The Country of the Blind: Mandarin Companion Graded Readers: Level 1, Simplified Chinese Edition

Mandarin Companion: New graded readers for a new generation of Chinese learners. Now you can read books in Chinese that are fun and accelerate your language learning. Every book is carefully written to use only characters, words, and grammar that you, a learner, are more likely to know. The Mandarin Companion leveling system has been painstakingly developed through in-depth analysis of textbooks, education programs, and natural Chinese language. Every story is written in a style that is easy for you to understand and enjoyable to read.

Level 1 is intended for Chinese learners who have obtained an elementary level of Chinese. Most students will be able to approach this book after one to two years of formal study. This story is written using approximately 300 characters and contains approximately 400 elementary words.

"In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king" repeats in Chen Fangyuan's mind after he finds himself trapped in a valley holding a community of people for whom a disease has long since eliminated the sense of sight. Chen Fangyuan quickly discovers these people have developed their other senses to compensate for the lack of sight and indeed no longer even understand what it means "to see." His insistence that he can see only causes the entire community to believe he is crazy. With no way out, Chen Fangyuan begins to accept his fate until one day the village doctors believe they now understand the cause of his insanity: those useless round objects in his eye sockets.