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A review by traitorjoes
Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution That Made China Modern by Jing Tsu
3.0
I’ve been eager to read this book sometime, and so I was incredibly disappointed when I finally got my hands on it. I’ve been learning Chinese for around eight years, and switched from simplified to traditional when I moved to Taiwan. I was so fascinated to learn about the history and process of simplification. I was excited the author was Taiwanese, and admittedly my own fault, hoped the book would offer insight of how China simplifying aided (or hurt depending on opinions) the country vs sticking with traditional in Taiwan.
I’d say around 1/2 of this book offers little on its main subject - while the digressions themselves are interesting topics, it takes over a hundred pages to get to the book’s core topic. There is so much excess and needless detail, particularly a desire to paint vivid descriptions of scenery or looks, that are wholly unneeded. I agree that history books can often be generally inaccessible, but the trend of long flowery scenic writing needs to only been applied when it is actually aiding the greater point.
For me, the book either needed to be far shorter or entirely focused on the direct topic of simplifying the Chinese language. A history of characters, from oracle bones to radicals etc, would have been better fodder than other chapters. I think the process of creating typewriters and computers could be a book itself. The author has done a remarkable amount of research and I enjoyed her work overall, but ultimately the book was a let down.
I’d say around 1/2 of this book offers little on its main subject - while the digressions themselves are interesting topics, it takes over a hundred pages to get to the book’s core topic. There is so much excess and needless detail, particularly a desire to paint vivid descriptions of scenery or looks, that are wholly unneeded. I agree that history books can often be generally inaccessible, but the trend of long flowery scenic writing needs to only been applied when it is actually aiding the greater point.
For me, the book either needed to be far shorter or entirely focused on the direct topic of simplifying the Chinese language. A history of characters, from oracle bones to radicals etc, would have been better fodder than other chapters. I think the process of creating typewriters and computers could be a book itself. The author has done a remarkable amount of research and I enjoyed her work overall, but ultimately the book was a let down.