If you’re planning present ideas for the holidays, birthdays, or special occasions, here is my ultimate Chinese gift guide! Chinese gifts can help spark a child’s interest in the language and culture!
This Chinese gift guide is based on items we’ve enjoyed in our own home or have been highly recommended by friends with children of various ages.
Scroll down to see what toys, music, clothing, cultural items, and educational products would make the best Chinese gifts for your family!
Gifts for children that nurture learning
This post is part of our gift guide series:
- 5 Reasons Books are the Best Gift for Multilingual Kids
- Favorite Educational Montessori Inspired Toys from Etsy
- Ultimate Chinese Gift Guide for Kids Learning Chinese!
- 10 Best Toys For Children That Promote Creativity and Learning
Please remember that teaching Chinese requires parents, teachers, and caregivers to speak Chinese consistently. No amount of Chinese learning toys can replace fun, loving, and engaging human interaction!
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Contents of this comprehensive Chinese gift guide
- Educational Chinese gifts for kids and adults
- Chinese cultural items for the family
- Chinese cultural toys for kids
- Chinese music for kids
- Chinese books for kids
1. Educational Chinese Gifts for children and adults
(a) Luka Reading Robot
I believe that books are the best gift for children, and reading experts agree that audiobooks can significantly improve fluency and literacy.
Luka Reading Robot can read over 30,000 Chinese picture books to children and is at the top of my gift-giving recommendation list this year! My kids adore Luka and have been reading tons of Chinese books with him!
(b) Chinese gift for children and teachers: motivational stamps
These Chinese stamps come in simplified and traditional Chinese! They make a great gift for Chinese teachers and students learning the language!
The following phrases are included:
- 你真棒！(Nǐ zhēn bang! / You are awesome!)
- 赞 / 讚！ (Zàn! / Awesome!)
- 棒棒噠！(Bàng bàng da! / Amazing!)
- 你进步了 / 你進步了！(Nǐ jìnbù le! / Big Improvement!)
- 极了 / 好極了 (Hǎo jí le! / Excellent!)
- 太棒了！(Tài bàng le / Fantastic!)
- 太好了！(Tài hǎo le! / Superb Work!)
- 加油！ (Jiā yóu / Add Fuel!)
- 再努力！(Zài nǔlì! / Keep it Up!)
- 再试一次 / 再試一次！(Zài shì yí cì! / Try again!)
- 请改正 / 請改正 (Qǐng gǎi zhèng / Please correct)
- 请完成 / 請完成 (Qǐng wánchéng / Please complete)
(c) Buddha Board Water Calligraphy: Chinese gift for kids and adults
The Buddha Board is a simple and creative tool to practice drawing and writing Chinese words.
The board comes with a stand which you fill with water.
Then dip the included bamboo brush to create soft, beautiful images and calligraphy. When the water evaporates, the images fades, and then it’s time to create another masterpiece!
Recommended for older toddlers, school-age children, and even adults! We often give this as a gift to our friends’ kids!
(d) Magic Water Calligraphy Cloth: Chinese gift for kids and adults
We have a reusable calligraphy cloth with which you use water as “ink” to dip your brush and practice Chinese writing. One cloth has blank grids while the other has important Chinese character strokes.
This is definitely one of our favorite resources for children of all ages as well as adults! I enjoyed practicing “painting” Chinese characters as much as my children!
(e) Book stand with engraved Chinese design and poem
This beautiful Chinese book stand measures 13 x 9.4 inches. Made of Bamboo, the foldable and adjustable book stand is perfect for reading books as well as holding cookbooks and iPads.
(f) Chinese Characters Magnetic Game
These magnets are a wonderful hands-on way to learn simplified Chinese characters.
With the colorful pieces and book provided, children learn how to read by building characters on the grid. The spacial relationship helps prepare them for writing.
(g) Chinese gifts for children: Bilingual puzzles
China Sprout has a collection of puzzles with photographs of certain objects and their name in simplified Chinese and English. The below photo an example of some of the bilingual puzzles!
(h) Educational Insights Geosafari Jr Talking Microscope
This is a toy and not an actual microscope, and it’s a bit unconventional for me to recommend a plastic toy!
