The Chinese Typewriter

by Thomas Mullaney

  24 The Teaching of Words (Moji no oshie) [文字の教え]; Seeley, A History of Writing in Japan, 141.

  25 “List of Characters for General Use” (Jōyō kanji hyō) [常用漢字表]; Interim Committee on the National Language (Rinji kokugo chōsakai) [臨時国語調査会].

  26 Sanzenji jibiki, The Three Thousand Character Dictionary (Sanzenji jibiki) [三千字字引]; Seeley, A History of Writing in Japan, 141, 146–147.

  27 “Advocating the Restriction of the Number of Kanji” (Kanji seigen o teishō su) [漢字制限を提唱す]; Seeley, A History of Writing in Japan, 146. Still other early examples include Ōki Takatō [大木喬任] (1831–1899), Japan’s first minister of education, who in 1872 commissioned a common usage kanji dictionary—the two-volume Newly Compiled Dictionary (Shinsen jishō 新選辞書)—containing 3,167 characters. Seeley, A History of Writing in Japan, 142.

  28 A second approach to the question of Japanese linguistic modernization focused on Romanization, led by figures such as Nanbu Yoshikazu (南部義籌, 1840–1917), Nishi Amane (西周, 1827–1897), and Ōtsuki Fumihiko (大槻文彦, 1847–1928). In 1869, Nanbu published his treatise “Argument for Amending the National Language.” In 1885, the Romanization Club and Rōmaji Magazine adapted the Romanization method first developed by James Curtis Hepburn (1815–1911). Among the many competing systems for rendering Japanese in the Latin alphabet was the so-called “Japan Style” (Nipponshiki) developed by Tanakadate Aikitsu (田中舘愛橘, 1856–1952). Seeley, A History of Writing in Japan, 139–140; Nanette Gottlieb, “The Rōmaji Movement in Japan,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 20, no. 1 (2010): 75–88; Shūkokugo ron [修国語論] (Argument for Amending the National Language); Rōmaji kai (Romanization Club) and Rōmaji zasshi.

  29 Watabe Hisako [渡部久子], Japanese Typewriter Textbook (Hōbun taipuraitā tokuhon) [邦文タイプライター讀本] (Tokyo: Sūbundō [崇文堂], 1929), 6–7.

  30 Kyota Sugimoto, “Type-Writer,” United States Patent no. 1245633 (filed November 7, 1916; patented November 6, 1917).

  31 Toshiba Japanese Typewriter. Manufactured c. 1935. Peter Mitterhofer Schreibmaschinenmuseum/Museo delle Macchine da Scrivere. Partschins (Parcines), Italy, “Macchina da Scrivere Giapponese Toshiba.”

  32 Nippon Typewriter Company [日本イプライター株式会社], ed., Character Index for Japanese Typewriter (Hōbun taipuraitā-yō moji no sakuin) [邦文タイプライター用文字の索引] (Tokyo: n.p., 1917); Hisao Yamada, “A Historical Study of Typewriters and Typing Methods; from the Position of Planning Japanese Parallels,” Journal of Information Processing 2, no. 4 (February 1980): 175–202; Hisao Yamada and Jiro Tanaka, “A Human Factors Study of Input Keyboard for Japanese Text,” Proceedings of the International Computer Symposium (Taipei: National Taiwan University, 1977), 47–64.

  33 Raja Adal, “The Flower of the Office: The Social Life of the Japanese Typewriter in Its First Decade,” presentation at the Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting, March 31–April 3, 2011.

  34 Janet Hunter, “Technology Transfer and the Gendering of Communications Work: Meiji Japan in Comparative Historical Perspective,” Social Science Japan Journal 14, no. 1 (Winter 2011): 1–20. See also Kae Ishii, “The Gendering of Workplace Culture: An Example from Japanese Telegraph Operators,” Bulletin of Health Science University 1, no. 1 (2005): 37–48; Brenda Maddox, “Women and the Switchboard,” in The Social History of the Telephone, ed. Ithiel de Sola Pool (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1977), 262–280; Susan Bachrach, Dames Employées: The Feminization of Postal Work in Nineteenth-Century France (London: Routledge, 1984); Michele Martin, “Hello, Central?”: Gender, Technology and Culture in the Formation of Telephone Systems (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1991); Ken Lipartito, “When Women Were Switches: Technology, Work, and Gender in the Telephone Industry, 1890–1920,” American Historical Review 99, no. 4 (1994): 1074–1111; Alisa Freedman, Laura Miller, and Christine R. Yano, eds., Modern Girls on the Go: Gender, Mobility, and Labor in Japan (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013).

