# Fluentide True Crime · Mandarin for Beginners

A podcast by Fluentide. In 1935, a young woman named Shi Jianqiao walked into a Buddhist prayer hall in Tianjin, drew a pistol, and fired three shots at the warlord who had killed her father a decade earlier. She turned herself in, dropped pamphlets explaining her motive — filial piety — and became the most famous court case in Republican China. Pardoned by Chiang Kai-shek. A national folk heroine. Now that case is a 25-episode Mandarin podcast you can actually follow from your very first lesson. Every episode is HSK 1 — every word, every grammar pattern held to the absolute-beginner threshold. No textbook dialogues. No "Li Ming goes to the park." A real Chinese historical case, retold so a learner can understand. Listen in order: Episode 1 begins at the temple door. Episode 25 closes forty-three years later. Each episode comes with a free interactive transcript at fluentide.com — tap any Chinese character for instant pinyin and English definition, see vocabulary with example sentences, and read the full English translation side-by-side. Based on Krashen's comprehensible input theory (i+1). New episode every other day, in narrative order. This podcast uses AI text-to-speech to deliver clear,…

Feed: https://fluentide.com/api/feed/true-crime

## Latest episodes

- [Ep 17 · Inside the Hall](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1896477030/26b62e5d79f3) (2026-05-01, 7 min): audio https://audio.fluentide.com/audio/podcast/ep17-inside-the-hall.af00ee43.mp3
- [Ep 16 · This Morning](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1896477030/ad29f86c1363) (2026-05-01, 8 min): audio https://audio.fluentide.com/audio/podcast/ep16-this-morning.af00ee43.mp3
- [Ep 15 · The Month of Watching](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1896477030/da388390ed20) (2026-05-01, 8 min): audio https://audio.fluentide.com/audio/podcast/ep15-the-month-of-watching.af00ee43.mp3
- [Ep 13 · The Room on the Lane](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1896477030/e7ba9416c6d1) (2026-05-01, 9 min): audio https://audio.fluentide.com/audio/podcast/ep13-the-room-on-the-lane.af00ee43.mp3
- [Ep 12 · The Man's Other Name](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1896477030/a09e2cf74bb0) (2026-05-01, 7 min): audio https://audio.fluentide.com/audio/podcast/ep12-the-mans-other-name.af00ee43.mp3
- [Ep 11 · The Second Notebook](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1896477030/bcaac3df8ea5) (2026-05-01, 8 min): audio https://audio.fluentide.com/audio/podcast/ep11-the-second-notebook.af00ee43.mp3
- [Ep 14 · The Prayer Hall](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1896477030/50242e53080f) (2026-05-01, 8 min): audio https://audio.fluentide.com/audio/podcast/ep14-the-prayer-hall.af00ee43.mp3
- [Ep 10 · Leaving Home](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1896477030/65d1c9d0cfd5) (2026-04-30, 9 min): audio https://audio.fluentide.com/audio/podcast/ep10-leaving-home.af00ee43.mp3
- [Ep 09 · Learning to Shoot](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1896477030/3042d9d3eb70) (2026-04-30, 9 min): audio https://audio.fluentide.com/audio/podcast/ep09-learning-to-shoot.af00ee43.mp3
- [Ep 08 · A New Name](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1896477030/2949dbb61c84) (2026-04-30, 9 min): audio https://audio.fluentide.com/audio/podcast/ep08-a-new-name.af00ee43.mp3
- [Ep 07 · The News Came Home](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1896477030/79c03cc9ddf6) (2026-04-30, 8 min): audio https://audio.fluentide.com/audio/podcast/ep07-the-news-came-home.af00ee43.mp3
- [Ep 06 · What Sun Did](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1896477030/5b1170c3892f) (2026-04-30, 8 min): audio https://audio.fluentide.com/audio/podcast/ep06-what-sun-did.af00ee43.mp3
- [Ep 05 · The Campaign of 1925](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1896477030/bdd0891aba5d) (2026-04-28, 7 min): audio https://audio.fluentide.com/audio/podcast/ep05-the-campaign-of-1925.af00ee43.mp3
- [Ep 04 · Soldiers and Telegrams](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1896477030/121639e26f48) (2026-04-28, 8 min): audio https://audio.fluentide.com/audio/podcast/ep04-soldiers-and-telegrams.af00ee43.mp3
- [Ep 03 · Her Father's Study](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1896477030/714cca7122c6) (2026-04-28, 5 min): audio https://audio.fluentide.com/audio/podcast/ep03-her-fathers-study.af00ee43.mp3
- [Ep 02 · Before She Was Jianqiao](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1896477030/e4cba0c5a31c) (2026-04-28, 6 min): audio https://audio.fluentide.com/audio/podcast/ep02-before-she-was-jianqiao.af00ee43.mp3
- [Ep 01 · The Temple Door](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1896477030/807a71b42520) (2026-04-28, 7 min): audio https://audio.fluentide.com/audio/podcast/ep01-the-temple-door.af00ee43.mp3

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.