Yurou Zhong (Associate Professor of East Asian Studies - University of Toronto)

Chinese characters are a national treasure. It is therefore inconceivable that, a mere century ago, the Chinese faith in its own script wavered, crumbled, and imploded, launching a script revolution that aimed to eliminate Chinese characters and implement a Chinese alphabet. This book talk takes seriously the series of puzzles triggered by the script revolution: Why did it happen? How did it unfold? In what ways did it impact modern Chinese writing, literature, and culture? How and why was it contained? (more details at link above)