Product Description: This general introduction to the study of Chinese traces the language's history from its beginnings in the second millennium B.C. to the present, and provides a clear picture of the contemporary language and its sociolinguistic status...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: For the first time, leading personalities such as Qi Gong, Yau Shing-Tung, Zhao Jiping, Chen Guying and Zhao Ping an write together about one of the most important vehicles of their culture, Chinese characters. This carefully edited and well-designed volume offers both the Chinese and western reader a unique and thorough insight into the world of Chinese characters...read more