Cover Cheryl Lee Mainland founded Dragon Academy to make learning Chinese fun, relevant and (even) addictive (Photo: courtesy of Cheryl Lee Mainland)
Cheryl Lee Mainland founded Dragon Academy to make learning Chinese fun, relevant and (even) addictive (Photo: courtesy of Cheryl Lee Mainland)
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Inspired by her own journey through personal challenges and by a passion to bridge cultural divides, serial entrepreneur Cheryl Mainland’s Dragon Academy aims to make Chinese learning as trendy and accessible as Korean and Japanese
The cat does not play the piano. What does your horse think? My pillow does not speak. The trees are wearing white jackets. These sentences rank among the most hilariously meaningless taught by Duolingo, according to a popular Reddit thread posted last year. While silly on the surface, serial entrepreneur Cheryl Lee Mainland, who has taken on the mission to make learning Chinese cool, sees this as a reflection of a deeper issue.
“On Duolingo, there are about 2 million active users learning Chinese and it keeps growing—but the fact is, very few of these people can actually speak Chinese,” she says. “It’s because a lot of these apps are not built to teach you how to interact with people.”
It is true that traditional Chinese classes often don’t capture students’ interest as well as they should and apps like Duolingo still fall short when it comes to bridging that all-important gap. Instead, Mandarin instruction continues to carry an outdated, stereotypical reputation—one that doesn’t really reflect how relevant and dynamic the language is today.
“Schools are full of kids who’ve studied Chinese for nearly a decade but can’t use it in everyday conversations because the system doesn’t give them the confidence or skills to speak Mandarin in real life,” she says.
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Above Back in the Shang Dynasty, (人), rén, was carved into oracle bones to represent a person—a simple side profile of someone standing (Photo: courtesy of Dragon Academy)
Above The 女 radical represents woman and femininity, appearing in characters like 妈 (mā, mother), 姐 (jiě, sister), and 好 (hǎo, good) (Photo: courtesy of Dragon Academy)
Back in the Shang Dynasty, (人), rén, was carved into oracle bones to represent a person—a simple side profile of someone standing (Photo: courtesy of Dragon Academy)
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Enter Dragon Academy, Mainland’s innovative language platform that feels more like a social media app than a traditional classroom. Created by a global team of educators, creatives, and technologists, it combines books, comics, AI animations and a gamified app to make learning Chinese practical and engaging. “Our goal is that every login offers something you can use immediately,” she says.
The platform’s approach reflects modern Chinese usage, embracing mixed-language expression and meeting learners where they are—lowering barriers and reflecting how many young people already use Chinese. It’s built on a root-to-branch method, starting with characters and expanding to vocabulary, idioms and culture—all woven into a vast storyverse based on Mainland’s own teenage epic novel series.
This storytelling element introduces a kind of soft power to Chinese education, much like K-pop for Korean or manga for Japanese. The story follows nine teenagers from different countries, united by their ability to speak Chinese, to save the world.
But the Dragon Academy’s story isn’t just the plot of the teenage epic novel series, but also mirrors Mainland’s own journey.
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Language as a superpower
Above Cheryl Lee Mainland used to be the translator between her two grandmothers (Photo: courtesy of Cheryl Lee Mainland)
Above On her first day at school in Taiwan, Cheryl Lee Mainland introduced herself in Chinese and felt that she belonged (Photo: courtesy of Cheryl Lee Mainland)
Cheryl Lee Mainland used to be the translator between her two grandmothers (Photo: courtesy of Cheryl Lee Mainland)
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Indeed, it’s no coincidence that Mainland decided to dedicate her life to making Chinese more accessible. From a very young age, she understood that language wasn’t just a tool for communication—it was her ultimate connector. Born in Taiwan to a Chinese mother and an American father, she vividly recalls realising early on that Mandarin would be her secret superpower—something she discovered on her very first day at school.
“Even at that age, I was aware I looked different from everyone else—all other kids were 100 per cent Chinese,” she says. “But I remember introducing myself in Chinese, and immediately felt that I belonged. All my insecurities disappeared. It didn’t matter what I looked like because language was my way in.”
That sense of belonging stayed with her through some of her most important and emotional moments. Whether acting as a translator between her two grandmothers—one in Mandarin, the other in English—or sitting across from her father at business meetings, Mainland saw firsthand how language could bridge worlds. The most defining moment came when she was able to conduct her Harvard interview in Chinese—a clear reminder of the tremendous power of language to unlock opportunities and connect different facets of identity.
“I owe so much to my parents,” Mainland says. “At home, multiculturalism was celebrated—there was an understanding that language is more than words. It’s a bridge. I carried that belief with me everywhere.”
Personal challenges to a new mission of purpose
Above Cheryl Lee Mainland and her children on the Pearls shoot in Bali (Photo: courtesy of Archie Geotina)
Above Cheryl Lee Mainland and her children in Bali (Photo: courtesy of Cheryl Lee Mainland)
Cheryl Lee Mainland and her children on the Pearls shoot in Bali (Photo: courtesy of Archie Geotina)
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Throughout her life, Mainland has leveraged her ability to act as a translator—not just between languages and generations, but also between “consumers and businesses”.
“I am good at identifying a market that is huge, but underserved,” she says. Over two decades, Mainland has launched multiple successful online brands—including women’s workwear, prom dresses and swimwear—while travelling the world with her family. Their moves took them to London, New York, Chicago and beyond, until they finally settled in Melbourne, where life’s unexpected challenges took centre stage.
During the Covid-19 lockdown, Mainland experienced a period most families hope to never face: her young daughter was diagnosed with kidney cancer and an extremely rare congenital heart defect. Fortunately, her daughter survived (and is “Aurora”, one of the Dragon Academy story characters), but her marriage of 17 years did not. “It was a really challenging time,” she recalls. “I was at my lowest.”
But rather than let these hardships define her, Mainland saw an opportunity for reflection. As her daughter began to recover, she took a step back to reevaluate what truly mattered. The answer, she says, emerged through her children.
Above The nine characters of the Dragon Academy (Photo: courtesy of Dragon Academy)
The nine characters of the Dragon Academy (Photo: courtesy of Dragon Academy)
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“During the lockdown, my daughters were learning Korean on Duolingo because it was ‘cool’ despite the thousands of dollars I spent on Chinese tutoring,” she says, laughing. “That’s when I knew I had to make learning Chinese as cool as Korean or Japanese.”
Even without the influence of K-pop or manga, the world's hunger for Chinese speakers is growing rapidly. Experts predict the global Chinese language learning market will hit $13.1 billion by 2027, with an annual growth rate of nearly 12 per cent. As Dragon Academy gets ready to kick off its first round of outside funding, Mainland hopes the platform will play a major role in shaping this exciting and fast-changing industry.
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Salomé Grouard was Digital Editor and Front & Female Content Lead at Tatler Hong Kong. Primarily focused on managing Tatler Hong Kong’s digital platform and content, she also covers gender equality, the music scene and sports through interviews with industry leaders, experts and trendsetters.
Interview highlights include renowned conservationist Dr Jane Goodall, Korean actor Park Seo Jun, singer Jorja Smith, Chinese TV host Yue-Sai Kan, YouTuber Kimono Mom, Japanese rapper Awich, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter Mikey Musumeci.
She has also produced stories on revolutionising sexual wellness in Asia, activism within the surfing community, Asian trans musicians reclaiming their narratives through music and looked at the toxicity of gym culture through the lens of the plus-size community. She also covers music festivals, such as Hong Kong’s Clockenflap and Bali’s Suara.
