Kingdom of Characters The Language Revolution That Made China Modern Jing Tsu — Book Review

History meets Technology and Language design

The teaching of modern languages in (UK) schools is in decline. In Scotland emphasis has been on French & German at Primary, for a while Chinese was a rising star — still is in the independent sector. Teaching Mandarin has several benefits due to the broader curriculum aspects that can be covered. For example the written form allows artistic and practical lessons to be constructed.

This book fills a technical gap with background for those wishing to integrate more detail. A historical approach is taken and the cast of individuals involved and their different geographical locations described. There is good pictorial explanation of the breakdown of Chinese character formation and rationale of how the practical implementation of typing the language has evolved.