The Chinese Culture Pack
Get all of our existing AND future courses for learning Chinese history, literature, and culture
A value of nearly $4000 (and counting) for just $2497!
Get access to:
● All of our Classical Chinese courses (beginner through advanced)
● All of our Chinese history courses
● All of our Chinese literature courses
● All of our Chinese culture courses
● ALL of our future courses* on Chinese culture!
This is a comprehensive and all-inclusive course package focused on Chinese culture. You get everything we make for learning Chinese history, literature, and culture, including ALL future courses!
● Classical Chinese Courses: Our Intro, Intermediate, and Advanced Classical Chinese courses, plus any future classical Chinese courses!
● Chinese History courses: Including Early China: History, Culture, and Archeology, Middle Period Chinese History, Chinese Women's History, plus our forthcoming Late Imperial (Ming and Qing) History and 20th century history courses, and ALL other future Chinese history courses!
● Chinese Literature courses: Our Intro to Premodern Chinese Literature course, The Water Margin 水滸傳, our Intro to Tang Poetry, and all future Chinese literature courses!
● Chinese Culture courses: Philosophy and Practice in Early China, Chinese Cursive Crash Course, the Chinese News Bootcamp, History of Chinese Writing: An Intro to Paleography, plus our forthcoming Chinese Historical Phonology, Chinese Tea Culture, and all future Chinese culture courses!
The courses are all self-paced (though most are taught live when they're first released), and you get lifetime access, so you can go through them on your own schedule!
*Does not include any potential subscription services such as Reading Groups. Does not include premium packages with 1-on-1 coaching sessions, but does include the courses themselves along with live group Q&A sessions.
The Culture Courses + Future Roadmap
What other Chinese learners are saying:
Jim
USA
Susan
Taiwan (living in Australia)
Chris
USA (living in Finland)
Margreet
Netherlands (living in NZ)
Randy
USA (living in China)
Anand
India
Your Instructors
John Renfroe
Co-founder, Outlier Linguistics
Before co-founding Outlier, John studied Linguistics and Paleography in the Graduate Institute of Chinese at National Taiwan Normal University. He co-founded and later ran the Taipei Classical Chinese Reading Group, a weekly reading group consisting mostly of graduate Sinology students from western universities. He also taught classical Chinese to members of the group who had no previous instruction in the language. His coursework and research focused on excavated Warring States bamboo texts, historical Chinese character morphology, and the Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字 and its commentaries and criticism.
Ash Henson, PhD
Co-founder, Outlier Linguistics
To say that Ash is a language enthusiast is an understatement. He speaks Dutch, Mandarin, Cantonese and German, all in varying states of decay. In addition to these, he has learned to some level or another another 7 languages and is currently working on Japanese and European Portuguese. He sees language learning as a chance to experiment. The goal is to find a better way (either getting the same result in a way that takes less time, or getting a better result). And he’s been at it for 30 years! He got his PhD in Chinese at National Taiwan Normal University in paleography and historical linguistics. He was also in the PhD program for Teaching Chinese as a Second Language for six years. For his qualifying exams in that department, he had to learn functional grammar, cognitive grammar, case grammar, transformational grammar. So, we've definitely got you covered on the grammar front!
Christine Shen
Language Instructor
Christine is an experienced Chinese instructor with two master’s degrees in language teaching. Over her career, she has taught high-ranking managers in major companies, and she currently teaches diplomats, providing instruction from basic daily Chinese to advanced professional language. Her extensive background in language education and hands-on experience with diverse professional clientele allows her to offer tailored and practical lessons. She is passionate about helping students achieve fluency and confidence in Chinese, empowering them to excel in both personal and professional contexts.
Brendan O'Kane
After spending more than a decade as a translator in Beijing, Brendan returned to his hometown of Philadelphia for graduate study of Ming and Qing fiction. He has taught courses in literary translation and Chinese literature at Beijing Foreign Studies University and Bryn Mawr College. He was a co-host for Popup Chinese and a co-founder of Paper Republic, and his writing and translations have appeared in the LA Review of Books, Foreign Policy, Pathlight, and other publications.
Dr. Henry Lem
Henry began his journey in Chinese literature at Portland State University and would later continue studies in China and Taiwan, the latter where he earned his Master’s degree in Chinese literature. After spending a few years in Taiwan traveling, translating, writing, and teaching, Henry returned to the United States to earn his doctoral degree in Chinese language and literature at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). Combining research in late imperial Chinese fiction, hermeneutics, and Confucianism with interests in masculinity, martial arts, and teaching, Henry served as Assistant Professor at the Defense Language Institute (DLI) from 2020-2022, where he taught language, culture, and literature courses. His research has appeared in Frontiers of Literary Studies in China, Ming Qing Studies, and various academic journals in Taiwan.
