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A review by rbruehlman
Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution That Made China Modern by Jing Tsu
3.0
I WANTED to like this book. I’d had my eye on it since last spring. I love linguistics and etymology, and I love learning about other cultures. Chinese characters in particular are a topic I don’t know much about, but what I do know has me fascinated.
But I just could not get into this book. It’s not badly written. I just couldn’t get into it. I can’t put my finger on why. I guess maybe it was because it was primarily a history book, rather than a book about language? It’s a very exhaustive book that explores each dead end, regardless of whether a given dead end inspired whatever did take off. I got bored, I guess.
I wish the book had included more illustrations, diagrams, and visual examples. It was really hard for me to picture some of the things the book discussed, especially since I don’t know Chinese. The mechanical stuff like typewriters, I honestly just really struggled to visualize.
I think the biggest problem, ultimately, was that I don’t know a lot about Chinese history. While the book mentions important events and movements, it doesn’t go into detail. So I didn’t really have anything to put these literary ideas, beliefs, and people into context. History without context is just facts. I don’t think it’s the book’s responsibility to educate me about Chinese history more generally, but I do think I would have enjoyed it more if I knew more.
Not a bad book, feel bad giving it 3 stars, but I was anxiously awaiting its end.
But I just could not get into this book. It’s not badly written. I just couldn’t get into it. I can’t put my finger on why. I guess maybe it was because it was primarily a history book, rather than a book about language? It’s a very exhaustive book that explores each dead end, regardless of whether a given dead end inspired whatever did take off. I got bored, I guess.
I wish the book had included more illustrations, diagrams, and visual examples. It was really hard for me to picture some of the things the book discussed, especially since I don’t know Chinese. The mechanical stuff like typewriters, I honestly just really struggled to visualize.
I think the biggest problem, ultimately, was that I don’t know a lot about Chinese history. While the book mentions important events and movements, it doesn’t go into detail. So I didn’t really have anything to put these literary ideas, beliefs, and people into context. History without context is just facts. I don’t think it’s the book’s responsibility to educate me about Chinese history more generally, but I do think I would have enjoyed it more if I knew more.
Not a bad book, feel bad giving it 3 stars, but I was anxiously awaiting its end.