{"product_id":"kingdom-of-characters-pulitzer-prize-finalist-9780735214736","title":"Kingdom of Characters (Pulitzer Prize Finalist)","description":"\u003cb\u003ePULITZER PRIZE FINALIST\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003eNotable Book of 2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat does it take to reinvent a language?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\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.","brand":"Penguin Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"STANDARD","offer_id":62236336324995,"sku":"9780735214736","price":18.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0907\/8456\/3587\/files\/9780735214736.jpg?v=1785359389","url":"https:\/\/shopcomics.eu\/products\/kingdom-of-characters-pulitzer-prize-finalist-9780735214736","provider":"Shop Comics EU","version":"1.0","type":"link"}