Dr. Jennifer Bussio
Associate Professor, Brigham Young University
Jennifer J. Bussio holds a doctorate in East Asian Languages and Civilizations (Chinese) from Arizona State University with a focus on Chinese history and religion. Her research examines how Chinese religions, particularly Daoism, responded to the political and social turmoil caused by war and foreign conquest. Other research interests include ethnic identity and its construction, and non-Han peoples' experiences in China between the fourth and fourteenth centuries. Since 2018, she has taught history courses at a large, private university in the U.S.
Dr. Sam Goldstein
Sam Goldstein received his PhD in the Asian Religious Traditions track of the Religious Studies department of Brown University in February of 2023. He is currently a post-doctoral researcher at Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan. His dissertation focused on an unearthed manuscript called “The High Progenitor of Yin Questions the Three Venerables,” and his work generally relates to the topics of unearthed Warring States-period manuscripts, early Chinese Daoism, and early Chinese rhyme and phonology.
Andrew Methven
Andrew is the founder and author of the RealTime Mandarin newsletter a free weekly resource which helps over 12,000 China watchers and language learners keep up to date with the latest language trends in China.
A self-taught learner of Mandarin for more than 20 years, Andrew consumes huge amounts of Chinese language news every day. His Mandarin News Mastery course (a more advanced course than this one) is now in its second year, and has helped over 100 upper-intermediate and advanced Mandarin learners dramatically improve their Chinese news reading skills and reading speed.
Andrew began his Mandarin learning journey backpacking in China for a year in 2002. He then lived and studied in Taiwan for three years. He’s had an extensive career in China-related business as an executive in a China-focussed advisory firm in the UK. He holds a BSc in Planetary Science from UCL, and an MA in Chinese Translation and Linguistics from SOAS.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is this for?
This pack is ideal for anyone interested in Chinese history, literature, and philosophy—whether or not you have a background in Mandarin.
Most courses are taught in English and are fully accessible without prior Chinese knowledge. They’re designed for:
● intellectually curious learners
● lifelong learners
● professionals and academics
● Mandarin learners who want deeper cultural context
What level of Chinese do I need?
Most courses do not require any Chinese.
They are taught in English, and all readings are provided in English translation (with the original Chinese included for those who are interested).
The main exception is the Classical Chinese courses, where:
● the Intro course assumes familiarity with roughly 300 characters (regardless of which language)
● higher-level courses build from there
If you don’t know Chinese, you can still take the majority of courses without any issue.
Does this include Mandarin language courses?
No.
The Chinese Culture Pack does not include our Mandarin language training courses, such as:
● Get Speaking Mandarin levels 1-4
● Pronunciation and character courses
● 30-day challenges
● Our Learn Mandarin Through Movies series
If your main goal is to improve your Mandarin, the Mandarin Mastery Pack would be a better fit.
If you want language AND culture courses (current and future), the Mandarin Language and Chinese Culture Super Pack is for you!
How long will I have access?
You get lifetime access to all courses! You can go at your own pace-there's no time pressure!
In practical terms, "lifetime access" means you'll have access to these materials for as long as we're in business. And we already have over a decade in the books, so we're not going anywhere any time soon! However, if we do have to discontinue these courses for any reason in the future, we'll give you download access for at least 6 months after we stop selling them, so you can keep the materials for yourself.
What's the difference between this and the Super Pack?
In addition to our Chinese culture courses, the Super Pack also includes all of our Mandarin language courses—Get Speaking Mandarin 1-4, a series of fifteen 30-day challenges, and more. If you want all of the language courses, the Mandarin Mastery Pack is for you.
If you want both Mandarin language and Chinese culture courses, then the Mandarin Language and Chinese Culture Super Pack may be a better fit.
Does this include future courses?
Yes! The Chinese Culture Pack includes all of our current Chinese culture courses, plus all forthcoming culture courses.
It does not include courses for any modern languages, like Mandarin, Cantonese, or Japanese. It also doesn't include any 1-on-1 coaching programs or subscription services such as Reading Groups.
If you're only interested in the language courses and don't want the culture courses, check out the Mandarin Mastery Pack.
A value of nearly $4000 (and counting) for just $2497!
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Rated 4.8/5 by 1000's of Chinese learners
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