Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic sparked an intense focus to be placed on at-distance learning in classrooms around the world (e.g., Burns et al. 2020; Gao 2020; Jin et al. 2021). This rapid and unprecedented switch to at-distance learning caused challenges worldwide, particularly for Chinese language educators due to the unique linguistic features of the language. Taking the writing script of Chinese as an example, learners are required to master the sound,shape, and meaning of a character despite a lack of grapheme-phoneme correspondence (Yan et al. 2020). In a recent book edited by Osborne et al. (2024), the authors delved into how lessons learned during the pandemic could pave the way for technology development and curriculum design when it comesto teaching and assessing Chinese charactersin the current digital age. Specifically, the authors acknowledge the opportunity for certain aspects of Chinese to be prioritised when designing future sustainable curricula, while integration of technology, innovation, and access are of utmost importance. In general, the book highlights the need for continued empirical studies to advance research in the field.