Chinese Scripts, Codes, and Typewriting Machines

Abstract

This chapter discusses the various proposals that were put forth and their technological consequences, including a landmark invention of a Chinese-language typewriter in the 1940s. The focus of the chapter on script systems differs from an emphasis on translation in studies of European and non-European encounters. While it is easier to discredit, as many have, how Marshall McLuhan deployed the ideograph in his popular theory of the medium and the message, it is harder to dismiss the pleas voiced by the Chinese themselves. From 1930 onward, Lin Yutang authored numerous nonfiction and fiction works and introduced Chinese culture and civilization to the Anglophone audience. All this was indebted to Lin's early interest in linguistics and phonology, which later took a back seat to his literary career. In retrospect, the impact of Lin's typewriter on the era of machine translation gave an unexpected twist to the original intent of machine translation. Keywords: Chinese culture; Chinese scripts; Chinese-language typewriting machines; Lin Yutang's linguistics; Lin Yutang's phonology; Marshall McLuhan