This book is based on the award-winning series, "Idioms and Their Stories," from the program, "Learn to Speak Chinese," which is broadcast on the English Service of China Radio International. The program has been incredibly popular, prompting listeners to bombard China Radio with requests to publish this book. Each idiom is presented in Chinese characters, Pinyin and English, and each story shows the idiom's origin and/or the earliest example of its usage, which often best illustrates the message it contains.