How is Mandarin evolving in a rapidly changing world? This issue explores the language’s transformation at China’s frontiers and beyond, where state control clashes with public innovation, and global encounters spark new linguistic hybrids. At home, Mandarin faces tensions between regulation, English influence, and declining character literacy. Abroad, it is adapting through creative exchanges, from makeshift translations to emerging contact languages. Across borders, Mandarin’s globalisation isn’t just top-down—it’s being reshaped from the ground up.