  35 Investigation of Women’s Occupations in Tokyo and Osaka (Tōkyō Ōsaka ryōshi ni okeru shokugyō fujo chōsa) [東京大阪両市に於ける職業婦女調査] (Tokyo: n.p., 1927), 4–11.

  36 For the journal’s 1940s-era generic “women’s content,” see Nishida Masaaki [西田正秋], “Japanese-Style Female Beauty of Today (Kyō no nipponteki joseibi) [今日の日本的女性美],” Taipisuto [タイピスト] 17, no. 7 (July 1942): 2–5. For content more focused on Japanese typewriting and its civilizational importance, see Omi Hironobu [小見博信], “Japanese Culture and the Mission of the Japanese Typewriter (Nipponbunka to Hōbun taipuraitā no shimei) [日本文化と邦文タイプライターの使命],” Taipisuto [タイピスト] 17, no. 11 (November 1942): 12–13. Collections for this periodical are incomplete, creating challenges for identifying the exact publication period. The year 1925 is calculated by reverse dating based upon the issue, number, and date information for extant issues. The periodical ran for approximately two decades.

  37 Kyota Sugimoto, “Type-Writer,” United States Patent no. 1245633 (filed November 7, 1916; patented November 6, 1917).

  38 Yusaku Shinozawa, “Typewriter,” United States Patent no. 1297020 (filed June 19, 1918; patented March 11, 1919). Reports of Japanese-built Chinese machines surfaced as early as 1914. In that year, readers of the Chinese journal Progress (Jinbu) learned of a Kanbun, Chinese-character typewriter prototype under development by a Japanese engineer. Born in Fukuoka, Sakai Yasujiro pursued his undergraduate studies in Electrical Engineering at the University of California. Following graduation in 1904, Sakai went on to work for Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, where he specialized in automation and assigned a host of patents to his patron company. Sakai returned to Japan in 1913, going on to serve as Consulting Engineer at Takata and Company in Tokyo and Chief Engineer at the Yasukawa Electric Works. Upon returning to Japan from Pennsylvania, Sakai’s interests soon drifted from questions of machine automation to the automation of the Japanese language—specifically of kanji. In Japan, he commenced work on a kanji typewriter. Wan Zhang [綰章], “Invention of a New Chinese Character Typewriter (Hanwen daziji zhi xin faming) [漢文打字機之新發明],” Progress: A Journal of Modern Civilization (Jinbu) [進步] 6, no. 1 (1914): 5; “Notice Regarding Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California,” Journal of Electricity 41, no. 1 (1918): 515; Bulletin (Berkeley: University of California, 1910), 65; Frank Conrad and Yasudiro Sakai, “Impedance Device for Use with Current-Rectifiers,” United States Patent no. 1075404 (filed January 10, 1912; patented October 14, 1913); Yasudiro Sakai, “Stop Cock,” United States Patent no. 1001455 (filed December 10, 1910; patented August 22, 1911); Yasudiro Sakai, “Electrical Terminal,” United States Patent no. 1049404 (filed January 7, 1911; patented January 7, 1913); Yasudiro Sakai, “Vapor Electric Device,” United States Patent no. 1101665 (filed December 30, 1910; patented June 30, 1914); Yasudiro Sakai, “Vapor Electric Apparatus,” United States Patent no. 1148628 (filed June 14, 1912; patented August 3, 1915); Yasudiro Sakai, “Armature Winding,” United States Patent no. 1156711 (filed February 3, 1910; patented October 12, 1915). See also “Shunjiro Kurita,” Who’s Who in Japan 13–14 (1930): 8. In 1917 readers of Shenbao learned that, on July 12, the Chinese Youth Association in Shanghai would be hosting representatives of the Mitsui Trading Company, there to showcase a typewriter that could handle not only Japanese but also Chinese. See “Testing Chinese Typewriters (Shiyan Huawen daziji) [試驗華文打字機],” Shenbao (July 12, 1917), 11.

