An Anatomy of Chinese: Rhythm, Metaphor, Politics
Perry Link'sAn Anatomy of Chineseis original, superbly informed by living experience, full of stimulating (and sometimes challenging) insights, nourished by a deep understanding of contemporary Chinese realities. It should become recommended reading for any person who is involved with China—scholars, students, visitors, residents—and, more broadly, for all civilized individuals who feel a need to complete their own humanity by getting better acquainted with the Chinese perspective. (Simon Leys, author ofThe Hall of Uselessness)The most significant scholarly work in recent decades that uncovers the repressed nuances and rhythms of the Chinese language. Only Perry Link can give meaning and power so magnificently to Chinese clichés and linguistic routines. High-brow and low-brow Chinese words and syntaxes, the unacquainted speaking patterns and metaphorical structures  of the East and West have finally found each other in a brilliant, first-rate comparative analysis by America's preeminent authority on contemporary Chinese language. (Maochun Yu, United States Naval Academy)Perry Link's book is the first comprehensive study, in either English or Chinese, on language and politics in China. With an incredible ear for subtle twists and turns in verbal expressions, Link examines the impact of rhythm and metaphor on the rhetoric of slogans, enhancing our understanding of linguistic mechanisms that account for the power of slogans in communist politics and illustrating with a wealth of examples the intricate interactions between sound and structure in spoken Chinese. (Pang-Hsin Ting, University of California, Berkeley)Perry Link'sAn Anatomy of Chineseis a rich, delightfully refreshing and satisfying look at features of Chinese language rarely probed in standard accounts -- a feast of insights from start to finish. (Chad Hansen, University of Hong Kong)InAn Anatomy of Chinese, Perry Link has made a fascinating discovery that those who are literate in Chinese are subliminally aware of, but which he is the first to make explicit in a lucid and illuminating fashion. Link brings aspects of the Chinese language—innate cadences, prosody—to the surface and analyzes them in such a fashion that we come to understand the structure and genius of Chinese better than ever before. It is a captivating and ingenious tale that the author spins. (Victor Mair, University of Pennsylvania)Link's fascinating tour de force makes clear the many ways in which the rhythms and metaphors of written and spoken Chinese contribute to Chinese cultural formation, individual character formation and political manipulation. Insisting on using familiar terms in place of jargon, Link makes linguistics accessible and even fun for all of us. (Michael S. Duke, author of The Iron House: A Memoir of the Chinese Democracy Movement and the Tiananmen Massacre)