanced level of ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages), and Grades 5 (HSK 5) and above of the newly-published version of the Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards for International Chinese Language Education. Full audio is available online.

Zhiyan Guo is Professor and Subject Leader of Chinese at the University of Warwick, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK, and previously elected as Chair of the British Chinese Language Teaching Society. Her research interests include intercultural communication, language acquisition, Chinese characters and reading, and technology in language teaching. She published the monograph Young Children as Intercultural Mediator: Mandarin-speaking Chinese Families in Britain (2014) and other publications (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5852-441).

Ruth Herd has been Coordinator of Mandarin Chinese at Imperial College London since 2002. She has degrees in Chinese (1991) and Japanese (1983), both from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and obtained her doctorate in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford (2001). In 2021, with Zhaoxia Pang she co-authored “Complete Mandarin”, a beginners’ course in the Teach Yourself series (CEFR A1 to touching B2).

Jing Fang has an MSc in Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh. She has over 30 years’ experience in teaching Chinese literature and language, as well as in teaching Chinese as a foreign language. She has been Lecturer in Chinese at the University of Oxford since 2000. She has contributed to textbooks such as When in China: A Guide to Chinese Business Culture (2015) and Social Perspective: An Intermediate-Advanced Chinese Course (Routledge 2022).