  39 The same held true for early inventors of Chinese typewriters, in the opposite direction. In a telling passage from his 1915 patent, Qi Xuan, the inventor we first met in chapter 3, gestured toward his own transnational ambitions. “My method and arrangement,” Qi mentioned almost in passing, “possess great advantage, not only in Chinese, but in all languages in which the words are com
posed of radicals and not of letters, such for instance as Japanese and Korean.” See Chi, Heuen [Qi Xuan], “Apparatus for Writing Chinese,” United States Patent no. 1260753 (filed April 17, 1915; patented March 26, 1918).

  40 Douglas Howland, Borders of Chinese Civilization: Geography and History at Empire’s End (Durham: Duke University Press, 1996), 44.

  41 Ibid., 54.

  42 Mary Badger Wilson, “Fleet-Fingered Typist,” New York Times (December 2, 1923), SM2.

  43 Ibid.

  44 “Stenographer Has a Tough Job,” Ludington Daily News (April 8, 1937), 5.

  45 “A Line O’ Type or Two,” Chicago Daily Tribune (August 31, 1949), 16.

  46 Oriental Typewriter Character Handbook (Tōyō taipuraitā moji binran: Nigōki-yō) [東洋タイプライター文字便覧: 弐号機用] (Tokyo: Oriental Typewriter Co. [東洋タイプライター]), 1923; Morita Torao [森田虎雄], Japanese Typewriter Textbook (Hōbun taipuraitā kyokasho) [邦文タイプライター教科書] (Tokyo: Tokyo Women’s Foreign Language School [東京女子外國語學校], 1934), 8–9.

  47 Reed, Gutenberg in Shanghai, 128.

  48 Y. Tak Matsusaka, “Managing Occupied Manchuria,” in Japan’s Wartime Empire, ed. Peter Duus, Ramon H. Myers, and Mark R. Peattie (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 112–120.

  49 Li Xianyan [李獻延], ed., Newest Stationery Forms (Zuixin gongwen chengshi) [最新公文程式] (Xinjing: Fengtian Typing Institute [奉天打字專門學校], circa 1932). Owing to missing pages, an exact year cannot be assigned. The prevalence of typing samples listed as “Datong Year One” (Datong yuannian) strongly suggest a publication date of 1932 or thereabouts.

  50 Ibid., 43–48.

  51 Ibid., 1. 一國有一國的公文程式,一時代有一時代的公文程式,都是隨著國情和習慣而演進的;那末,述說公文程式的書籍,也要隨著時代而改革的,這是一定的理。打字員是專任謄錄公文的人員,所以打字員更要隨時學習新的公文程式,才能適合時代,才能供職工作。

  52 “Accounts of Visiting America (Lü Mei guancha tan) [旅美觀察談],” Shenbao (April 3, 1919), 14.

  53 According to one biography, Yu Binqi did not receive a formal degree from Waseda University. See “Native of Xiaoshan was Pioneer of Chinese Table Tennis and Swimming (Xiaoshanren huo shi Zhongguo pingpang qiu ji youyong yundong zhuyao kaichuang zhe) [萧山人或是中国乒乓球及游泳运动主要开创者],” May 2012, http://www.xsnet.cn/news/shms/2012_5/1570558.shtml

  54 “Swimming Expert Yu Binqi (Youyong zhuanjia Yu Binqi nanshi) [游泳專家俞斌祺男士],” Nan pengyou 1, no. 10 (1932): reverse cover.

  55 “A Positive Review of Yu-Style Chinese Typewriter (Yu shi Zhongwen daziji zhi haoping) [俞式中文打字機之好評],” Zhongguo shiye [中國實業] 1, no. 6 (1935): 1158.

  56 Yu Shuolin [俞碩霖], “The Birth of the Yu-Style Typewriter (Yu shi daziji de yan­sheng) [俞式打字机的诞生],” Old Kids Blog (Lao xiaohai shequ) [老小孩社区] (June 3, 2010), http://www.oldkids.cn/blog/blog_con.php?blogid=124277 (accessed June 13, 2011); Yu Shuolin [俞碩霖], “Yu-Style Typewriter Factory (Yu shi daziji zhizaochang) [俞式打字机制造厂],” Old Kids Blog (Lao xiaohai shequ) [老小孩社区] (June 6, 2010), http://www.oldkids.cn/blog/blog_con.php?blogid=130431 (accessed June 13, 2011).

