If you're at HSK 4 and above, you've probably hit the same wall that most advanced learners do: the beginner resources feel too easy, authentic Chinese news feels overwhelming, and you're not quite sure where to find the kind of reading that actually keeps you improving.
Two options that come up repeatedly in this conversation are The Chairman's Bao and the Mandarin Zest Substack. Both offer Chinese reading content for learners beyond the beginner stage. But they're built around fundamentally different philosophies — and once you understand the difference, the choice becomes obvious.
What Is The Chairman's Bao?
The Chairman's Bao (TCB) is an online graded reader that uses news stories to teach Chinese, available on web, iOS, and Android. New articles covering current events in China and abroad are published daily, and difficulty levels range from HSK 1 to HSK 6+. Additional features include audio recordings, a pop-up dictionary, grammar notes, and flashcards.
It's a proper learning platform — each article includes vocabulary lists and explanations on grammar in accordance with the targeted HSK level, making it a genuinely comprehensive tool for structured reading practice. In 2025, TCB has introduced AI-powered recommendations, expanded grammar notes, and offline access for mobile users.
The lessons are written by native Chinese speakers and cover a wide range of topics in accordance with the latest HSK word listings. TCB can be used across multiple fully synchronized platforms and contains up to six daily articles and around 1,600 news-based lessons per year.
For what it offers, it's genuinely impressive. A subscription costs $11/month or $88/year — a reasonable price for a platform with this depth of content and tooling.
What Is the Mandarin Zest Substack?
The Mandarin Zest Substack is a newsletter for advanced Mandarin learners. It lands directly in your inbox — no app to open, no platform to log into, no library to browse. You subscribe, and Chinese reading comes to you.
But the format difference is only half the story. The bigger difference is who's writing it and why.
Mandarin Zest is run by learners, not teachers. The people behind the newsletter aren't Chinese linguists selecting articles because they're pedagogically appropriate. They're non-native speakers who fell deep into the language and got genuinely obsessed with China — its history, its culture, its peculiarities, its contradictions. The articles they write about are the ones that stopped them mid-read and made them think: I had absolutely no idea about this.
Stories that Chinese people might not have realised were interesting to outsiders. Stories that don't show up in mainstream Western coverage. The kind of thing you'd forward to a friend with "you have to read this."
The Chinese level is advanced — but the reading experience is closer to following a really good newsletter you happen to love than doing structured language practice.
The Core Difference: Active vs Passive Reading
This is the real distinction between the two, and it matters more than any feature comparison.
The Chairman's Bao is a tool you use. You open the platform, browse the article library, choose a difficulty level, select a topic, start reading — and the learning infrastructure (dictionary, grammar notes, audio, flashcards) is right there with you. It rewards active engagement. The more intentionally you use it, the more you get out of it.
This is genuinely excellent if you have the time, motivation, and mental energy to show up and do the work consistently. Many learners do, and for them TCB is hard to beat.
The Mandarin Zest Substack works even when you don't. The content arrives. There's nothing to choose, nothing to log into, nothing to browse. You open your email — which you were going to do anyway — and there's your Chinese reading, already selected, already interesting, waiting for you.
For a specific type of advanced learner — one who wants to keep reading consistently but finds that the "what should I read today?" decision is often the thing that kills the habit — this is transformative. The friction of choosing disappears entirely.
If you've ever opened a reading app, stared at a library of options, spent five minutes deciding, and then just... closed the app — the newsletter format solves exactly that problem.
A Genuine Comparison
| The Chairman's Bao | Mandarin Zest Substack | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Platform/app | Email newsletter |
| Price | From $11/month | Free |
| Content type | Graded news articles | Curated stories and cultural essays |
| Level range | HSK 1–6+ | Advanced (HSK 4+) |
| Learning tools | Dictionary, audio, grammar notes, flashcards | Reading only |
| Content frequency | Up to 6 articles daily | Weekly |
| Content selection | You choose from a library | Sent to you — no choosing |
| Written by | Native Chinese speakers | Non-native learners / enthusiasts |
| Perspective | Journalistic / educational | Curious outsider |
Who Should Use The Chairman's Bao?
