How do you type in a language with thousands of characters? In the early 20th century, two inventors vied to solve the information technology and engineering puzzle of creating a Chinese language typewriter. Zhou Houkun of MIT designed a typewriter based on “common usage Chinese,” selecting the 3,000 most commonly used everyday characters; Qi Xuan of NYU broke up characters into modular pieces that would allow a typist to “spell” any character. While more limited, Zhou’s more successful prototype was acquired by the Commercial Press in Shanghai and its improved Shu Zhendong Chinese Typewriter became the country’s first mass-manufactured typewriter. Using the left hand, the typist would move the gridded bed right and left; with the right hand, they would punch down on the chosen Chinese character with a type lever to pick up the loose metal slug. Since these first attempts to mechanize written Chinese, information technology has continued to grapple with how best to translate Chinese characters into communication systems from Morse code to iOS. These days, Chinese computing is possible thanks to “Input Method Editors,” which date back to the 1947 MingKwai experimental typewriter, which intercept QWERTY keystrokes and retrieve the correct character from a database based on the sounds inputted. The above typewriter was featured in MOCA’s recent exhibition on the development of the Chinese typewriter, Radical Machines: Chinese in the Information Age.
你如何输入一种有数千个字符的语言？20世纪初，两位发明家争相解决创造出一台中文打字机的信息技术和工程难题。麻省理工学院的周厚坤（Zhou Houkun）设计了一款基于常用汉字的打字机，挑选出了3000个日常最常使用的汉字；纽约大学的祁暄（Qi Xuan）将汉字分成模块，这样打字员就可以“拼写”任何汉字。尽管更加受限，但是周厚坤的打字机原型更为成功，被上海商务印书馆征用，而且其改良版的舒振东（Shu Zhendong）中文打字机成为中国第一个大规模生产的打字机。打字员用左手左右移动网格床，右手用一根打字杆敲击选中的汉字，以抓起这个松动的金属汉字。自从这些首次尝试书写中文机械化以来，信息技术一直在努力解决如何才能最好地将汉字翻译成从摩尔斯电码到IOS的通信系统中。如今，中文计算机处理应该要归功于“输入法编辑器”的发明，它可以追溯到1947年的明快（MingKwai）实验打字机，它拦截QWERTY的键击，并根据输入的声音从数据库中检索正确的字符。上图的打字机在MOCA最近一个关于中国打字机发展历史的展览《革新中传统：信息時代中文的命运》（Radical Machines: Chinese in the Information Age）中展出。
Countdown to the TCS NYC Marathon on November 3, 2019: 216 Days.
2019年是美国第一条横贯大陆铁路建成150周年，为了纪念第一批华人来美建设这条铁路所做出的巨大贡献， MOCA将其2019 TCS NYC Marathon的活动命名为 MOCA Spike 150 – Running Forward With Our Stories！ 鼓励大家通过马拉松公益跑，全国线上接力，以及一天一个故事的方式讲述150个华人的历史故事，敬请大家持续关注， 讲出华人自己的故事，回顾过去，立足现在，展望未来，共同书写美国历史，使之更加充实完整。