Kingdom of Characters
{{Short description|2022 book by Jing Tsu}}
{{Infobox book
| author = Jing Tsu
| isbn = 9780735214729
| pub_date = 18 January 2022
| image = Kingdom of Characters cover.png
| name = Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution that Made China Modern
| genre = Nonfiction
| published = 2022 (Riverhead Books)
| caption = 2023 paperback edition cover
}}
Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution that Made China Modern is a nonfiction book written by Taiwanese American professor Jing Tsu. First published in January 2022, the book comprises seven chapters, each highlighting innovators in the modernization of the Chinese language. It was a finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and received nominations for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, the British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding, and the Cundill History Prize.
Background
Kingdom of Characters is the third book authored by Jing Tsu, a professor of comparative literature and East Asian languages and literature at Yale University.{{Cite news |date=13 February 2024 |title=Jing Tsu appointed Spence Professor |url=https://news.yale.edu/2024/02/13/jing-tsu-appointed-spence-professor |access-date=7 November 2024 |work=YaleNews}} Her previous two books, Failure, Nationalism, and Literature: The Making of Modern Chinese Identity, 1895-1937 and Sound and Script in Chinese Diaspora, also covered Chinese linguistic history.{{Cite news |last=Leibold |first=James |date=December 2008 |title=Tsu, Failure, Nationalism, and Literature: The Making of Modern Chinese Identity, 1895-1937, 2005 |url=https://china.usc.edu/tsu-failure-nationalism-and-literature-making-modern-chinese-identity-1895-1937-2005 |access-date=7 November 2024 |work=USC US-China Institute}} In an interview, Tsu stated that she had visited archives across multiple countries and continents during the course of her research.{{Cite news |date=26 September 2022 |title=Jing Tsu Longlist Author Interview |url=https://www.thebailliegiffordprize.co.uk/inside-the-covers/news/jing-tsu-longlist-author-interview |access-date=7 November 2024 |work=The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction}} The book was initially published by Riverhead Books in January 2022;{{Cite journal |last=Wang |first=Zuoyue |date=14 January 2022 |title=An antiquated language, reimagined |journal=Science |volume=375 |issue=6577 |pages=151 |doi=10.1126/science.abn0932 |issn=0036-8075 |eissn=1095-9203 |pmid=35025658|bibcode=2022Sci...375..151W }}{{Cite web |title=Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution That Made China Modern |url=https://www.ncuscr.org/event/kingdom-of-characters/ |access-date=7 November 2024 |website=National Committee on United States-China Relations}} one year later, a paperback edition was released on 17 January.{{Cite news |date=10 January 2023 |title=Professor Jing Tsu's Kingdom of Characters has been named in The New York Times' "Notable Books of 2022" and among the 12 "Best Nonfiction of 2022" in The Washington Post |url=https://complit.yale.edu/news/professor-jing-tsus-kingdom-characters-has-been-named-new-york-times-notable-books-2022-and |access-date=7 November 2024 |work=Yale University}}
Summary
The book comprises seven chapters, ordered chronologically, each highlighting innovators in the modernization of the Chinese language. The first chapter focuses mainly on the efforts of Chinese linguist Wang Zhao to standardize Chinese pronunciation and introduce a Mandarin alphabet. The second chapter details Zhou Houkun's attempts to design a Chinese typewriter, and chapter three relates how Chinese statesman Wang Jingchun successfully lobbied for improved representation for Chinese in telegraphy. The fourth chapter covers multiple competing categorization systems for the titles of Chinese works. Chapter five covers Romanization and character simplification. The sixth and seventh chapters are dedicated to the entry of the Chinese language in the information age. All of the chapters are contextualized with the historical occurrences of the period, including the Century of Humiliation, World War II, the Chinese Communist Revolution, and the Cold War.
Reception
In reviews for Kingdom of Characters, Tsu received praise for her storytelling and ability to convey information; reviewer Zuoyue Wang for Science called the book "lively and insightful", while The Telegraph's Christopher Harding describes it as "fascinating" and "necessarily complex".{{Cite news |last=Harding |first=Christopher |author-link=Christopher Harding |date=16 January 2022 |title=How on earth do you send a telegram in Chinese? |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/earth-do-send-telegram-chinese/ |access-date=7 November 2024 |work=The Telegraph}} Kingdom of Characters was a finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction,{{Cite web |title=Finalist: Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution That Made China Modern, by Jing Tsu (Riverhead Books) |url=https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/jing-tsu |access-date=7 November 2024 |website=The Pulitzer Prizes}} eventually losing to Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa's His Name Is George Floyd.{{Cite news |last=Valdez |first=Jonah |date=8 May 2023 |title=Two novels share Pulitzer in fiction as 'His Name Is George Floyd' wins for nonfiction |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2023-05-08/pulitzer-prize-fiction-his-name-is-george-floyd-non-fiction |access-date=7 November 2024 |work=Los Angeles Times}} It was also a nominee for multiple other nonfiction awards, including the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, the British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding, and the Cundill History Prize. It was named a New York Times Notable Book in 2022 and one of The Washington Post's Best Nonfiction of 2022.
Conversely, Kingdom of Characters also received criticism from some reviewers, finding Tsu's narrative to be somewhat misrepresentative of history. In a mostly positive review, Gaston Dorren from The Guardian criticized the book's focus on less successful language reformers, as opposed to those who had more impact on Chinese's modernization.{{Cite news |last=Dorren |first=Gaston |author-link=Gaston Dorren |date=22 January 2022 |title=Kingdom of Characters by Jing Tsu review – Chinese writing's near death experience |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jan/22/kingdom-of-characters-by-jing-tsu-review-chinese-writings-near-death-experience |access-date=24 October 2024 |work=The Guardian}} The New Yorker