Contents

Why China Simplified?

Foreword by John Pasden

The Sound of Somebody Falling Down

Why Mandarin is the easiest (and Hardest) language in the world

A picture's Worth Ten Thousand Words

The mystical origin of characters and East-West perspectives

Embracing the Ambiguity

Exploring the hazy space between what is said and meant

Sorry, There Is No Chapter Four

Chinese superstitions at play in our daily lives

A lifetime in Four Characters

Using idioms to capture an idea's essence in an instant

Fish, Pearl, Coral, and Ocean Go Swimming

The high-stakes challenge of choosing the right name

Never Use the F-word

How to become more fluent than you ever imagined

We Let the Boss Die First

Stirring up trouble with dialects, topolects, and slips of the tongue

The Lingua Franca of the 22nd Century

Will we all be speaking Chinese in the near future?

Resources

References

Gratitude

About the Authors