# Paxa TTS Flash now speaks Mandarin Chinese, with six new voices

Paxa TTS Flash reads Mandarin Chinese from Simplified script beside Thai and English, and six new voices join the roster, two in each language.

Published 2026-09-16, updated 2026-10-01. Paxa Labs.

A Thai business with Chinese-speaking customers publishes Chinese copy beside its Thai copy. Until September 14, voicing the Chinese half took a second speech vendor or a recording session. It now goes through the same API request as the Thai copy, with a Mandarin voice.

The six new voices:

- [Tao Huay](https://paxalabs.com/voices/taohuay), Drama lead: https://paxalabs.com/audio/taohuay.m4a
- [Oolong](https://paxalabs.com/voices/oolong), Audio fiction: https://paxalabs.com/audio/oolong.m4a
- [Espresso](https://paxalabs.com/voices/espresso), Long-form reader: https://paxalabs.com/audio/espresso.m4a
- [Mocha](https://paxalabs.com/voices/mocha), Wellness: https://paxalabs.com/audio/mocha.m4a
- [Khao Niao](https://paxalabs.com/voices/khaoniao), Breathwork: https://paxalabs.com/audio/khaoniao.m4a
- [Tom Yum](https://paxalabs.com/voices/tomyum), Best friend: https://paxalabs.com/audio/tomyum.m4a

## What changed

- Paxa TTS Flash reads Mandarin Chinese beside Thai and English, from Simplified script (简体中文).
- Six voices join the roster, for 32 in all. Two are Mandarin-first, two English-first, and two Thai-first.
- `GET /v1/voices` returns `"zh"` in the `language` field for the Mandarin voices.
- The model id stays `paxa-tts-flash-v1`, and existing voice ids and requests work as before.

## Where the new voices work

Every speech surface resolves the new voice ids the way it resolves the existing ones.

- `POST /v1/tts` returns buffered or streamed audio in mp3, opus, or wav.
- `POST /v1/audio/speech`, the [OpenAI-compatible route](https://paxalabs.com/docs/openai-compatibility), takes `taohuay` or `oolong` as its `voice`.
- The [live socket](https://paxalabs.com/docs/live-streaming) reads Mandarin while the text is still arriving. There, `。`, `！`, and `？` end a sentence the way a period does, and the buffered sentence is spoken.
- `speed`, from 0.5 to 1.5, applies to the Mandarin voices as it does to every voice.

## The six voices, one by one

### Tao Huay, drama lead

[Tao Huay](https://paxalabs.com/voices/taohuay) is tender and a little melancholy. It is cast for drama recaps, audio novels, and companion speech.

Its published sample reads “如果时间可以倒流，我还是会在那个下雨的傍晚，安静地等你回来。” The line means “If time could run backward, I would still wait quietly for you to come back on that rainy evening.”

A Thai companion app that also answers in Mandarin can pair it with [Sanae Chan](https://paxalabs.com/voices/sanaechan), the Thai voice the [AI companion page](https://paxalabs.com/ai-companion) opens on.

### Oolong, audio fiction

[Oolong](https://paxalabs.com/voices/oolong) is a low, rich narrator, cast for audio novels, brand reads, and late-night storytelling.

Its sample reads “夜深了，城市渐渐安静下来。今晚的故事，从一封迟到二十年的信开始。” The line means “It is late at night, and the city is slowly growing quiet. Tonight's story begins with a letter that arrived twenty years late.”

The Thai voice for the same late hour is [Oliang](https://paxalabs.com/voices/oliang), cast for late-night radio.

### Espresso, long-form reader

[Espresso](https://paxalabs.com/voices/espresso) is deep, dark, and slow, cast for audiobooks, documentaries, and trailers. Its sample reads “Some stories are never told. They are kept, and passed from hand to hand, until someone finally dares to open the book.”

[Latte](https://paxalabs.com/voices/latte) remains the English voice cast for polished brand films. Espresso takes the long read and the trailer.

### Mocha, wellness

[Mocha](https://paxalabs.com/voices/mocha) is close, gentle, and low in volume, cast for bedtime, wellness, and companion speech. Its sample reads “Take a slow breath. There is no rush tonight. Whatever happened today, you made it here, and that is enough.”

A wellness app in Thai and English can pair it with [Lod Chong](https://paxalabs.com/voices/lodchong), cast for sleep and meditation. The [meditation page](https://paxalabs.com/meditation) plays the three calm Thai voices side by side.

### Khao Niao, breathwork

[Khao Niao](https://paxalabs.com/voices/khaoniao) is low and unhurried, cast for guided breathing, wellbeing narration, and slow documentary.

Its sample reads “หายใจเข้าช้า ๆ แล้วปล่อยออกไปครับ ไม่ต้องรีบ ทุกอย่างรอได้ ตอนนี้แค่อยู่ตรงนี้ก็พอแล้วครับ” The line means “Breathe in slowly, then let it out. There is no rush, and everything can wait. For now, being here is enough.” ครับ, the polite ending of a male speaker, appears twice.

It joins [Sangkaya](https://paxalabs.com/voices/sangkaya), the quiet close-mic voice cast for ASMR and calm narration.

### Tom Yum, best friend

[Tom Yum](https://paxalabs.com/voices/tomyum) is fast, hot, and chatty, a best-friend voice cast for drama recaps, entertainment news, and social clips.

