Asia's Orthographic Dilemma (Asian Interactions and Comparisons

by William C. Hannas

With the advent of computers and the rise of East Asian economies, the complicated character-based writing systems of East Asia have reached a stage of crisis that may be described as truly millennial in scope and implications. In what is perhaps the most wide-ranging critique of the sinographic script ever written, William C. Hannas assesses the usefulness of Chinese character-based writing in East Asia today.

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1996

Reviews

[Tuan Do · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite a little bit outdated, especially the part discussing computing and displaying Chinese text on computer, it has an interesting treatment on the relation between Chinese characters and languages/cultures of countries that currently use/have used Chinese characters. Especially, it is a joy to read the part discussing Vietnamese, my native language.

[Joey Harpel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative, but snarky.