About LearnChinese

The Person Behind This Site

LearnChinese (bulabula.fun) is built and maintained by Xu Liang, a language enthusiast based in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. Chengdu is a city of over 16 million people in southwestern China, famous for its spicy food, tea culture, and giant pandas. It's also home to dozens of universities and a growing community of Chinese language learners from around the world.

Xu Liang started this project in 2025 after noticing that most free Chinese learning websites either had paywalls blocking basic vocabulary, were filled with AI-generated filler content, or were so poorly organized that learners couldn't find what they needed. The goal was simple: build one clean, fast, genuinely free site with everything an independent Chinese learner needs — vocabulary lists, flashcards, quizzes, and character writing practice — in one place, with no registration required.

What You Can Do Here

• Browse HSK 1–6 vocabulary lists with pinyin, English translations, example sentences, and audio pronunciation for every word. Search, sort, and filter across all levels.
• Practice with interactive flashcards that use a simple known/unknown system. Flip cards to reveal meanings, mark words you know, and focus on the ones you don't.
• Test yourself with multiple-choice quizzes — character recognition, pinyin matching, and audio listening comprehension for each HSK level.
• Learn Chinese character writing with animated stroke order using hanzi-writer. See radical breakdowns, component analysis, and stroke counts for common characters.
• Read illustrated English language articles — 23 in-depth stories about linguistic quirks, from Shakespeare's invented words to why English spelling is so inconsistent. Each article is human-written, 1,000+ words, with custom SVG illustrations.

Content Quality & Sources

Every word on this site is written by a human, not generated by AI. The HSK vocabulary data is compiled from the official HSK word lists published by Hanban (Confucius Institute Headquarters / Center for Language Education and Cooperation). Pinyin romanization follows standard Hanyu Pinyin rules. Example sentences are written in-house to reflect natural, everyday Mandarin usage rather than textbook-style artificial sentences.

The 23 English language articles are researched from primary sources — academic linguistics papers, historical dictionaries, and original 19th-century newspaper archives — and written in a conversational, personal style. Each article includes a custom SVG illustration designed to reinforce the content visually.

How This Site Is Funded

LearnChinese is completely free to use and is supported by Google AdSense advertising. There are no paid subscriptions, no premium tiers, no hidden fees, and no plans to introduce them. The ads displayed on the site help cover hosting costs (Vercel) and the time spent maintaining and updating content.

Technical Details

This site is built with Next.js 16 (App Router) and deployed on Vercel. All pages are statically generated for fast load times. Character writing animations are powered by the open-source hanzi-writer library. The site uses Tailwind CSS for styling and supports both light and dark mode. No user data is collected, no cookies are set by the site itself, and no user accounts exist.