{"product_id":"book-eu1k","title":"Kingdom of Characters (Pulitzer Prize Finalist)","description":"\u003cb\u003eWhat does it take to reinvent a language?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter a meteoric rise, China today is one of the world’s most powerful nations. Just a century ago, it was a crumbling empire with literacy reserved for the elite few, as the world underwent a massive technological transformation that threatened to leave them behind. In \u003ci\u003eKingdom of Characters\u003c\/i\u003e, Jing Tsu argues that China’s most daunting challenge was a linguistic one: the century-long fight to make the formidable Chinese language accessible to the modern world of global trade and digital technology.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKingdom of Characters\u003c\/i\u003e follows the bold innovators who reinvented the Chinese language, among them an exiled reformer who risked a death sentence to advocate for Mandarin as a national language, a Chinese-Muslim poet who laid the groundwork for Chairman Mao's phonetic writing system, and a computer engineer who devised input codes for Chinese characters on the lid of a teacup from the floor of a jail cell. Without their advances, China might never have become the dominating force we know today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith larger-than-life characters and an unexpected perspective on the major events of China’s tumultuous twentieth century, Tsu reveals how language is both a technology to be perfected and a subtle, yet potent, power to be exercised and expanded.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e* This audiobook includes a downloadable PDF that contains charts, photos, and visuals from the book.\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":49324614582576,"sku":"BDeu1k","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/358448-eu1k-Square.jpg?v=1733552529","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-eu1k","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}