Books by Perry Link

Collects essays from native speakers of English who studied Chinese, learned it unusually well, and then used it in very successful careers in journalism, business, government work, and academe. Many of essays show that answers to the question of ""what difference is made?"" can have a charming unpredictability.

Why do people in socialist China read and write literary works? This work looks broadly at these and many other "uses" of literature from the points of view of authors, editors, political authorities, and several kinds of readers. It seeks to explain how the word "good" was used and understood when applied to literary works in such systems.

Rhythms, conceptual metaphors, and political language convey meanings of which Chinese speakers themselves may not be aware. Link's Anatomy of Chinese contributes to the debate over whether language shapes thought or vice versa, and its comparison of English with Chinese lends support to theories that locate the origins of language in the brain.