I walk by several magazine and newspaper stands every day, but I never stop by. Although I would love to try reading some Chinese magazines – even if I may only understand the photos – I don’t know where to start.
A few Baidu searches and a trip to the neighborhood magazine stand later, I have found five popular magazines that are kid and teenager friendly. Yes, they are all in Chinese, but that makes it part of the adventure!
Name: 读者 (dúzhě)
English Name: Duzhe (literally means “Readers”)
Age Range: 15+
Topic: The most widely circulated magazine in China, Duzhe contains original articles, summaries of popular articles, jokes, book excerpts, and other short pieces. It is often regarded as the Chinese equivalent to “The New Yorker.”
Price: RMB 4
Name: 瑞丽服饰美容 (ruìlì fúshì měiróng)
English Name: Rayli Fashion and Beauty
Age Range: 16+
Topic: Rayli Fashion and Beauty has been one of the leading women’s fashion magazines in China for over 15 years. Rayli Magazine House is the most widely circulated “glossy” magazine.
In addition to their “Fashion and Beauty” issue, Rayli Magazine House has four other strong regular magazine issues:
1. Rayli Fashion and Beauty (瑞丽服饰美容): Fashion for women
2. Rayli Her Style (瑞丽伊人风尚): High-end fashion and lifestyle for “sophisticated girls and lovely women.”
3. Rayli Fashion Pioneer瑞丽时尚先锋): Fashion for women, but with a more “creative” twist.
4. Rayli Home Casaviva (瑞丽家居设计) Home decoration and style
5. LEON (男人风尚): Fashion for men
Price: RMB 20
Name: 菁kids (jīng kids)
English Name: JingKids
Age Range: 13+ (geared toward a parent audience)
Topic: Also part of True Run Media, JingKids is the beijingkids Chinese equivalent.
Price: Free
Name: 中国国家地理 (zhōngguó guójiā dìlǐ)
English Name: China National Geography (not to be confused with National Geographic Magazine’s Chinese version)
Age Range: 11+
Topic: Geography and culture of China
Price: RMB 20
Name: 三联生活周刊 (sānlián shēnghuó zhōukān)
English Name: Life Week
Age Range: 16+
Topic: Current affairs news and culture magazine, sometimes thought of as the Chinese equivalent of TIME.
Price: RMB 12
Fact sources include Wikipedia and Danwei.
Top photo by Jens Grabenstein (Flickr)
Duzhe image from zazhipu.com, Chinese National Geography from Wikipedia.
Leah Sprague is a high school senior and beijingkids’ intern for July. After living in Seattle for two years, Leah is super excited to be back in Beijing, where she lived from 2009-2012. When not at the office, Leah can be found biking or subway-ing around the city, soaking up everything before she leaves again in August.
2 Comments
Hello,
Thank you very much for sharing. I was wondering if you could lend some insight on how to have these delivered stateside. I have signed an account with 中国国家地理 but they only provide shipping to China. Short of having it mailed to a friend in China and then having them mail it to me, do you know of any other ways to acquire these magazines from outside of China? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Hi! I assume the best option would be to contact these magazines directly and ask if they have online versions or sell their publications on Amazon.cn, JD.com, or Taobao.com. If anyone else has any advice, please comment!