Characters / Integrated Chinese

Students

Wang Peng

Wang Peng

王朋

A student from Beijing.

• The Ace: Everyone seems to love Wang Peng and thinks he's great.
• Asian Drivers: Averted Trope. In lesson 10, Wang Peng claims to be a good driver. Admittedly, he said that in the context of bragging to Li You, but we have no reason to believe it's untrue.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: In the drawings, though not in the videos.
• Friend to All Children: He likes Tom, the little one-year-old, and Tom seems to like him too.
• Love Triangle: Li You and Bai Ying'ai both have a thing for Wang Peng. It starts out with both girls liking Wang Peng, and then it becomes clear that Wang Peng likes Li You, and is uninterested in Bai Ying'ai.
• Mighty Whitey and Mellow Yellow: Gender-Inverted Trope. Wang Peng is a Chinese guy from Beijing and his girlfriend Li You is a white girl from New York. While Li You isn't subservient, Wang Peng is The Ace, and ends up helping her a fair amount.

Li You

Li You

李友

A student from New York City.

• Big Applesauce: The main cast consists of one Chinese student, one Korean one, one American one, and one British one. Li You is the American one, and she's from New York. Enforced Trope, because it's more useful for students to know the Chinese names of large, famous cities than smaller ones. Also, small American towns are unlikely to even have a name in Chinese.
• Dub Name Change: Her English name is Amy Lee. This name change is a Truth in Television: Chinese and English are fundamentally different in their sound systems, writing systems, and naming conventions. Thus, virtually everyone learning Chinese gets a Chinese name.
• Florence Nightingale Effect: Inverted Trope. In Lesson 15 when Wang Peng when is sick, she tries takes care of him because she cares about him from before, even though he’s not very attractive when he’s sick.
• Love Triangle: Li You and Bai Ying'ai both have a thing for Wang Peng. It starts out with both girls liking Wang Peng, and then it becomes clear that Wang Peng likes Li You, and is uninterested in Bai Ying'ai.
• Mighty Whitey and Mellow Yellow: Gender-Inverted Trope. Li You is a white girl from New York, and her boyfriend Wang Peng is a Chinese guy from Beijing. While Li You isn't subservient, Wang Peng is The Ace, and ends up helping her a fair amount.
• Women Drivers: Implied Trope or Downplayed Trope. We have no direct evidence that Li You is a bad driver, but she dislikes driving and thinks other people drive too fast. Wang Peng, in contrast, is a good driver.

Bai Ying'ai

Bai Ying'ai

白英爱 / 白英愛

A student from Seoul.

• Dub Name Change: Bai Ying'ai is Korean, and her Korean name is Baek Yeung Ae (백영애). This name change is a Truth in Television. Korean names are usually based off hanja (Chinese characters as used in Korea) which in her case is 白英愛. Baek Yeung-ae is the Korean reading; Bái Yīng'ài is the Chinese one.
• Love Triangle: Li You and Bai Ying'ai both have a thing for Wang Peng. It starts out with both girls liking Wang Peng, and then it becomes clear that Wang Peng likes Li You, and is uninterested in Bai Ying'ai, making her the Romantic Runner-Up.

Gao Wenzhong

Gao Wenzhong

高文中

A student from Britain.

• Adaptation Dye-Job: He has blond hair in the drawings, but brown hair in the videos.
• Advertised Extra: He's one of the main four, but he barely appears in the first book. In the second book he appears more, as the Butt-Monkey.
• All Love Is Un Requited: His crush on Bai Ying'ai.
• Butt-Monkey: When he does appear, he takes this role. So maybe his status as a Advertised Extra is actually protecting him—not appearing much does at least lessen his humiliation.
• Dub Name Change: His English name is Winston Gore. The name change is a Truth in Television: Chinese and English are fundamentally different in their sound systems, writing systems, and naming conventions. Thus, virtually everyone learning Chinese gets a Chinese name.
• The Friend Nobody Likes
• Hollywood Pudgy: In Lesson 18
• The Slacker: He likes to sleep a lot.
• Stood Up: In Lesson 11, he and Bai Ying'ai had plans to go ice-skating, but then she went to New York and didn't bother to tell him.