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The Chinese typewriter : a history / Thomas S. Mullaney.
Author
Mullaney, Thomas S. (Thomas Shawn)
[Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/Created
Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2017]
Description
xiv, 481 pages ; 24 cm
Availability
Available Online
Ebook Central Perpetual, DDA and Subscription Titles
Online Content
Copies in the Library
Location
Call Number
Status
Location Service
Notes
ReCAP - Remote Storage
Z49.4.C4 M85 2017
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Details
Subject(s)
Typewriters, Chinese
—
History
[Browse]
Typewriters
—
History
[Browse]
Chinese language
—
Writing
—
History
[Browse]
Written communication
—
Technological innovations
—
China
—
History
[Browse]
Information technology
—
China
—
History
[Browse]
Communication and technology
—
China
—
History
[Browse]
Library of Congress genre(s)
History
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Series
Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
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Summary note
"Chinese writing is character based, the one major world script that is neither alphabetic nor syllabic. Through the years, the Chinese written language encountered presumed alphabetic universalism in the form of Morse Code, Braille, stenography, Linotype, punch cards, word processing, and other systems developed with the Latin alphabet in mind. This book is about those encounters -- in particular thousands of Chinese characters versus the typewriter and its QWERTY keyboard. Thomas Mullaney describes a fascinating series of experiments, prototypes, failures, and successes in the century-long quest for a workable Chinese typewriter. The earliest Chinese typewriters, Mullaney tells us, were figments of popular imagination, sensational accounts of twelve-foot keyboards with 5,000 keys. One of the first Chinese typewriters actually constructed was invented by a Christian missionary, who organized characters by common usage (but promoted the less-common characters for "Jesus" to the common usage level). Later came typewriters manufactured for use in Chinese offices, and typewriting schools that turned out trained "typewriter girls" and "typewriter boys." Still later was the "Double Pigeon" typewriter produced by the Shanghai Calculator and Typewriter Factory, the typewriter of choice under Mao. Clerks and secretaries in this era experimented with alternative ways of organizing characters on their tray beds, inventing an arrangement method that was the first instance of "predictive text." Today, after more than a century of resistance against the alphabetic, not only have Chinese characters prevailed, they form the linguistic substrate of the vibrant world of Chinese information technology. The Chinese Typewriter, not just an "object history" but grappling with broad questions of technological change and global communication, shows how this happened."--Publisher's description.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents
Incompatible with modernity
Puzzling Chinese
Radical machines
What do you call a typewriter with no keys?
Controlling the Kanjisphere
QWERTY is dead! Long live QWERTY! Lin Yutang and the birth of input
The typing rebellion.
Show 4 more Contents items
ISBN
9780262036368 ((hardcover : alkaline paper))
0262036363 ((hardcover : alkaline paper))
9780262536103
0262536102
LCCN
2016050197
OCLC
978286391
Statement on language in description
Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage.
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The Chinese Typewriter A History / Thomas S. Mullaney.
id
99126160106806421
The Chinese typewriter : a history / Thomas S. Mullaney.
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99125634614706421