Du Chinese review: is it worth it?

Du Chinese does one thing: it gives you short Chinese texts at your level, read aloud by a native speaker, with every word one tap away from its meaning. The name is the job description: 讀中文 (读中文) dú Zhōngwén, "read Chinese".

That narrow focus is its strength. Most learners can recite textbook dialogues long before they can read a paragraph without help.

How Du Chinese works

You pick a level and open a story or article. The text appears with optional Pinyin above the characters, and the audio highlights each word as it is spoken. Tap a word for its definition, tap a sentence for an English translation, and save anything you want to review as a flashcard.

The details are well thought out:

• Six levels, from Newbie to Master, with words marked by HSK level.
• Simplified or Traditional characters, switchable at any time.
• Pinyin controls. You can show it for every word, only for words above a chosen level, or not at all.
• Multi-chapter stories and courses as well as stand-alone lessons, so you can stay with one set of vocabulary for a while.
• Links to other tools. The app lists integrations with Pleco, Skritter and Hack Chinese.

It runs on iPhone, iPad, Android and in a browser.

What level is Du Chinese for?

It is most valuable from the moment you know a few hundred characters until you can read native material with a dictionary, roughly from late beginner to upper intermediate.

Complete beginners should not start here. The app assumes you know how Pinyin and tones work and does not teach grammar step by step. At the other end, the Master level is real reading, but if you already get through novels and news, you have outgrown graded readers, which is the whole point of them.

The method behind the app is graded reading as a form of comprehensible input: lots of text that you understand almost entirely, so the unknown words explain themselves.

Is Du Chinese worth it?

The app is free to download and some lessons are always free, which is enough to judge whether the format suits you. Most of the library, offline use and the audiobook mode need Premium.

Prices on the official pricing page in November 2026:

Plan	Price
1 month	US$14.99
6 months	US$79.99
12 months	US$119.99

Kungfucius's view: it is worth paying for if you read in it at least four or five times a week. At that rhythm, a year of Premium delivers far more reading than any textbook. If you open it once a fortnight, stay on the free lessons.

Is Du Chinese better than The Chairman's Bao?

They are different products with the same mechanics. Du Chinese is mostly stories, dialogues and cultural pieces. The Chairman's Bao is built around simplified news articles graded by HSK level, with new pieces appearing constantly.

Choose Du Chinese if you are below intermediate level or want narrative. Choose The Chairman's Bao if you want current affairs vocabulary and the formal written style that exams favour. Try the free material of each before paying for either.

Weaknesses

• It is input only. There is no speaking, no writing and no structured grammar course.
• The built-in flashcards are basic compared with Anki.
• The audio has one particular house style, which is the subject of the next section.

Kungfucius's additional thought

Du Chinese has a very strong northern China pronunciation. To Kungfucius's ear it also carries a bit of over-emphasis, the kind typical of a narration or theatre voice: every tone fully drawn, every retroflex sound curled with care. The company says its recordings are made by native voice actors with Standard Mandarin certification, and that is precisely what you hear.

One more thought on the app itself: it is very simple and clear. Kungfucius sees it as a more structured version of LingQ: the same idea of reading with instant lookups and saved words, but with ready-made, graded lessons instead of a library you have to organise yourself.

For most learners this is an advantage: clear, consistent and close to the standard of textbooks and the HSK. It remains a great working resource.

It is a less natural model if you want to cultivate a more southern Chinese or Taiwanese Mandarin voice. Speech in Taiwan is softer, uses far fewer "r" endings, and treats many neutral tones and retroflex sounds differently. Switching the app to Traditional characters changes the script, not the voice.

Kungfucius says: learn from a stage actor and you will order bubble tea like a man announcing the news.

Two alternatives with Taiwanese Mandarin audio, both active in 2026:

• Talk Taiwanese Mandarin with Abby. A podcast spoken entirely in Taiwanese Mandarin, with over 140 episodes on daily life and culture in Taiwan. It is aimed at intermediate and advanced learners, and transcripts are available to paying supporters. The host's website also offers graded readers.
• Literate Chinese. A newer and much smaller graded-reader app that, according to its App Store listing, offers Taiwan Mandarin audio, Traditional characters and Zhuyin. Treat it as a lead, not a tested recommendation.

More listening options are collected in the list of best podcasts to learn Chinese.

What to do next

1. Install the app, set your script and read three free lessons at the level where you understand about nine words in ten.
2. Turn Pinyin off for words below your level on day one.
3. Read one text a day for two weeks, once with the audio and once without, before deciding on Premium.
4. If Taiwan is your goal, pair the reading here with Taiwanese audio elsewhere, and copy the voice you want to end up with.