A review of Jonathan J. Webster and Xuanwei Peng (eds.), Applying Systemic Functional Linguistics: the state of the art in China today. London & New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017

As the title of this volume suggests, it is intended to showcase the current situation of systemic functional linguistics (hereafter SFL) research in China. Apart from a foreword by Guowen Huang, an editors’ preface as well as an introduction by Zhuanglin Hu, the collection comprises 21 chapters. The first two chapters, with M.A.K. Halliday and J.R. Martin as the author respectively, function as comments about the present state of the art in China and suggestions for its future development. The other chapters, written by representative Chinese systemicists, underline two viewpoints: SFL as a general linguistics and SFL as an appliable linguistics. The chapters cover a wide range of topics in the field with different methodologies. It is noticeable that systemicists in China have made an effort in applying SFL to the study of the Chinese language and are actively embracing new methodologies related to linguistic research. Part 1 includes two chapters providing outside-in perspectives on the status quo in China. Halliday in the first chapter discusses contributions of linguistics in China to the development of SFL and stresses that it is important for systemicists to do comparative and typological studies since SFL, as a general linguistics drawing a distinction between theoretical and descriptive categories (Matthiessen et al., 2010: 76), views language as a meaning potential and represents it as networks of system. Chapter 2 by Martin mainly concerns how to train research students in SFL in China and suggests that SFL teachers in China adapt Rose’s teaching/learning cycles (p.27) as part of their advanced coursework program and attach greater importance to applications. Apart from an introduction by Zhuanglin Hu, Part 2, showcasing the state of the art in China, consists of 19 chapters, which are organized into 13 sections. Section 1 deals with graphology and phonology. Based on the metafunction hypothesis, Chapter 3 by Xuanwei Peng presents a systematic description of the stroke systems of Chinese