TCB is the right tool if:
- You want structured, HSK-aligned reading practice with grammar and vocabulary support built in
- You're actively preparing for an HSK exam and want reading content mapped to exam-level vocabulary
- You like having audio and dictionary tools alongside your reading — especially useful if you're still consolidating vocabulary
- You read consistently enough to get value from a large, frequently updated library
- You want news-based content that keeps you current on events in China and globally
If this describes you, The Chairman's Bao is an exceptional resource. It's one of the most well-built Chinese learning platforms available and genuinely worth the subscription for committed learners.
Who Should Use the Mandarin Zest Substack?
The Substack is the right fit if:
- You're at HSK 4 or above and your goal is reading fluency and enjoyment, not structured exam prep
- You want Chinese reading in your life but find that choosing what to read is often the obstacle that stops you from doing it at all
- You're interested in China through the eyes of a curious outsider — culture, history, society, and the surprising things that non-Chinese find fascinating about the country
- You want your reading material to feel like something you'd read for pleasure, not homework
- You're free-tier budget-conscious — the newsletter is free
The Substack won't replace a learning tool if you genuinely need one. It has no dictionary, no audio, no grammar notes. It's reading — pure and simple — delivered to your inbox by people who find this stuff genuinely captivating and want to share it.
Can You Use Both?
Absolutely — and for many advanced learners, this is actually the ideal setup.
Use The Chairman's Bao for deliberate, structured practice sessions when you have time and focus. Subscribe to the Mandarin Zest Substack for consistent, low-friction exposure that keeps Chinese present in your life even on busy weeks when structured practice doesn't happen.
They don't compete. They fill different moments in your learning life.
A Note on Perspective
One thing worth saying directly: the "learner perspective" of the Mandarin Zest Substack is not a compromise or a shortcut — it's genuinely a different kind of value.
When a Chinese linguist selects an article for learners, they're thinking about vocabulary levels, grammar structures, and pedagogical usefulness. When a non-Chinese learner who fell in love with the language selects an article, they're thinking: this blew my mind, and I think it'll blow yours too.
There's a particular pleasure in reading about China from someone who came to it as an outsider and found it endlessly surprising. The things that seem obvious to native Chinese readers — and therefore never get explained — often turn out to be the most interesting things for anyone who didn't grow up with them. That's the editorial sensibility behind the Mandarin Zest newsletter, and it produces a distinctly different reading experience than curated news coverage.
The Bottom Line
The Chairman's Bao is one of the best structured reading tools available for Chinese learners. If you want a platform with depth, daily content, and learning infrastructure built in, it earns its reputation.
The Mandarin Zest Substack is something different: a weekly reading habit that arrives without effort, written by people who love the language and find China endlessly fascinating. No choosing. No browsing. Just interesting Chinese in your inbox, from the perspective of someone who once didn't know any of this and couldn't believe what they were missing.
If you're the kind of advanced learner who genuinely wants to keep reading but keeps finding excuses not to — the newsletter is for you.
FAQ
Yes — the core newsletter is free to subscribe to. Subscribe at chinesemandarinzest.substack.com.
The newsletter is aimed at advanced learners — broadly HSK 4 and above. If you're at HSK 3 and a strong reader, you'll get something from it, but you'll likely find the vocabulary challenging without support tools.
Yes — each article includes vocabulary lists and explanations on grammar in accordance with the targeted HSK level, making it an easy resource to learn on your own.
Not in the news sense. It's more focused on culture, history, society, and the fascinating corners of Chinese life that don't make it into mainstream coverage — the things a curious outsider would find genuinely surprising and worth sharing.
Weekly — one edition per week, directly to your inbox.
Yes — Substack archives all editions, so new subscribers can browse previous newsletters on the Substack website.
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