Its sample reads “แกรู้ยัง เมื่อคืนมีเรื่องใหญ่มากเลย ฉันเพิ่งรู้มาสด ๆ ร้อน ๆ เดี๋ยวเล่าให้ฟังนะจ๊ะ” The line means “Have you heard? Something big happened last night. I only just found out. Let me tell you.”

The register lives in the words. แก is the second-person pronoun of close friends, and จ๊ะ is a playful, familiar ending. The same script written in polite Thai reads as polite in this voice too. For ads and shorts with a confident male read, [Moo Ping](https://paxalabs.com/voices/mooping) remains the voice with street energy.

## How a request reads Chinese

The model reads each run of text by its script: Chinese characters as Mandarin, Thai script as Thai, and Latin words as English. A Thai announcement and its Mandarin version differ only in `voice` and `text`. The optional `language` field changes only how codes, digits, and symbols are read, and its default, `auto`, follows the language most of the text is written in.

one endpoint, two languages:

```
POST /v1/tts

{ "model": "paxa-tts-flash-v1", "voice": "nomyen",
  "text": "ยินดีต้อนรับค่ะ กรุณาเตรียมเอกสารการจองไว้ที่จุดเช็กอินค่ะ" }

{ "model": "paxa-tts-flash-v1", "voice": "taohuay",
  "text": "欢迎光临，请在办理入住处准备好您的预订资料。" }
```

The two requests above:

- [Nom Yen](https://paxalabs.com/voices/nomyen), Lead voice: https://paxalabs.com/audio/blog/mandarin-chinese-and-six-new-voices/arrival-th.m4a
- [Tao Huay](https://paxalabs.com/voices/taohuay), Drama lead: https://paxalabs.com/audio/blog/mandarin-chinese-and-six-new-voices/arrival-zh.m4a

The voice sets the accent. A Mandarin-first voice is designed for sentences written wholly in Chinese, and it reads Thai or English with a foreign accent. A Chinese name inside a Thai sentence takes the accent of the Thai voice reading it.

## Chinese family names in Thai copy

Chinese characters are always read as Mandarin, which matters most for family names. [More than half of Thailand's Chinese community](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_Chinese) traces its ancestry to Chaoshan, where Teochew is spoken. The family names Thai speakers know carry those Teochew sounds, as [Sanook's list of common family names](https://www.sanook.com/campus/1431575/) shows beside the Mandarin readings.

| Characters | Family name in Thai | Mandarin reading |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 陈 | แซ่ตั้ง | Chén |
| 林 | แซ่ลิ้ม | Lín |
| 黄 | แซ่อึ้ง | Huáng |
| 李 | แซ่ลี้ | Lǐ |

Sent as characters, 林 is read Lín. In Thai copy, write the family name in Thai script, as ลิ้ม, and a Thai voice says it the way the family does. In Mandarin copy written for a Mandarin speaker, the Mandarin reading is the one the listener expects.

## What Mandarin costs

Mandarin bills at 10 credits per 1,000 characters, the [one speech rate](https://paxalabs.com/pricing) for every voice and language. A Chinese character carries a whole syllable, while Thai writes each vowel and tone mark as a character of its own. Every announcement on the [Thai and Mandarin announcements page](https://paxalabs.com/thai-chinese) takes fewer characters in Mandarin.

| Announcement | Thai | Mandarin |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Arrival | 58 characters, 0.58 credits | 22 characters, 0.22 credits |
| Directions | 36 characters, 0.36 credits | 12 characters, 0.12 credits |
| Closing time | 55 characters, 0.55 credits | 21 characters, 0.21 credits |

A new account's 100 free credits voice the Mandarin arrival announcement 454 times.

## One voice for each language

A product that speaks three languages keeps one voice per language for each job. Each line-up takes its voices from their catalog casting, or from a page that already pairs them.

| Job | Thai | English | Mandarin |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Audiobooks and long reads | Foi Thong | Espresso | Oolong |
| Companion speech | Sanae Chan | Mocha | Tao Huay |
| Brand reads | Nom Yen | Latte | Oolong |
| Front desk announcements | Nom Yen | Cookie | Tao Huay |

The front desk line-up matches the [Thai and Mandarin announcements page](https://paxalabs.com/thai-chinese), where Nom Yen and Tao Huay read each announcement as one announcer in two languages.

## Before you publish

- Convert Traditional script to Simplified before sending. Only Simplified script is verified.
- Expect Mandarin for every Chinese line, including copy written for Cantonese speakers.
- Have a Mandarin speaker write or check the copy. The voice reads the characters it receives, mistakes included.
- Play a line that mixes Thai and Chinese in the Speech tool before customers hear it.

## Try Mandarin

The [free text to speech page](https://paxalabs.com/tts) reads a line of up to 50 characters in Tao Huay or Oolong, without an account. Signed in, the [Speech tool](https://paxalabs.com/app/speech?voice=taohuay) takes up to 5,000 characters a request.

The [Mandarin voices page](https://paxalabs.com/chinese-voices) plays both voices on one welcome line. The [Chinese listening page](https://paxalabs.com/chinese-learning) reads four lesson lines with their pinyin, and the [languages page](https://paxalabs.com/languages) lists every page by language.