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Planning Chinese characters (PCC) aims at a descriptive account of the People's Republic of China's (PRC) efforts to overhaul the Chinese writing system. Mandarin Chinese is the most-spoken language in the world, with its most important centers of population in the PRC, the Republic of China (Taiwan), Hong Kong, and Singapore. Despite this common language, the writing systems differ. In the PRC a system of simplified characters is used, whereas in other communities, unsimplified ("traditional") characters continue to be used. The book builds on the language policy and planning (LPP) expertise of Richard B. Baldauf, Jr. It comprises seven chapters, excluding appendices, notes, and references. The prologue succinctly explains the basic structure and usage as well as the history of hanzi, the Chinese writing system commonly referred to as "characters." The first half of the book deals with concrete details about hanzi simplification: its history and process, rationale, current adoption and use, and discussions of ongoing work to further standardize hanzi. The second half moves into speculative discussions of simplification's future direction and implementation. Although Zhao and Baldauf focus on the technical aspects, they also discuss myriad other factors that influence all aspects of continued change, both...