Learning China from the ground up.
Notes on learning Mandarin and reading Chinese institutions in context.
Much of what I read about China reaches me through English. I want a more direct understanding of the institutions and debates behind the technology-policy questions I study.
Starting with language
I’m taking Mandarin classes. The aim is to read more closely and rely less on other people’s selection of what deserves translation. I’m at the beginning of that process.
Knowing the language will not remove the need to assess a source. A ministry’s statement, a company’s technical report, and a scholarly argument speak to different audiences and support different kinds of claims.
Questions for the reading
I want to understand how Chinese institutions describe the problems they are trying to solve, which terms change meaning in translation, and where accounts written for foreign audiences differ from domestic debate. Those are questions to investigate over time.