Chinese Paradise is a series of children’s elementary Chinese textbooks targeted at primary school students in other countries; it is a key textbook project of Hanban. Its first English edition was published in 2005, followed by a succession of 45 language editions of the Level 1 books. At present, the series has been sold to more than 50 countries and areas in the world, been widely used in primary and middle schools overseas and become the most popular overseas children’s Chinese textbooks.
Since 2013 Beijing Language and Culture University Press has begun to revise the published books and compile the follow-ups. The second edition of the whole series has altogether six levels, suitable for students of Grades 1-6 in primary schools outside of China and in international schools in China. Each level comprises one textbook (with a CD), one workbook (with a CD), one set of word cards (for all language editions), one teacher’s book (for all language editions), one corresponding reader, one set of tests, and four multimedia CD-ROMs.
This is Workbook 1 of the second English edition matching Textbook 1, including six units, 12 lessons. Each lesson provides 6-8 exercises, falling into four sections—Chinese Pinyin, Chinese characters, words and conversations, which are supported by dynamic and innovative illustrations and designs and take lively and interesting forms, such as placing stickers, coloring, drawing lines, and solving mazes, etc. There are in addition topic-relevant handicraft activities. At the end of the book are pages of stickers.