The Chinese Typewriter

by Thomas Mullaney

  77 “Ping-Pong Match Supporting Suiyuan, Souvenir Medals Granted (Suiyuan pingpang zeng jinianzhang) [綏援乒乓贈紀念章],” Shenbao (January 9, 1937), 10.

  78 Chinese Second Historical Archives (Zhongguo di’er lishi dang’anguan), ed., Historical Materials on the Old Chinese Maritime Customs, 1859–1948, vol. 112 (1932) (Zhongguo jiu haiguan shiliao) [中國舊海關史料] (Beijing: Jinghua Press [京華出版社], 2001); Chinese Second Historical Archives (Zhongguo di’er lishi dang’anguan), ed., Historical Materials on the Old Chinese Maritime Customs, 1859–1948, vol. 114 (1933) (Zhongguo jiu haiguan shiliao) [中國舊海關史料] (Beijing: Jinghua Press [京華出版社], 2001); Chinese Second Historical Archives (Zhongguo di’er lishi dang’anguan), ed., Historical Materials on the Old Chinese Maritime Customs, 1859–1948, vol. 118 (1935) (Zhongguo jiu haiguan shiliao) [中國舊海關史料] (Beijing: Jinghua Press [京華出版社], 2001); Chinese Second Historical Archives (Zhongguo di’er lishi dang’anguan), ed., Historical Materials on the Old Chinese Maritime Customs, 1859–1948, vol. 122 (1936) (Zhongguo jiu haiguan shiliao) [中國舊海關史料] (Beijing: Jinghua Press [京華出版社], 2001); Chinese Second Historical Archives (Zhongguo di’er lishi dang’anguan), ed., Historical Materials on the Old Chinese Maritime Customs, 1859–1948, vol. 126 (1937) (Zhongguo jiu haiguan shiliao) [中國舊海關史料] (Beijing: Jinghua Press [京華出版社], 2001); Chinese Second Historical Archives (Zhongguo di’er lishi dang’anguan), ed., Historical Materials on the Old Chinese Maritime Customs, 1859–1948, vol. 130 (1938) (Zhongguo jiu haiguan shiliao) [中國舊海關史料] (Beijing: Jinghua Press [京華出版社], 2001); Chinese Second Historical Archives (Zhongguo di’er lishi dang’anguan), ed., Historical Materials on the Old Chinese Maritime Customs, 1859–1948, vol. 134 (1939) (Zhongguo jiu haiguan shiliao) [中國舊海關史料] (Beijing: Jinghua Press [京華出版社], 2001); Chinese Second Historical Archives (Zhongguo di’er lishi dang’anguan), ed., Historical Materials on the Old Chinese Maritime Customs, 1859–1948, vol. 138 (1940) (Zhongguo jiu haiguan shiliao) [中國舊海關史料] (Beijing: Jinghua Press [京華出版社], 2001); Chinese Second Historical Archives (Zhongguo di’er lishi dang’anguan), ed., Historical Materials on the Old Chinese Maritime Customs, 1859–1948, volume 142 (1941) (Zhongguo jiu haiguan shiliao) [中國舊海關史料] (Beijing: Jinghua Press [京華出版社], 2001); Chinese Second Historical Archives (Zhongguo di’er lishi dang’anguan), ed., Historical Materials on the Old Chinese Maritime Customs, 1859–1948, vol. 144 (1942) (Zhongguo jiu haiguan shiliao) [中國舊海關史料] (Beijing: Jinghua Press [京華出版社], 2001).

  79 Daqing Yang, “Telecommunication and the Japanese Empire: A Preliminary Analysis of Telegraphic Traffic,” Historical Social Research 35, no. 1 (2010): 66–89.

  80 Ibid., 70–71.

  81 Parks Coble, Chinese Capitalists in Japan’s New Order: The Occupied Lower Yangzi, 1937–1945 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003).

  82 “The Six Patriotic Women Arrive in Tianjin (Tenshin e tsuita aikoku roku josei) [天津へ着いた愛国六女性],” Asahi Shinbun [朝日新聞] (January 4, 1938), 10; “The Six Patriotic Women of Tianjin (Tenshin no aikoku roku josei) [天津の愛国六女性],” Asahi Shinbun [朝日新聞] (February 5, 1938), 10; “Heading to the South Seas as a Typist (Taipisuto toshite nanyō e) [タイピストとして南洋へ],” Asahi Shinbun [朝日新聞] (August 24, 1939), E6.

