Four experienced teachers of beginning Chinese have developed this introductory textbook. A pilot edition has been tested widely in classrooms and refined over a period of years. Among its salient features are lessons that are lively, amusing, and relevant to everyday life: concentrated training of ear and tongue in the sound system of Chinese; extensive grammar notes, clearly presented, with attention to mistakes English-speakers are likely to make; a carefully sequenced character workbook embodying a new and effective approach to the learning of Chinese characters; and audiovisual reinforcement via a complete set of audiotapes and two videotapes, one of which offers entertaining dramatizations of the lesson dialogues. "The Chinese Primer" is available in two versions, one using the GR system of romanization, which employs different spellings instead of diacritical marks for different tones, the other using Pinyin romanization. The contents of the four volumes are as follows: "Blue Book" [Lessons] - introduction, foundation work on pronunciation, lesson dialogues in romanized Chinese and English, appendices, and glossary-index; "Red Book" [Notes and Exercises] - vocabularies, grammar notes and culture notes keyed to the lessons, and exercises; "Yellow Book" [Character Workbook] - workbook; and "Green Book" [Pinyin Character Text] - texts of the lessons in both traditional and simplified Chinese characters, and a Chinese introduction for teachers. The first three volumes: "Blue Book", "Red Book", and "Yellow Book" are sold as a GR Set (or Pinyin Set). In addition, the "GR Blue Book" [Lessons], "GR Red Book" [Notes and Exercises], and "GR Yellow Book" [Character Workbook], along with the "Pinyin Green Book" [Pinyin Character Text] are sold separately. The GR Audio and video materials are available from the Chinese Linguistics Project at Princeton University for use with this text.