{"product_id":"kingdom-of-characters-pulitzer-prize-finalist-the-language-revolution-that-made-china-modern","title":"Kingdom of Characters (Pulitzer Prize Finalist): The Language Revolution That Made China Modern","description":"\u003cb\u003ePULITZER PRIZE FINALIST \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003eNotable Book of 2022 \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhat does it take to reinvent a language? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAfter a meteoric rise, China today is one of the world's most powerful nations. Just a century ago, it was a crumbling empire with literacy reserved for the elite few, as the world underwent a massive technological transformation that threatened to leave them behind. In \u003ci\u003eKingdom of Characters\u003c\/i\u003e, Jing Tsu argues that China's most daunting challenge was a linguistic one: the century-long fight to make the formidable Chinese language accessible to the modern world of global trade and digital technology. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eKingdom of Characters\u003c\/i\u003e follows the bold innovators who reinvented the Chinese language, among them an exiled reformer who risked a death sentence to advocate for Mandarin as a national language, a Chinese-Muslim poet who laid the groundwork for Chairman Mao's phonetic writing system, and a computer engineer who devised input codes for Chinese characters on the lid of a teacup from the floor of a jail cell. Without their advances, China might never have become the dominating force we know today. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith larger-than-life characters and an unexpected perspective on the major events of China's tumultuous twentieth century, Tsu reveals how language is both a technology to be perfected and a subtle, yet potent, power to be exercised and expanded.\r","brand":"Jing Tsu","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44441204785388,"sku":"9780735214736","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0684\/1791\/3068\/files\/9780735214736.jpg?v=1708834401","url":"https:\/\/allstora.com\/products\/kingdom-of-characters-pulitzer-prize-finalist-the-language-revolution-that-made-china-modern","provider":"Allstora","version":"1.0","type":"link"}