Chinese A Literature Past Papers 2026

IB Chinese A Literature is a Group 1 Studies in Language and Literature subject offered to students whose first language or heritage language is Chinese. Chinese is spoken by approximately 1.3 billion in China, Taiwan, Singapore, and Chinese communities worldwide. Chinese has the world's longest continuous literary tradition, spanning three millennia from the Shang oracle bones and the Book of Songs through the Tang poetry golden age, Song dynasty prose, Ming and Qing novels, and the revolutionary New Literature Movement of the 20th century. Students who sit this course bring a deep cultural connection to the language, and examiners expect engagement with the literary and cultural context of Chinese-language texts.

The IB Chinese A Literature curriculum requires students to study a range of texts — poetry, prose, and drama — drawn from the Chinese literary tradition. Distinguished voices such as Lu Xun, Mo Yan (Nobel laureate), Cao Xueqin (Dream of the Red Chamber) are representative of the kinds of authors and works that may be studied. Past papers for this subject include Paper 1 (textual commentary) and Paper 2 (comparative literary essay).