Introduction: Language in action, language in context

Language defines humanity and permeates all human endeavours. In the era of global mobility of individuals, information and ideas, language, that adaptive functional system of signs that binds together individuals, transmits information and enlivens ideas, is more dynamic, emergent, fluid, multidimensional and negotiable than it has ever been before. The study of language must respond to the complex dynamism of language in time and space (Blommaert, Collins and Slembrouck 2005; MacWhinney 2005; Blommaert 2010; Coupland 2010; MacWhinney and O'Grady 2015). The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Applied Linguistics (RHCAL) presents language as a complex adaptive system in action, in context and in vivo. The chapters in RHCAL witness and embody the flourishing inquiries and diverse voices in research on Chinese across intersecting arenas that constitute a broadly defined Chinese Applied Linguistics. This introduction, written by three scholars from broad geographic and disciplinary backgrounds, reflects the synergy of ideas that cross discipline boundaries and traverse theoretical, methodological and epistemological spaces, as intended with this Handbook.