Best Shows on Netflix for Chinese Learners

Learn about the best Netflix shows

Lesson Transcript

Welcome to Fun &Easy Chinese by ChineseClass101.com!

Have you ever watched Chinese shows on Netflix?

嗨大家好，我是李殷如.

(Hài dà jiā hǎo, Wǒ shì Lǐ Yīnrú.)

Hi everyone, Yinru Li here.

Watching movies and shows in Mandarin is definitely one of the best ways to immerse yourself in a Chinese speaking environment and learn the authentic Chinese expressions.

If you’re outside China, Chinese TV shows are still available on streaming sites such as Netflix.

Here is my list of the best tv shows to learn Chinese with on Netflix.

Before we start, I’d like to remind you of the different dialects in Chinese.

If you type “Chinese shows” on Netflix, a large number of the TV shows will be Taiwanese shows, and the Mandarin spoken in these show often has a Taiwanese accent.

One main feature of the Taiwanese accent is that they tend to stress and drag the last syllable and use more auxiliary words at the end of the sentence, such as 啦(la), 嘛(ma), 喔(o).

For example, instead of saying just 好 (hǎo), which means “good” or “okay”, people in Taiwan are more likely to say 好喔 (hǎo o), 好啦 (hǎo la) or 好嘛 (hǎo ma). Therefore, the Taiwanese accent sounds more gentle and soft.

But overall it’s pretty much the same as the Mandarin spoken in mainland China.

When you’re ready to watch these shows in Chinese on Netflix, the very first step is to set the audio in Mandarin Chinese.

Putting the subtitles in English is definitely helpful, but keep in mind that the translation is not “word-for-word,” and may differ slightly.

If you’re confident, try to turn off the subtitles for listening practice.

Or, if you’d like to practice reading 汉字 (Hànzì) “Chinese characters”, switch the subtitles to simplified Chinese, if it’s an option.

I also recommend having a notebook with you, or a note-taking app on your phone available already, so you can take down words and phrases you found useful from the shows and try them out in real life.

This method is a very important part of learning languages from watching TV shows and movies.

The NO. 1 Chinese TV show on Netflix on my list is called “Day and Night”.

In Chinese, the name is 白夜追凶 (bái yè zhuī xiōng), which literally means “day night chasing criminals”.

It is rated as one of the top suspense shows in mainland China of all times.

This crime show is about a genius detective who has the weakness of fearing the dark and how he solves murder cases with his identical twin brother, who is a fugitive, by switching identities at night.

In the meantime, they are collecting evidence to prove that the fugitive brother is innocent.

The story will absolutely keep your attention and make you want to watch one episode after another.

Language-wise, many of the characters do speak with a Beijing accent, which involves a lot of 儿化音 (ér huà yīn), meaning adding the “er” sound after a lot of words.

For example, they say 小周 (Xiǎo Zhōu), the name of the detective’s assistant, as 小周儿 (Xiǎo Zhōu’r).

So 小周 (Xiǎo Zhōu) is the regular one, and 小周儿 (Xiǎo Zhōu’r) is the one with the 儿化音 (ér huà yīn).

And 快点 (kuài diǎn) means “hurry up”, with the 儿化音 (ér huà yīn), it's 快点儿 (kuài diǎn’r).

快点 (kuài diǎn), 快点儿 (kuài diǎn’r).

This is a very typical feature of Beijing dialect.

Unlike other dialects in China, almost everybody in China understands Beijing dialect without any problem because Mandarin, which is the standard dialect in China, is based on Beijing dialect.

If you’re going to spend time in Beijing, watching this show will get you familiar with the way people talk there.

Another action-thriller show on Netflix in Chinese Mandarin is called “Chosen”, which is a remake of the American show “Chosen” that came out in 2013.

杀无赦 (shā wú shè) is the Chinese name of the remake; it loosely translates to “Kill all”. 杀无赦 (shā wú shè).

The setting of this show is in Sydney, Australia, so one third of this show is in English.

The story starts with a surgeon receiving a gun and a picture of a stranger, along with the instructions to kill the stranger in the picture.

With occasional English lines in the show and a story that might be familiar to you, it may be easy for you to follow.

And the mandarin spoken in this show is very native and standard, except for the leading actor, who speaks Mandarin with a tiny bit of a Taiwanese accent.

If you’re into comedies, especially teen comedies, this one is for you.

The English title is the literal translation of the Chinese title: “Take my brother way”, 快把我哥带走 (kuài bǎ wǒ gē dài zǒu).

This comedy series is about the life of a high school girl and his brother.

I recommend this show for 2 reasons.

First, the Mandarin spoken in this show is standard and clear.

Second, this show is about the everyday life

of a high school girl and her brother. So you can find a lot of useful phrases for your

own purposes.

Next, 文字派对 (Wén zì pài duì), "Word Party".

Although this one is made for young children, there’s nothing wrong with watching and learning Chinese from it!

Originally, this show is in English. The audio and subtitles are available in Mandarin Chinese and a few other languages on Netflix.

The voice actors do have some Taiwanese accent, but it is still a great show to learn Chinese from, especially for those of you who have just started learning Chinese.

It is made for babies and toddlers to learn how to talk, so each episode introduces a group of vocabulary words such as vehicles, colors, senses and feelings.

It would also be great choice to introduce Chinese as a new language to your own little ones at home.