Chinese Typewriter

Well Everyone, here is the moment I've all been waiting for: The Chinese Typewriter!

This is a small educational lesson today. Most likely I will cover this subject with more jokes in the future.

As we all know the Chinese language has tens of thousands of characters. The history and development of the typewriter and the system for mechanically or electronically creating text in Chinese has undergone many frustrating changes.

Throughout the years other, less sympathetic countries, have made fun of the very idea of a Chinese Typewriter. We will not cover all jokes about the device, but I'll give you a little educational lift today.



Below is an example of a Chinese typewriter from about 1970. The tray at the bottom has a few thousand characters to use and that type case can be traded out for other sets if more characters are needed. The typist lines up a grabber for the character than hits a switch to imprint it on the paper. A good typist could average 20 characters per minute.

It seems to me like it would be just as fast to set lines of type by hand then print the whole page at once, but then again you'd have multiple charcacters on a page and so the 1,000's of characters needed would increase 10 fold or more.

There was another design that never was produced commercially called the "Ming Kwai" which means "Clear and Quick". The typewriter could create 7000 distinct characters. It could type additional "words" using combinations of characters, attaining a theoretical total of 90,000 words.

According to the daughter of inventor Lin Yutang the day she was to demonstrate the machine to executives of the Remington Typewriter Company, they could not make it work. The machine was fixed the next day, but Ming Kwai's obituary was already written.

In the digital world the computer can do thinking that a mechanical device can't. While the most widespread method of inputting Chinese on a QWERTY keyboard (standard keyboard) is the Cangjie input method inwhich the typist "builds" the characters. Each letter on the keyboard stands for a different basic construct.

The computer is much more versatile in its abilities to modify your characters, or use alternate input methods like drawing with a mouse or even voice recognition. Other methods are used, but the Cangjie input method took off due to not putting a price on the software that translates/modifies your keystrokes. It is available as freeware and is installed on most (Chinese) computers standard.

Thinking about this too much often gives me a headache. That's why Reverend Rick has to stop every so often to get my groove on. So here is a recipe to rock out. Remember M.C. Hammer? Apparently in "U Can't Touch This" when hammer is breakin' it down, his dance is called the "Chinese Typewriter".

The gist is that he's so fast he's navigating an enormous set of keys on a typewriter with his quick moving feet. Brilliant. Ya got me Hammy. Maybe he was writing a letter to the chinese people. If so, we can guess the words....oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Stop. Hammer Time.

Readers Questions

Dear first time, and soon to be loyal readers. I am starting this blog with the hopes that Reverend Rick can illuminate your night with the store houses of wisdom that he accidentally pre-ordered through Amazon. If you want me to launch a massive amount of this product at you, then stay tuned!

I hope that you, loyal reader, will e-mail me your questions and comments so that i may climb up on my soapbox and preach. Since I created this yesterday, i have yet to hear from you, so please send me an e-mail. Look in my profile for my address.

To get this blog rolling i have included a fictitious e-mail question. You may notice the readers name sounds questionable, but due to the fact that there is a city and state included under her name you may feel more apt to indulge in the pseudo reality of this farce.

Dear Reverend Rick,

I don't have a question for you, is there something wrong with me?

Miss DaPointe

Okland CA

Dear Miss D.,

While you may feel no obvious signs at first, there could be something terribly wrong with your parents. A lack of inquisitiveness runs in families, but since you e-mailed me with a question on why you don't have a question, you may in fact be suffering from an overproduction of irony instead. You might want to stay home from work today to better safeguard yourself from any irony that might occur. Of course, if you are a stay at home mom, don't follow these instructions, as conditions may get worse.

Thank you Miss D. for your mildly interesting question. Please send a better question in the future.

Reverend Rick

So, if you want the Soapbox treatment from Reverend Rick, don't be shy - send a reply!

ALSO: Stay tuned, because Young Dim One's Fortune says: Chinese Typewriter...EXPLAINED!

Cheers!

Here's to a new day, a brand new blog, and a brand spankin' new identity via technology.

Reverend Ricks Soap Box and Oddities is firmly founded in my bordom, my childlike sense of wonder, my no-holds barred approach to things like: the "english" language, the effervecense of culture and all things bubbly, the derivations of the word "to" and why this is unimportant, and later, we might even discover how a chinese typewriter works.

Let Reverend Rick guide you through the certainties in life and reassure you that nothing is certain. May I also point out that those who out-point their points, at a certain point, have lost their point.

So is it all pointless you ask? Is life meaningless? No, my friend. The world is imbued with confidence, with lust, with vigor, with rich vivacious ice-cream-like scoops of chocolaty lessons on this rocky road of life. Reverend Rick is here to serve it up cold and creamy, hot and fresh, oldie and moldy, hard and crusty, or whatever way you like it.


So raise your glasses high, then put them back on your face and take a drink to life and to Reverend Rick's soap box!