Chinese typewriter

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Chinese typewriter

A Chinese typewriter is a typewriter that can be used to write the Chinese language . Since the Chinese writing is logographic and around 6000 characters are used in everyday life , such a typewriter must be completely different from one for alphabetic writing. Chinese typewriters are basically similar to the Japanese, which were developed by Kyota Sugimoto in 1929. The Japanese typewriters are only designed for about 2400 Kanji . In total there are over 60 different versions of the Chinese typewriter.

Hou-Kun Chow Tong-Zhi typewriter

Hou Kun Chow (周厚 坤) invented the first mechanical Chinese typewriter in 1916. It consisted of 4000 characters. Like many others who were involved in the development of Chinese typewriters, Hou Kun Chow studied in the USA . Since it seemed impossible for Hou Kun Chow to construct a keyboard with a key for each character, he designed keys for radicals and strokes on a spherical head according to the specifications of Chinese dictionaries that could be combined with one another. In its original version this typewriter weighed 18 kg, in an improved version 14 kg. Hou Kun had intended his typewriter primarily for use in offices and by Chinese overseas, for whom the use of Chinese-speaking typists was particularly cumbersome and expensive.

Ming Kwai Nao Can typewriter

The Ming Kwai Nao Can electromechanical typewriter was invented by Lin Yutang in 1946. The name Ming Kwai (Chinese: 明快; Pinyin : míngkuài; Wade-Giles : ming-k'uai) means "clear" and "fast". Lin called it the only Chinese typewriter that was suitable for everyone. In the middle of the typewriter was a "magic eye" with which one could see the selected character. This typewriter could write over 90,000 characters. The desired character could be selected with the help of two buttons, which made the character appear in the “magic eye” before it could finally be written with a confirmation button. The new thing about this typewriter was that the Chinese writing was broken down into 30 geometric parts (similar to the elements of a glyph ) and not, as before, into radicals and strokes. This typewriter was not mass-produced because it failed on the day of presentation at the Remington Typewriter Company . Lin went into debt for his typewriter project and later went to Paris for UNESCO .

Flying pigeon

On behalf of China, a typewriter was developed at VEB Optima in Erfurt in the 1950s , which was sold in China in two versions (DHY and DHY-C) under the name “Flying Dove” until 1992 .

Stone typewriter

In the 1980s, the time for a new typewriter came with the economic reforms following Mao's death . At that time, old, inefficient mechanical typewriters were still in use in China. Wan Runnan, the chairman of Stone Emerging Industries Company, invented a new typewriter that for the first time showed characters on electronic memory. Through a joint venture between Stone and Mitsui , the MS-2400 was introduced in 1985, with which one could type 200 characters per minute. In comparison, a mechanical Chinese typewriter could only manage 20 characters per minute.

Cultural and technical importance

Between 1930 and 1950, the Chinese typewriter mainly helped to spread leaflets and political propaganda. It also changes everyday life in the Chinese offices. Thomas Mullaney claims that the development of Chinese typewriters between 1950 and 1970 contributed significantly to the development of electronic data processing . The requirements for the Chinese and Japanese markets contributed significantly to the development of typewriters with data storage devices in the 1980s. The experiences with building typewriters live on in today's digital age. See also: Input systems for the Chinese script

In English, the term chinese typewriter has become a winged word for the absurdity and complexity of western pop culture, for example in the name of a move at MC Hammer .

literature

Web links

Commons : Chinese Typewriters  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files