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A review by rover_under
Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution That Made China Modern by Jing Tsu
challenging
informative
medium-paced
3.0
The structure was interesting but I didn't really like the focus on individual innovators in the domain of the Chinese script, and a lot of time is spent building up these people and their purpose. How did the author know how the inventors they referenced were feeling in the moment? It wasn't always clear since there weren't many in-text references to diary entries or letters. For me, there seemed to be a lot of intrigue-building that distracted from the information.
I would have preferred a more sociological lens to see how each invention changed communication across China and beyond, instead of hearing more about personal scuffles between creators of rivaling language systems. I thought the narrative style worked much better when presented from the author's perspective in the last few chapters, though. I wish the rest of the book had felt as grounded.
I would have preferred a more sociological lens to see how each invention changed communication across China and beyond, instead of hearing more about personal scuffles between creators of rivaling language systems. I thought the narrative style worked much better when presented from the author's perspective in the last few chapters, though. I wish the rest of the book had felt as grounded.