Books in Brief
June 4, 2024
The Chinese Computer: A Global History of the Information Age
Author: Thomas S. Mullaney
Via MIT Press
“A standard QWERTY keyboard has a few dozen keys. How can Chinese—a language with tens of thousands of characters and no alphabet—be input on such a device? In The Chinese Computer, Thomas S. Mullaney sets out to resolve this paradox, and in doing so, discovers that the key to this seemingly impossible riddle has given rise to a new epoch in the history of writing—a form of writing he calls ‘hypography.’ Based on fifteen years of research, this pathbreaking history of the Chinese language charts the beginnings of electronic Chinese technology in the wake of World War II up through to its many iterations in the present day.”
Mullaney is a professor in the Department of History.
