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The great Chinese puzzle: how to adapt the language to modern communication technologies

22 January 2022

9:00 AM

22 January 2022

9:00 AM

Kingdom of Characters: A Tale of Language, Obsession and Genius in Modern China Jing Tsu

Allen Lane, pp.336, 20

Any student of Chinese will sympathise with the 17th-century Jesuit priest Fr Emeric Langlois de Chavagnac when he wrote: ‘One can only endure the pain of learning it for the love of God.’ With its convoluted characters, subtle tones and numerous homonyms, it can seem as though the language just doesn’t want to be learned.

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