Mandarin and Beyond
Textbook Series 课本教材系列
“Awesome Mandarin” 《最酷中文》
An engaging, effective, and creative way
of teaching and learning Mandarin
Ideas for a Textbook: Cartoon Story Series
"Little Ban and Little Luo 小班和小罗"
"Little Ban and Little Luo 小班和小罗"
This Textbook was developed from Wei Kelly and Cris Hammond's cartoon story series Little Ban and Little Luo "小班和小罗“ （Xiaoban and Xiaoluo) and other individual cartoon stories.
The Stories have been used in classroom teaching for years as supplementary reading or guided practice activities. Some of the stories were adopted by ichinesereader.com where readers can access stories with audio and colored illustrations. However, it didn't become a part of textbook material or a serious curriculum for teaching and learning Mandarin until the creation of "Awesome Mandarin".
本教材改编自Wei Kelly和Cris Hammond的卡通故事系列《小班和小罗》。 这些故事多年来一直在课堂教学中用作补充阅读或指导练习活动。 其中一些故事被 ichinesereader.com 采用，读者可以在这个阅读平台上网带有故事录音和彩色插图的故事。 然而，直到《最酷中文》的编写，这套故事系列才成为教科书和正式的中文课程的一部分。
Wei Kelly
Wei Kelly was born and raised in Beijing, China; educated in Beijing, Berlin, and Frankfurt, Germany. She has been teaching Mandarin language and culture, as well as developing and creating curricula for over twenty years. Ms. Wei Kelly has been creating and utilizing her own, specifically developed Mandarin curriculum at a college preparatory school and for businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has presented and offered seminars to language teachers many times at ACTFL and CLTA language teacher professional conferences. She is currently living in the Washington DC area, establishing and leading the Chinese language and culture program at a college preparatory school.
Cris Hammond
Cris Hammond was a nationally known artist, cartoonist, and entrepreneur. His comic strip, Speed Walker, Private Eye, was seen daily in over 150 newspapers across the country. His paintings of ships and the sea have appeared in galleries in Sausalito, San Francisco, Tiburon, and Carmel, California. His film work has won Academy Awards for Special Effects in motion pictures including Star Trek IV, Innerspace, and The Abyss, among others. He illustrated educational material for over forty years. He was the author of two books, "From Here to Paris", and "Short Pours".
After a long cancer battle, Mr. Hammond passed away in 2023
Christine Hemiup
Christine Hemiup holds an MS degree in Computer Science from UC Berkeley. She has been teaching high school and middle school Computer Science, and designing CS AP curriculum in the San Francisco Bay Area since 2004. She speaks Mandarin, Cantonese, and Vietnamese. She is Mandarin and Beyond the chief web designer and supports all tech issues. She is currently living in the San Francisco Bay Area.