However, I love that the toy microscope has clear audio for Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Japanese as well as English! Since it teaches my children science vocabulary in 3 of their languages, it’s a great addition to our multilingual household.
(i) Chinese gift for toddlers and preschoolers: Wood Chinese numbers board
We love the 1-10 reversible Chinese numbers board from my favorite Etsy store, From Jennifer!! You can use the board for tracing and also fine motor counting practice. The wood is sanded smoothly and has no rough edges or sharp corners.
Related: 10+ Fun Ways to Use a Hundred Board!
(j) Chinese gift for family members and teachers: Wood Chinese calendar
Growing up, I remember my parents bringing home a Chinese calendar from Chinese restaurants. My Korean in-laws also like to give us calendars at the end of the year! I’m not sure of the cultural significance, but I’m grateful for this beautiful wood perpetual calendar that we can use year after year.
This is definitely one of my top gift recommendations because you can use it forever. Also, the Etsy shop, From Jennifer, translates her products in many languages!
2. Chinese cultural items for the family
(a) Chinese lanterns
My kids and I love these beautiful paper lanterns, a bright way to bring Chinese culture into our home!
(b) Chinese moon cake molds
If you’ve always wanted to try making Chinese moon cakes at home, a variety of moon cake molds are available on Amazon! Even if you are not into cooking, the molds are very fun for kids to use with play dough!
(c) Chinese character stencils
These food-grade plastic Chinese character stencils are great for baking as well as for playing with play dough!
3. Chinese gifts: Cultural Toys for Kids
(a) Chinese gift for children: pretend play food
Heartfelt Makan is a Singaporean shop that specializes in beautiful felt food toys for children! Both of my kids love to play pretend restaurant and cooking with these authentic Chinese toys!
(b) Chinese gift for children: Asian dolls
Since many children play with dolls, diversity is important to include with our children’s toys.
Hape Asian Family doll set
This is a cute set of mini Asian dolls with grandparents included! You can see how my daughter used them in her story diorama for The Fall of Freddie the Leaf 一片叶子落下来.
Miniland Doll
This is an anatomically correct doll with clothes that you can order separately.
We do not have this doll as we currently have too many toys, but many of my friends, including Montessori families, recommend this doll due to its relatively realistic features.
Please note that there is a faint vanilla scent to the doll.
(c) Chinese gift for children: wood blocks
Uncle Goose Chinese blocks
Wide variety of educational wood blocks, including languages such as Chinese. These are some of the first Chinese toys that I bought for my children!
4. Chinese gift: music for kids
(a) Music Players for children
(b) CD Player
My kids love the Jensen CD player. We have 2 that have been in great condition for over 2 years.
(c) CD Cases
Case Logic is my favorite brand for CD organization. My kids can easily find our Chinese and Korean CDs with the Case Logic CD cases.
(d) MP3 Player
Last Christmas, I gave nephews this MP3 player so that they can listen to music and songs independently.
Related: Montessori Inspired CD Organization and Accessibility for Kids
(e) Chinese music for children
Check out these 100+ popular Chinese songs on iTunes and Google Play and the engaging BaoBao Learns Chinese Nursery Rhymes Music Book!
5. Chinese children’s books
Books are our favorite gifts to give multilingual children!
The Art of Clean Up: Life Made Neat and Tidy is not a Chinese book per se, but the wordless picture book is a visual treat and true conversation starter.
This page is why the book made our Chinese gift guide: the strokes of the Chinese words are deconstructed and arranged neatly by size!
If you want to see other favorite Chinese books, click here on the following link below to see our Chinese book recommendations for children!
What are you planning on gifting your family for the special occasion?
Did you find something on this list that they would like?
Please share in the comments below!
Advice on raising multilingual children
- Teach Your Child a Second Language at Home with 5 Key Steps
- How To Get Your Child To Speak the Minority Language
- Raising Multilingual Children as a Non-Fluent Parent
- Encourage A Child to Love and Speak the Minority Language with 5 Strategies
- How to Find a Foreign Language Teacher for Your Child
- 15 Ways to Get Your Child to Read Throughout the Day
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