Chinese Reading Practice for Beginners — Easy Texts with Pinyin

The hardest part of reading Chinese is starting — a page of unfamiliar characters is intimidating. The fix is to begin with short, repetitive passages and a reader that never lets you get stuck: tap any character for its pinyin and meaning, hear it read aloud, and save the words worth keeping.

Start with these chapters

Each one is short, concrete and gentle on beginners. Read a few verses, not the whole thing, on your first try.

1. 1John 1Simple, repetitive language — the classic first chapter.
2. 2Mark 1Short, fast-moving narrative sentences.
3. 3Genesis 1Famous story, lots of repetition (“and there was…”).
4. 4Psalm 23Six short verses you may already know by heart.
5. 5Ruth 1A gentle, human story in plain language.
6. 6Luke 2The Christmas account — concrete and familiar.

Want the theory behind this? How to learn Chinese by reading explains why it works so well.