This chapter provides an overview of cognitive and neural perspectives on Chinese reading, serving as a foundation for the more focused discussions of morphological processing in later chapters. It first situates Chinese word reading within the broader field of reading research, highlighting both commonalities and contrasts with alphabetic systems. The chapter then reviews evidence on phonological, orthographic, and semantic activation, with attention to their temporal signatures and anatomical distributions in the brain, as well as the debate between single- and dual-route models of word meaning access. Special emphasis is placed on how lexical variables, such as frequency and semantic transparency, and individual or socio-emotional factors, including age, literacy experience, and bilingual context, shape the reading brain. By synthesizing behavioral and neuroimaging findings, this chapter illustrates the unique characteristics of Chinese reading while also addressing its universal dimensions. In doing so, it establishes the theoretical and methodological groundwork for the subsequent chapters on Chinese morphological processing.