Chinese
English
A Finger Test (Finger Play)
Chinese New Year (Nursery Rhyme)
Count Ducks MP3
Cowboy 
MP3 Midi
MP3 Midi 
Drop the Napkin (Circle Game) MP3
Eight Hundred Spearmen (Tongue Twister) MP3
Ha ha ha MP3 Midi
MP3 Midi Itsy Bitsy Spider (Finger Play)
Kitten Wets the Bed (Children's Tale)
Little Fat Boy (Nursery Rhyme)
Little Sister Carries Her Doll (Nursery Rhyme) 
Little Star MP3
New Year is Coming (Nursery Rhyme)
Our Baby (Nursery Rhyme)
Pan and Bottle (Nursery Rhyme)
Red Dragonflies (Nursery Rhyme)
Seek a Pal MP3 Midi
MP3 Midi Sweeter Than Sugar (Nursery Rhyme)
Ten Fingers (Finger Play)
The Barbershop Midi
Midi The Butterfly (Nursery Rhyme)
The Little Golden Sister (Nursery Rhyme)
The Small-footed Girl (Nursery Rhyme)
KEY TO SYMBOLS
- - this song has sheet music
- Midi - this song has a Midi tune
- MP3 - this song has an MP3 recording
- - this song has a Video recording
Here are some of Mama Lisa's recent posts about the music, culture and traditions of China:
Open Culture has a page of free language learning links covering 40 languages. Here are some of the languages you can find links for… Arabic, English, Chinese, French, Spanish, Bulgarian, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish, Gaelic, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Maori, Norwegian, Portuguese, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Swahili,... Read more »- Virginia emailed me looking for help with a song about a lonesome China boy or girl. She wrote…. I have been trying to find a song my Aunt used to sing called Lonesome China Girl… Lonesome China boy on a street in old Shanghai Feeling kinda blue, what were they to do , Oh Gee, Oh Me... Read more »
Emperor Cuckoo is a new site about human interest stories in China. Articles from mainland Chinese-language newspapers are posted on this blog in Chinese with English translations. You can read stories about ordinary Chinese people who speak about their traditions, values, interests and beliefs. The latest post The Storyteller is about a 92 year old lady... Read more »- Monique asked if someone could help with the correct pinyin and translation of the Chinese kids song below: 理发师 = Li Fa Shi 理发店的老爷爷呀咔嚓咔嚓 手里拿着一把剪刀咔嚓咔嚓 哎 就快成功啦 快快喷雾沙沙沙沙沙 下面一位请你过来咔嚓咔嚓 镜子里面看一看呀咔嚓咔嚓 哎 就快成功啦 快快喷雾沙沙沙沙沙 Here’s the Pinyin Monique emailed me: lǐ fà shī lǐ fā diàn dì / dí / de lǎoyé yé... Read more »
- We received an email asking for help with a translation to the rhyme from Taiwan below. After the original rhyme you can see what I’ve come up with so far for a translation. 一鼠贼子名， 二牛驶犁兄。 三虎山崎岖， 四兔游东京。 五龙皇帝命， 六蛇受人惊。 七马跑兵营， 八羊吃草岭。 九猴爬树头， 十鸡啼三声。 十一狗吠客兄， 十二猪菜刀命。 English Translation: A rat named thief Two ox drive a plow. Three tigers on rugged hill, Four rabbits visit Tokyo. Five Dragon Emperor, Who was surprised by six... Read more »
Monique, who’s from France, went to a wedding party in China when she visited friends there last year. Here’s what she wrote about the party and about weddings in China in general… Marriage formalities consist of filling out some forms and bringing them to some office, then you go back to get them back some days... Read more »- A Child’s Garden of Poetry is a show running on HBO for a couple of more days. So if you have HBO ? go see it while it’s still on! It’s a half hour program geared towards kids… but adults will enjoy it too. In the show, kids talk about poetry and read a few... Read more »
The Idiom: The Frog in the Well – ???? (j?ng d? zh? w?) – is a Chinese idiom that refers to a narrow-minded person who doesn’t see the larger world around them. The Story: The story is about a frog who lives happily in a well. He has no idea what’s outside of that well. ... Read more »- We received the song below from a Chinese friend. He was unsure of how to translate it into English. 我在马路边捡到一分钱 (一分钱) 我在马路边捡到一分钱， 交给人民警察叔叔手里边。. 叔叔拿着钱， 对我把头点， 我高兴地说了声： “叔叔，再见。 Here’s the English translation we have: I’m in the street, I find a penny I take the penny to the police. The policeman takes the... Read more »
Yesterday, I helped at a Chinese New Year event at my daughter’s school. Red is a lucky color in China. Nane, the mother who ran it, had all of the helping Mom’s wear red. The tables were all decorated with red tablecloths. Oranges were placed around the room for decorations – like centerpieces on the... Read more »
RELATED LINKS
Emperor Cuckoo – Human Interest Stories in China
(In Chinese and English)
Human interest stories from mainland Chinese-language newspapers are posted on this blog in Chinese with English translations. You can read stories about ordinary Chinese people who speak about their traditions, values, interests and beliefs.
Sing and Learn Chinese
(In English and Chinese)
Lyrics to Chinese Songs with English Translations
Chinese-Tools
(In English and Chinese)
Tools for learning Chinese: Phonetics, Dictionary, Lessons, etc.
The Mama Lisa's World Taiwan Page
(In English and Chinese)
Chinese Children's Songs
