(Manual on transcription), Moscow: Muravey, 2002, 263 p. The reviewed monograph by L. R. Kontsevich, a well-known specialist in historical phonetics, phonology, and writing of East Asian languages, 1 is based on a revised and expanded version of the instructions for transmitting Chinese proper names and terms prepared by the author for the USSR Academy of Sciences in the 1980s. The publication of a book on Chinese words in Russian texts at the beginning of the new century is not accidental and timely. For today's West in general and for Russia in particular, a peculiar fascination with China, Chinese philosophy, culture, art, language, and hieroglyphic writing is characteristic. In various publications in Russian - not only scientific, but also mass - many Chinese proper names and terms have appeared. Chinese words get into Russian publications from sources of different levels-both Western and published not only and not so much in mainland China, but in economically developed Hong Kong (Hong Kong) and Taiwan with their long experience in publishing materials in English - and are often randomly written using Cyrillic graphics. The situation is also complicated by the fact that the Chinese-speaking area of Asia, which includes mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong (Hong Kong), Macao, Singapore, as well as the South Sea countries with their significant Chinese communities, is not linguistically homogeneous, which is enshrined in regional legislation. In mainland China, more than half a century of efforts to spread a single supra - dialect means of communication - the national language of Putonghua, which is based on the Beijing dialect (phonetics) and more broadly-the northern dialects (vocabulary and grammar), have led to much more modest results than similar efforts in Taiwan. Nevertheless, in 2001, the law on language and writing, which is integrative in its orientation, came into force in the PRC, which instead of the dialects of different groups that are actually used ... Read more