skip to product information
1 of 1

gentle books » Non Fiction

Kingdom of Characters, Jing Tsu

Kingdom of Characters, Jing Tsu

2023

regular price $3.00 USD
regular price sale price $3.00 USD
sale sold

paperback | well-loved

A riveting, masterfully researched account of the bold innovators who adapted the Chinese language to the modern world, transforming China into a superpower in the process

What does it take to reinvent the world's oldest living language?

China today is one of the world's most powerful nations, yet just a century ago it was a crumbling empire with literacy reserved for the elite few, left behind in the wake of Western technology. In Kingdom of Characters, Jing Tsu shows that China's most daunting challenge was a linguistic one: to make the formidable Chinese language - a 2,200-year-old writing system that was daunting to natives and foreigners alike - accessible to a globalized, digital world.

Kingdom of Characters follows the bold innovators who adapted the Chinese script - and the value-system it represents - to the technological advances that would shape the twentieth century and beyond, from the telegram to the typewriter to the smartphone. From the exiled reformer who risked death to advocate for Mandarin as a national language to the imprisoned computer engineer who devised input codes for Chinese characters on the lid of a teacup, generations of scholars, missionaries, librarians, politicians, inventors, nationalists and revolutionaries alike understood the urgency of their task and its world-shaping consequences.

With larger-than-life characters and a thrilling narrative, Kingdom of Characters offers an astonishingly original perspective on one of the twentieth century's most dramatic transformations.

about delivery & pick-up

we offer the following delivery options:

  • domestic shipping
  • SF Express pay-by-receiver, and
  • local pick-up.

pick-up options are limited to book orders at the moment. if you select local pick-up (books only) at checkout, you can pick up your books at our next event! we'll be in touch to confirm your pick-up details.

view full details

about gentle books

gentle books hopes to build a circular book economy and nurture the community of readers here in Hong Kong.

a women-led business founded by book-lovers, the brand believes that books don’t belong in landfill - books deserve to be read! gentle books is a social enterprise that commits 20% of its profits to literacy and education-based NGOs. 

follow us on ig