One my lab buddies linked me this Kickstarter Project yesterday: The Epic Adventures of Project Moonface

I’m a big fan of Kickstarter and have already pledged to other projects before (not related to Chinese), but this it the first time that I see something exciting like this within Chinese learning. The basic gist of this project is to create a fascinating story centered around Princess Moonface (Mei) that is coupled with different multimedia aids and websites and content. They aim the content for Tweens to Young Adults.

They are using quite a variance of talent to get this project going, but they need more capital to complete it. This is where Kickstarter comes in.

I’m going to pledge, because I like to support projects like this. They are 9 days away from hitting their target. I’m not sure if the product will be useful or even exciting as they claim. I’m also skeptical of their synchronous translation method. I’ve never been a fan of this kind of writing (mixing pinyin & English with characters and even Chinese-Ordered English) and being an academic, I’d like to read the research around this method. Can they back this up?

Also, I hope they make doubly sure that everything is correct. That’s probably why they need the funds, because I already spotted an error - the pinyin for 什么 is wrong:

All in all, it looks like good initiative and more people should do this, that’s why I’m supporting it. Why not visit their site for more info? If you are interested and like to see the final product, go ahead and pledge!