Famous Mandarin(Chinese)-speaking talk shows – 康熙來了&WTO姐妹會

Watching TV shows is a fantastic entertaining way to improve Mandarin reading and listening skills, and it is especially great for learning new vocabulary and experiencing the language in a very authentic way in addition to textbooks.

At the same time, it is very helpful to use Langauge Reactor to have pinyin for each Chinese characters and double subtitles(Mandarin and your native language).

Watching anything from network TV shows or YouTube mandarin-speaking videos can help improve your Chinese language skills. However, the most important thing is to choose something that you really enjoy watching, and it can be YT video or Netflix movies or series drama. This makes the learning experience more interesting and provides you with the motivation to remain consistent.

Hereby, I would provide the list of Mandarin-speaking TV shows that you can watch and meanwhile learn authentic Mandarin.

A.康熙來了 Kangsi Coming Kāngxī Lái Le

康熙來了 is a Taiwanese variety-comedy talk show hosted by Dee Hsu (徐熙娣 a.k.a. 小S) and Kevin Tsai (蔡康永). It was first broadcast on 5 January 2004 and ended in 2016, and there are in total 2,933 episodes. In most episodes, the hosts interview a panel of celebrities in various and controversial topics while employing their symbolic comedic bantering.

Although it is broadcast in Taiwan, the show is very successful and popular among Mandarin-speaking audiences across the world who watch uploaded re-runs over the Internet, Youtube, or through bootleg DVDs. The show has been mentioned in other Taiwanese variety and talk shows, mainly from presenters who appeared on the show. Since its debut in 2004, it has been one of the most successful talk shows in Taiwan and in Mandarin-speaking countries across Asia.

The guests in the show are quite diverse. It can be a politician, singers, actors, entertainers, or even ordinary people.

Guests from Politian

For politician guests, the most typical example is 馬英九(Ma Ying-Jeou, Mǎ yīng jiǔ), former mayor of Taipei and the formor president of Taiwan. Politician usually have stern public images and seems difficult to get along with, but politican appearing in 康熙來了 Kangsi Coming are quite friendly and hosts can even make jokes upon them.

Special topic — Before and after make-up

For the special topic, the comparison between the person before make-up and after make-up, this genre of topic also drew many audience’s attention. With the rapid development of smart phones and the launch of new photo editing software, people nowadays are more and more able to perform “magic face changing” with the help of technology and cosmetics. Therefore, girls nowadays can have an invincible photo that can even surpass female stars. The show invited ten girls whose photos are very different from themselves and to compare who has the beauty with the smallest difference between the photo and themselves?

Guests from entertainers

For the guests from entertainers, this episodes mainly talked about middle-aged men’s hesitation in the face of marriage. After all, when they reach 40 year-old, do women love their personality or money? They are talking about the middle-aged men’s panic and hesitation when faced with love, whether they hesitate because of their age or have confidence in themselves when they fell in love. Do many of their romantic tricks still work to attract girls in the field of love?

B. WTO姐妹會 WTO Sister Show

WTO姐妹會 has been in broadcast since March 2, 2009. In addition to inviting artists and experts as guests in each episode, the members of the show are all foreigners from all over the world who have been living in Taiwan for a long time. The name is based on the abbreviation of the World Trade Organization “WTO”. In the beginning, the members only consisted of female foreign spouses, so it was called “Sister Show”. The term “New Residents of Taiwan” is often used in the program, reflecting the diversity and openness of the new generation of ethnic groups in Taiwan.

Each episode has its own theme, mainly through interviews with guests, but sometimes there are special events such as out-of-studio recordings. Common themes include cultural differences around the world, culture shock, exotic customs, language learning experiences, marriage life, etc. Lastly, WTO 姐妹會 has its own official website!