Eastwind Books of Berkeley
  • Home
  • Donate!
  • Events
    • Past Eastwind Events
    • Eastwind Book Club
  • Libraries For Liberation
  • Global Histories Graphic Novels
  • Textbooks
  • Celebrate Lunar New Year!
  • Distributed by Eastwind
  • Asian American Studies
    • Stop Asian Hate!
    • Chinese American Studies
    • Filipino American Studies
    • Japanese American Studies
    • Korean American Studies
    • South Asian American Studies
    • Southeast Asian American Studies
  • Asian American Literature
    • Chinese American Literature
    • Japanese American Literature
    • Korean American Literature
    • Filipinx American Literature
    • Southeast Asian American Literature
    • South Asian American Literature
  • Black Lives Matter
  • Ethnic Studies
    • African American Studies
    • Chicanx/Latinx Studies
    • Native American Studies
    • Pacific Islander Am. Studies
  • Ethnic Literature
    • African American Literature
    • Chicanx/Latinx Literature
    • Native American Literature
    • Pacific Islander Am. Listerature
  • Children & Young Readers
    • African American Children's Books
    • Chinese Children's Books
    • Filipino Children's Books
    • Japanese Children's Books
    • Korean Children's Books
    • South Asian Children's Books
    • Southeast Asian Children's Books
  • Poetry
    • African American Poetry
    • Chinese American Poetry
    • Japanese American Poetry
    • Korean American Poetry
    • Filipino American Poetry
    • Southeast Asian American Poetry
  • Graphic Novels
  • Food & Cook Books
  • Asia
    • Asian Fantasy & Sci Fi
  • Merchandise & Gifts
    • Eastwind Merchandise
    • Greeting Cards
    • Haruyo Knechtli Ceramics
      • Ceramics
    • Southeast Asian Art Prints
    • Journals & Notebooks
  • More Categories
    • Language Learning
      • Chinese
        • New Practical Chinese Reader Series
        • Integrated Chinese Series
      • Filipino
      • Thai
      • Vietnamese
    • Arts & Crafts/Art Supplies
    • Music
    • Film & Media
    • Martial Arts & Qigong
    • Medicine
    • Religion and Spirituality
    • Philosophy
    • Culture
    • History
      • Bay Area History
  • Used Books
    • USED non-fiction
  • About Us
    • Subscribe to Our Newsletter
    • Directions
  • Contact Us
    • FAQ
  • Recurring Monthly Donation
  • Category
  • Home
  • Donate!
  • Events
    • Past Eastwind Events
    • Eastwind Book Club
  • Libraries For Liberation
  • Global Histories Graphic Novels
  • Textbooks
  • Celebrate Lunar New Year!
  • Distributed by Eastwind
  • Asian American Studies
    • Stop Asian Hate!
    • Chinese American Studies
    • Filipino American Studies
    • Japanese American Studies
    • Korean American Studies
    • South Asian American Studies
    • Southeast Asian American Studies
  • Asian American Literature
    • Chinese American Literature
    • Japanese American Literature
    • Korean American Literature
    • Filipinx American Literature
    • Southeast Asian American Literature
    • South Asian American Literature
  • Black Lives Matter
  • Ethnic Studies
    • African American Studies
    • Chicanx/Latinx Studies
    • Native American Studies
    • Pacific Islander Am. Studies
  • Ethnic Literature
    • African American Literature
    • Chicanx/Latinx Literature
    • Native American Literature
    • Pacific Islander Am. Listerature
  • Children & Young Readers
    • African American Children's Books
    • Chinese Children's Books
    • Filipino Children's Books
    • Japanese Children's Books
    • Korean Children's Books
    • South Asian Children's Books
    • Southeast Asian Children's Books
  • Poetry
    • African American Poetry
    • Chinese American Poetry
    • Japanese American Poetry
    • Korean American Poetry
    • Filipino American Poetry
    • Southeast Asian American Poetry
  • Graphic Novels
  • Food & Cook Books
  • Asia
    • Asian Fantasy & Sci Fi
  • Merchandise & Gifts
    • Eastwind Merchandise
    • Greeting Cards
    • Haruyo Knechtli Ceramics
      • Ceramics
    • Southeast Asian Art Prints
    • Journals & Notebooks
  • More Categories
    • Language Learning
      • Chinese
        • New Practical Chinese Reader Series
        • Integrated Chinese Series
      • Filipino
      • Thai
      • Vietnamese
    • Arts & Crafts/Art Supplies
    • Music
    • Film & Media
    • Martial Arts & Qigong
    • Medicine
    • Religion and Spirituality
    • Philosophy
    • Culture
    • History
      • Bay Area History
  • Used Books
    • USED non-fiction
  • About Us
    • Subscribe to Our Newsletter
    • Directions
  • Contact Us
    • FAQ
  • Recurring Monthly Donation
  • Category
2066 University Ave. Berkeley, CA 94704

HOURS -
Mon: 11-6pm
Tues: 11-6pm
Wed: 11-6pm
Thurs: 11-6pm
Fri: 11-6pm
Sat: 11-6pm
Sun: 12-4pm
  • CATEGORY: ASIA STUDIES & LITERATURE
  • >
  • China Studies
  • >
  • The Chinese Typewriter, A History

The Chinese Typewriter, A History

SKU: 9780262536103
$18.95
$18.95
Unavailable
per item

Author: Thomas S. Mullaney

Publisher: MIT Press: 2017

Format: Paperback

Condition: New

ISBN: 9780262536103

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Google+
Sold out
Add to Cart
How Chinese characters triumphed over the QWERTY keyboard and laid the foundation for China's information technology successes today.
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 input 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.