  83 “The Key Lies in Mengjiang: Seeing Ōba Sachiko Off,” Taipisuto [タイピスト] 16, no. 10 (1941): 10–11. For further patriotic content about the typewriter, see “A Sailor’s Inspection of the Typewriter (Suihei-san no taipuraitā kengaku) [水兵さんのタイプライター見学],” Taipisuto [タイピスト] 16, no. 7 (July 1940): 16.

  84 Sakurada was the recipient of the 1940 Akutagawa Prize for his novel Hiraga Gennai.

  85 Sakurada Tsunehisa [櫻田常久], The Army Typist (Jūgun taipisuto) [従軍タイピスト] (Tokyo: Akamon shobō [赤門書房], 1941).

  86 Makimasa [牧正], “Diary of a Garrison in South China (Nanshi chūgun ki) [南支駐軍記],” Taipisuto [タイピスト] 17, no. 1 (February 1942): 16–25.

  87 “Typist Fever in Taiwan, Extremely Successful (Taiwan no taipisuto netsu: kiwamete seikyō) [台湾のタイピスト熱:極めて盛況],” Taipisuto [タイピスト] 16, no. 8 (1941): 11.

  88 Nippon Typewriter Company Divisions, Taipisuto [タイピスト] 17, no. 10 (October 1942—Showa 16): 54.

  89 “Japanese, Manchu, Chinese, Mongolian All-Script Typewriter (Ri Man Hua Meng wen gezhong daziji) [日滿華蒙文各種打字機],” Far East Trade Monthly (Yuandong maoyi yuebao) [遠東貿易月報] 7 (1940): reverse cover.

  90 “The First Manchuria-Wide Typist Competition Held in Xinjing,” Taipisuto [タイピスト] 16, no. 10 (1941): 2–7. The event was held on May 12, 1941. For later competitions, see “Mantetsu Type Competition Results (Zen Mantetsu jousho kyōgi taikai no seiseki) [全満鉄淨書競技大會の成績],” Taipisuto [タイピスト] 17, no. 10 (October 1942—Showa 16): 6–11; and Yuji Riichi [湯地利市]; “On the Mantetsu Type Competition (Mantetsu no taipu kyōgi ni tsuite) [満鉄のタイプ競技に就て],” Taipisuto [タイピスト] 18, no. 10 (October 1943—Showa 17): 2–3.

  91 Improved Shu Zhendong Style Chinese Typewriter Manual (Gailiang Shu shi Huawen daziji shuomingshu) [改良舒式華文打字機說明書] (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshu guan, 1938), University of Pennsylvania Archives—W. Norman Brown Papers (UPT 50 B879), box 10, folder 5. There were also efforts to electrify the Chinese typewriter, yet with minimum effect. Chinese typewriters remained mechanical well into the 1980s. See “Inventing an Electric Chinese Typewriter (Faming dianli Zhongwen daziji) [發明電力中文打字機],” Capital Electro-Optical Monthly (Shoudu dianguang yuekan) [首都電光月刊] 61 (1936): 9; and “Electric Chinese Typewriter a Success (Dianqi Zhongwen daziji chenggong) [電氣中文打字機成功],” Shoudu dianguang yuekan [首度電光月刊] 74 (April 1, 1937): 10.

  92 Personal communication from Shu Chonghui to the author, following Shu Chonghui’s February 6, 2010, interview with Tao Minzhi; letter from Tao Minzhi to author, February 11, 2010.

  93 “Shanghai Individual Ping-Pong Competition: Ouyang Wei Wins Championship, Youth Yang Hanhong Wins Second Place (Quan Hu geren pingpang sai Ouyang Wei guanjun xiaojiang Yang Hanhong de Yajun) [全滬個人乒乓賽歐陽維冠軍小將楊漢宏得亞軍],” Shenbao (June 7, 1943), 4; “Ping-Pong Association Established Yesterday (Pingpang lianhehui zuo zhengshi chengli) [乒乓聯合會昨正式成立],” Shenbao (December 6, 1943), 2; “Japanese Navy Festival Celebration, Sports Meeting Today: Track and Field, Football, Basketball, and Volleyball (Qingzhu Ri haijun jie jinri yundong dahui you tianjing zulan paiqiu deng jiemu) [慶祝日海軍節今日運動大會有田徑足籃排球等節目],” Shenbao (May 27, 1944), 3. The family’s home life may have degraded as well. In the wake of his parents’ divorce, Yu Binqi’s son Shuolin left home, setting out for Suzhou with his wife to start a family. Shuolin brought two Yu-style machines with him, with the hopes of perhaps starting a typing school in his new city. As for the Yu Binqi outfit in Shanghai, this was left to the managerial care of Tao Minzhi, a young woman with experience at the Suzhou Great China Typewriter Company (Da Zhonghua dazishe). Tao Minzhi would manage the store on Beijing Road through 1949 and the Chinese Communist victory. See Yu Shuolin [俞碩霖], “The Last Yu-Style Typewriter (Zui hou de Yu shi daziji) [最后的俞式打字机],” Old Kids Blog (Lao xiaohai shequ) [老小孩社区] (June 9, 2010), http://www.oldkids.cn/blog/blog_con.php?blogid=130259 (accessed June 13, 2011); and letter from Tao Minzhi to author, February 11, 2010.