  57 “Contacts for School Graduates Where Currently Employed,” 6–8.

  58 “A Positive Review of Yu-Style Chinese Typewriter,” 1158.

  59 Jin Shuqing joined the school in 1934. The outbreak of Japanese aggressions in 1931 also seems to have taken a toll on Yu Binqi’s family and personal affairs, as related by Yu Binqi’s son. At the time, Yu maintained relations with both his wife and a mistress surnamed Wu. In the wake of the 1932 incident, however, Yu Binqi’s son, mother, and grandmother took refuge in the family’s native place of Sushan in Zhejiang. Yu Binqi himself stayed behind in Shanghai, presumably to continue overseeing his business. When the family was reunited in the fall of 1932, Yu Binqi separated from his wife, who took up residence elsewhere with Yu Binqi’s son. Somewhere around this time, Yu Binqi placed an ad for a secretary, to which a young woman named Jin Shuqing (金淑清) responded. Gradually, Jin displaced Wu as Yu Binqi’s favorite, until finally she became his companion and mistress. Jin also pushed for marriage, ultimately prompting a legal divorce between Yu and his estranged wife. See Yu Shuolin [俞碩霖], “Yu-Style Chinese Typewriter Unlimited Company (Yu shi daziji wuxian gongsi) [俞式打字机无限公司],” Old Kids Blog (Lao xiaohai shequ) [老小孩社区] (June 7, 2010), http://www.oldkids.cn/blog/blog_con.php?blogid=130576 (accessed June 13, 2011).

  60 In 1934, Yu Binqi teamed up with Chinese Stenography inventor Yang Bingxun [杨炳勋], expanding his school to offer instruction in both areas. The school was located on Shanchang Alley, Kayi Road [卡億路善昌里]. “Chinese Typewriter Inventor and Chinese Stenography Inventor Jointly Run Special School (Zhongwen daziji suji famingren heban zhuanxiao) [中文打字機速記發明人合辦專校],” Shenbao (September 5, 1934), 16. Huang Juede was a graduate of Yu’s school, joining the staff in 1935 as an administrator and as assistant instructor of typing.

  61 Yu’s school also helped give rise to additional Chinese typing schools, staffed with Yu’s graduates and centered around the Yu-style machine. In 1935, for example, one of Yu’s graduates—a young man by the name of Sheng Jiping—was hired to oversee a newly formed Chinese typewriting class at a middle school in Zhejiang province. Important for our purposes is the fact that the class used a “Yu-style Chinese typewriter” (Yu shi Zhongwen daziji). “Business Class Adds Course in Chinese Typing (Shangke tianshe Zhongwen daziji kecheng) [商科添設中文打字機課程],” Zhejiang shengli Hangzhou gaoji zhongxue xiaokan [浙江省立杭州高级中学校刊] 119 (1935): 841.

  62 See Yu Shuolin, “Two Types of Chinese Typewriter (Liang zhong Zhongwen daziji) [两种中文打字机],” Old Kids Blog (Lao xiaohai shequ) [老小孩社区] (February 8, 2010), www.oldkids.cn/blog/blog_con.php?blogid=116181 (accessed May 12, 2013).

  63 “Resist Japan and Save the Nation Movement (Kang Ri jiuguo yundong) [抗日救國運動],” Shenbao (November 8, 1931), 13–14.

  64 “Yu Binqi Defends Himself to the Resist Japan Association (Yu Binqi xiang kang Ri hui shenban) [俞斌祺向抗日會伸辨],” Shenbao (November 9, 1931), 11.

  65 “Resist Japan Association Standing Committee 17th Meeting Memo (Kang Ri hui changwuhuiyi ji di’shiqi ci) [抗日會常務會議記第十七次],” Shenbao (November 12, 1931), 13. For more on patriotic consumption campaigns of the era, see Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, Student Protests in Twentieth-Century China: The View from Shanghai (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997), 176–178, 190–191; Karl Gerth, China Made: Consumer Culture and the Creation of the Nation (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Asia Center, 2003); and Mark W. Frazier, The Making of the Chinese Industrial Workplace: State, Revolution, and Labor Management (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 47.

