num_pages: 120
description: Mandarin Guoyu or Putonghua? Chinese is a language known by many names and China is a country home to many languages. Since the turn of the century linguists and politicians have been on a mission to create a common language for China. From the radical intellectuals of the May Fourth Movement to leaders such as Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong all fought to push the boundaries of language reform. Now internet users take the Chinese language in new and unpredictable directions. David Moser tells the remarkable story of Chinas language unification agenda and its controversial relationship with modern politics challenging our ideas of what it means to speak Chinese.
language: English
title: A Billion Voices: China's Search for a Common Language
publisher: Penguin Australia