How did the Chinese language have to adapt to modern technology?

Jing Su will be here to talk about her new book Kingdom of Characters, the language revolution

that made China modern.

What does it feel like to lose one loved one and gain another at the same time?

Catherine Schultz will join us to talk about her memoir Lost and Found.

Liz Harris will be here to talk about what's going on in the publishing world.

Plus, my colleagues and I will talk about what we're reading.

This is the Bookerview Podcast for the New York Times.

It's January 21st.

I'm Pamela Paul.

Jing Su joins us now from New York.

She is a professor of East Asian languages and literature and comparative literature at Yale,

where she specializes in Chinese literature, history, culture, science and technology and

politics.

And her new book is called Kingdom of Characters, the language revolution that made China modern.

Jing, thank you for being here.

Thank you Pamela.

Happy to be here.

So give us a grounding, if you will, in the Chinese language.

Obviously, Mandarin is the main dialect, but how much variety is there within China?

There are hundreds of dialects and they're all grouped under these big, what's called

topolect groups.

...