  66 “The Chinese Typewriter: Resisting Japan and Supporting China (Kang Ri sheng zhong zhi Zhongwen daziji) [抗日聲中之中文打字機],” Shenbao (January 26, 1932), 12.

  67 “Steel Types Invented and Used in Chinese Typewriters (Daziji yong gangzhi suozi faming) [打字機用鋼質活字發明],” Shenbao (September 3, 1932), 16; “Chinese Typewriter Steel Types Invented (Faming Zhongwen daziji gangzhi huozi) [發明中文打字機鋼質活字],” Shenbao (September 10, 1932), 16; “Yu Binqi Invents Steel Type (Yu Binqi faming gangzhi zhuzi) [俞斌祺發明鋼質鑄字],” China Industry (Zhongguo shiye) [中國實業] 1, no. 5 (1935): 939.

  68 “Chinese Typewriter Company Donates Profits to Northeast Refugees (Zhongwen daziji choukuan juanzhu dongbei nanmin) [中文打字機抽欵捐助東北難民],” Shenbao (December 18, 1932), 14.

  69 “Donation to Northeast Refugees: Buy One Chinese Typewriter, Donate Thirty Yuan (Choukuan juanzhu dongbei nanmin gou Zhongwen daziji yi jia ke choujuan sanshi
yuan banfa) [抽款捐助東北難民購中文打字機一架可抽捐三十圓辦法],” Shenbao (December 23, 1932), 12.

  70 “Yu’s Chinese Typewriter: Profits Donated to Flooded Districts (Yu shi Zhongwen daziji ticheng chong shuizai yici) [俞氏中文打字機提成充水災義赈],” Shenbao (December 22, 1935), 12.

  71 “New Chinese Typewriter: Seeking Cooperation with Capitalists (Xin faming Zhongwen daziji mi zibenjia hezuo) [新發明中文打字機覓資本家合作],” Shenbao (August 25, 1933), 14. These included Xieda [協大], Jingda [精大], Jiangchang [降昌], Daming [大明], and Luguiji [卢桂記]. At the time, Yu-style machines were already being manufactured by the Haishang Domestic Product Factory [海上國貨工廠]. This factory cited its inability to keep pace with production requirements and consumer demand, thereafter entering into a shared production arrangement with the above-mentioned consortium. “Chinese Typewriter Patent Approved: Five Major Factories Enthusiastically Join in Production (Zhongwen daziji zhuanli hezhun wuda chang jiji zhizao) [中文打字機專利核准五大工廠積極製造],” Shenbao (March 17, 1934), 13.

  72 “Yu’s Chinese Typewriter’s Revolution (Yu shi Zhongwen daziji zhi da gexin) [俞氏中文打字機之大革新],” Shenbao (May 9, 1934), 12.

  73 “Hongye Company Agency: Yu’s Chinese Typewriters Sell Well (Hongye gongsi jingli Yu shi Zhongwen daziji changxiao) [宏業公私經理俞氏中文打字機暢銷],” Shenbao (December 8, 1934), 14.

  74 “Yu’s Typewriter: Stencil Paper Printing Success (Xin faming Yu shi daziji lazhi youyin chenggong) [新發明俞氏打字機蜡纸油印成功],” Shenbao (January 28, 1935), 12.

  75 “Yu’s Chinese Typewriter Is Five Times More Convenient than Writing and Copying by Hand (Yu shi Zhongwen daziji wubei yu shanxie) [俞氏中文打字機五倍于繕寫],” Shenbao (July 7, 1936), 15.

  76 Yu Binqi had collaborated with fellow inventor Lin Zeren to establish the Chinese Inventors Association, seeking others in Shanghai and beyond to join. “Yu Binqi and Others Will Establish China Inventors Association (Yu Binqi deng zuzhi Zhongguo famingren xiehui) [俞斌祺等組織中國發明人協會],” Book Prospects (Tushu zhanwang) [圖書展望] 1, no. 8 (April 28, 1936): 83; “Chinese Inventors Association Preparatory Conference Held Yesterday (Zhongguo famingren xiehui zuori kai choubeihui) [中國發明人協會昨日開籌備會],” Shenbao (February 1, 1937), 20.