A Study of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University

Biography
Thomas S. Mullaney is Professor of Chinese History at Stanford University, and Curator of the international exhibition, Radical Machines: Chinese in the Information Age.

He is the author of The Chinese Typewriter: A History (MIT Press 2017), Coming to Terms with the Nation: Ethnic Classification in Modern China (UC Press, 2010), and principal editor of Critical Han Studies: The History, Representation and Identity of China’s Majority (UC Press, 2011). His writings have appeared in the Journal of Asian Studies, Technology & Culture, Aeon, Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Policy, and his work has been featured in the LA Times, The Atlantic, the BBC, and in invited lectures at Google, Microsoft, Adobe, and more. He holds a PhD from Columbia University.

His new book, The Chinese Typewriter, examines China’s development of a modern, nonalphabetic information infrastructure encompassing telegraphy, typewriting, word processing, and computing. This project has received three major awards and fellowships, including the 2013 Usher Prize, a three-year National Science Foundation fellowship, and a Hellman Faculty Fellowship. The sequel to this work – The Chinese Computer: A Global History of the Information Age – will be released on MIT Press later, and will be featured in the Weatherhead Asian Series.

He also directs Digital Humanities Asia (DHAsia), a program at Stanford University focused on East, South, Southeast, and Inner/Central Asia. DHAsia was recently the recipient of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar fellowship.




​






Want to stay updated on Eastwind events and special deals? Click here to subscribe to our newsletter so you never have to miss a thing!  Gift Cards are also available on our site. 

OUR SERVICES

Retail Bookseller
Book Promotions & Events
Institutional Sales
Special Orders
COMPANY

About Us
Contact Us
Directions
SUPPORT

International Orders
FAQ
Terms of Use
Copyright © 2014 ; 2066 University Avenue, Berkeley ; (510) 548-2350; eastwindbooks@gmail.com

We are closed for the following holidays: 

New Year's Day 
Independence Day
Labor Day 
Thanksgiving Day
Christmas Day, Dec.25 and 26 
  • Home
  • Donate!
  • Events
    • Past Eastwind Events
    • Eastwind Book Club
  • Libraries For Liberation
  • Global Histories Graphic Novels
  • Textbooks
  • Celebrate Lunar New Year!
  • Distributed by Eastwind
  • Asian American Studies
    • Stop Asian Hate!
    • Chinese American Studies
    • Filipino American Studies
    • Japanese American Studies
    • Korean American Studies
    • South Asian American Studies
    • Southeast Asian American Studies
  • Asian American Literature
    • Chinese American Literature
    • Japanese American Literature
    • Korean American Literature
    • Filipinx American Literature
    • Southeast Asian American Literature
    • South Asian American Literature
  • Black Lives Matter
  • Ethnic Studies
    • African American Studies
    • Chicanx/Latinx Studies
    • Native American Studies
    • Pacific Islander Am. Studies
  • Ethnic Literature
    • African American Literature
    • Chicanx/Latinx Literature
    • Native American Literature
    • Pacific Islander Am. Listerature
  • Children & Young Readers
    • African American Children's Books
    • Chinese Children's Books
    • Filipino Children's Books
    • Japanese Children's Books
    • Korean Children's Books
    • South Asian Children's Books
    • Southeast Asian Children's Books
  • Poetry
    • African American Poetry
    • Chinese American Poetry
    • Japanese American Poetry
    • Korean American Poetry
    • Filipino American Poetry
    • Southeast Asian American Poetry
  • Graphic Novels
  • Food & Cook Books
  • Asia
    • Asian Fantasy & Sci Fi
  • Merchandise & Gifts
    • Eastwind Merchandise
    • Greeting Cards
    • Haruyo Knechtli Ceramics
      • Ceramics
    • Southeast Asian Art Prints
    • Journals & Notebooks
  • More Categories
    • Language Learning
      • Chinese
        • New Practical Chinese Reader Series
        • Integrated Chinese Series
      • Filipino
      • Thai
      • Vietnamese
    • Arts & Crafts/Art Supplies
    • Music
    • Film & Media
    • Martial Arts & Qigong
    • Medicine
    • Religion and Spirituality
    • Philosophy
    • Culture
    • History
      • Bay Area History
  • Used Books
    • USED non-fiction
  • About Us
    • Subscribe to Our Newsletter
    • Directions
  • Contact Us
    • FAQ
  • Recurring Monthly Donation
  • Category