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Chinese songs to learn Mandarin (by level)

Maca Laoshi, Mandarin Chinese teacher
Updated October 20, 2026 · 8 min read

Red lanterns lit for the Lantern Festival at Yu Garden, Shanghai — Photo: Sam Erwin / Unsplash

Short answer

To learn Chinese with songs, choose slow ballads with clear diction: Teresa Teng's 月亮代表我的心, Michael Wong's 童话 or Wakin Chau's 朋友 are ideal to start with. Listen with the lyrics in characters and pinyin, sing out loud and write down new words. Leave Jay Chou, whose singing style is considered unclear, and very poetic lyrics for later.

Start with ours

We made them for Macalaoshi with learners in mind: the lyrics appear on screen in characters and pinyin, and “The Lighthouse of My Heart” has subtitles in 9 languages, including English.

The Lighthouse of My Heart 我心里灯塔

Study With You 跟你一起学, sung by Manu Shi

To start: slow and clear

Song	Artist and year	Why it helps
月亮代表我的心 The Moon Represents My Heart	Teresa Teng, 1977	Very slow, short lines that repeat and crystal-clear diction. Basic vocabulary: 月亮, 心, 爱.
甜蜜蜜 Sweet as Honey	Teresa Teng, 1979	Repetitive, with everyday words (笑, 梦). Look for the Mandarin version: there's also one in Cantonese.
童话 Fairy Tale	Michael Wong, 2005	Slow and clean. Common words like 故事, 相信 and 幸福.
朋友 Friends	Wakin Chau, 1997	Short, parallel lines and a voice that's easy to understand. Great for 一辈子 (all your life) and other useful expressions.
告白气球 The Confession Balloon	Jay Chou, 2016	A simple, romantic song, one of the singer's simplest. Listen with the lyrics, because of his singing style.

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Intermediate level

Song	Artist and year	Why it helps
后来 Afterwards	René Liu, 2000	A slow ballad that tells a story in the past. Vocabulary like 终于, 明白 and 错过.
那些年 Those Years	Hu Xia, 2011	A clean voice and a relatable theme: memories of school.
演员 Actor	Joker Xue, 2015	Slow and very well articulated, with a chorus that repeats.
小幸运 A Little Luck	Hebe Tien, 2015	Clear diction and a melody that's easy to follow. It's the theme song of the Taiwanese film 我的少女时代 (Our Times, 2015).
平凡之路 An Ordinary Road	Pu Shu, 2014	Almost spoken and very repetitive. It won the Golden Horse Award for Best Original Film Song. Some lines are abstract.
稻香 The Scent of Rice Fields	Jay Chou, 2008	Upbeat, with everyday vocabulary. It has rapped parts: better with the lyrics in front of you.

For later

Literary lyrics: Faye Wong's 匆匆那年 (2014) is slow and beautiful, but its lyrics are poetic and her voice is very soft. Save it for when you have a solid foundation.
Very fast or rapped songs: they're fun, but not for studying at first.
Songs in Cantonese: many Hong Kong hits are in Cantonese, which is pronounced very differently. Make sure the version is in Mandarin.

How to study with a song

Listen to the whole song without reading anything, just to enjoy it.
Go through the lyrics in characters and pinyin and look up the words you don't know. Write down five or six, not all of them.
Listen again while following the lyrics, line by line.
Sing it out loud, slowly at first. Repeating whole lines makes vocabulary stick much better than a list.
Listen again without the lyrics a few days later, to see how much you understand.

Watch out for tones: when you sing in Mandarin, the melody overrides the tones of the words. Songs help with vocabulary and syllable pronunciation; tones are practiced by speaking. We explain it in the 4 Mandarin tones.

If you like learning from what you watch and listen to, continue with how to learn Chinese with TV shows and our recommended podcasts and channels.

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Frequently asked questions

Can you learn Chinese with songs?

They help a lot with vocabulary, syllable pronunciation and listening comprehension, and they keep you motivated. They're not enough on their own: combine them with character study and conversation practice.

What's the easiest Chinese song to start with?

月亮代表我的心 (The Moon Represents My Heart), in Teresa Teng's version: it's slow, repeats the same lines a lot and the diction is very clear.

Do songs help you learn the tones?

Not much. When you sing in Mandarin, the melody overrides the tones of the words. Use songs for vocabulary and syllable pronunciation, and practice tones by speaking.

Why isn't Jay Chou recommended for beginners?

He's one of the most famous singers in Chinese, but his singing style is often described as unclear, almost mumbled. It's better to listen to him once you have a foundation, and always with the lyrics in front of you.

Where can I find the lyrics with pinyin?

Many official videos show the lyrics in characters only. To add the pinyin, copy the lyrics and paste them into the MDBG online dictionary, under "Look up All Chinese Words in a Text", with the option that shows the pinyin next to each word. Another option is the clipboard reader in the Pleco app, which is free: tap any word to see its pinyin and meaning. In our two songs, the lyrics appear on screen in characters and pinyin.

Maca Laoshi, born in Beijing, has taught Mandarin Chinese for more than 22 years and has had over 1,500 students. Together with her son Manu Shi, who has more than 93,000 subscribers on YouTube, she created Macalaoshi, an app that challenges you to push yourself one character at a time. Few Chinese teachers can show both: their own app and a channel like that.

Sources

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