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b'After a meteoric rise, China today is one of the world\\u2019s 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.

Today\\u2019s guest is Prof. Jing Tsu, author of \\u201cKingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution that Made China Modern.\\u201d She argues that China\\u2019s most daunting challenge was a linguistic one: the century-long fight to make the Chinese language\\u2014with its many dialects and complex character-based script\\u2014accessible to the modern world of global trade and digital technology.

We discuss the connection between language and power, challenges China faced to ensure their language remained dominant/widespread, the innovators who adapted the Chinese language to a world defined by the West and its alphabet, AND it was so important for China to preserve its ancient character set, even though it was seen as such a hindrance to their technological development.'