  94 Coble, Chinese Capitalists in Japan’s New Order: The Occupied Lower Yangzi, 113. See also Poshek Fu, Passivity, Resistance, and Collaboration: Intellectual Choices in Occupied Shanghai, 1937–1945 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993).

  95 Timothy Brook, Collaboration: Japanese Agents and Local Elites in Wartime China (Cambri
dge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007); Margherita Zanasi, “Globalizing Hanjian: The Suzhou Trials and the Post–WWII Discourse on Collaboration,” American Historical Review 113, no. 2 (June 2008): 731–751.

  96 C.Y. Chao Typewriting Maintenance Department (Zhao Zhangyun Daziji xiuli bu) [趙章云打字機修理部]. See Memo from Shanghai Municipal Council Secretary to “All Departments and Emergency Offices,” signed by Takagi, entitled “Cleaning of Typewriters, Calculators, etc.—1943,” SMA U1-4-3586 (April 2, 1943), 35. Receipt from C.Y. Chao for Cleaning Services Sent to Secretariat Office, SMA U1-4-3582 (October 12, 1943), 5.

  97 Huanqiu Chinese Typewriter Manufacturing Company (Huanqiu Huawen daziji zhizaochang) [環球華文打字機製造廠] located at 169 Yuanmingyuan Road; Chang Yah Kee Typewriter Company (Zhang Xieji daziji gongsi) [張協記打字機公司] located at 187 Qipu Road (七浦路); Ming Kee Typewriter Company (Mingji daziji hang) [銘記打字機行] at 412A Jiangsu Road; price quotations from typewriter companies to the General Office, First District of the Government of Shanghai, SMA R22-2-776 (December 21, 1943), 1–28.

  98 “China Standard Typewriter Mfg. Co,” SMA U1-4-3582 (August 7, 1943), 11–13.

  99 Memo from Treasurer to Secretary General, entitled “Public Works Department—Chinese Typewriters,” SMA U1-4-3582 (August 12, 1943), 9.

  100 Memo from the Secretary’s Office, Municipal Council to the Director entitled “Chinese Typewriters,” SMA U1-4-3582 (July 13, 1943), 6. Indeed, even following the end of the war, the retrofitting of Japanese machines for Chinese usage continued. According to one price estimate submitted to the Shanghai Municipal Police Administration (Shanghai shi jingchaju), Yu’s Chinese Typewriter Manufacturing Company on 279 Peking Road offered a combined price of 32,000 yuan for a box of 2,500 character slugs and “changing one Japanese typewriter” (gaizao Riwen daziji yi jia). Letter from Yu’s Chinese Typewriter Mfg. Co. to the Shanghai Municipal Police Administration (Shanghai shi jingchaju) [上海市警察局], SMA Q131-7-1368 (December 13, 1945), 4.

  101 This school trained students for careers as preschool instructors. See http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4945b4f80101rtfb.html

  102 “Regarding the Foundation of the Guangdewen Typing Supplementary School in Beiping (Guanyu chuangban Beiping shi sili Guangdewen dazi buxi xueshe de cheng­wen ji gai she jianzhang deng yiji shehui ju de piwen) [關於創辦北平市私立廣德文打字補習學社的呈文及該社簡章等以及社會局的批文],” BMA J002-003-00754 (May 1, 1938). Each day, students trained for two hours, at a time to be arranged in accordance with their own schedules and the opening hours of the institute. Students enrolled in the accelerated program continued their studies for one and a half months, paying 15 yuan per month. Those in the normal class completed their work in two months, paying 8 yuan per month.

  103 “Beijing Jiyang Typing School Temporarily Ceases Operation (Beijing shi sili Jiyang Huawen dazi buxi xuexiao zanxing tingban) [北京市私立暨陽華文打字補習學校暫行停辦],” BMA J002-003-00636 (January 1, 1939).

  104 “Regarding the Foundation of the Guangdewen Typing Supplementary School in Beiping (Guanyu chuangban Beiping shi sili Guangdewen dazi buxi xueshe de cheng­wen ji gai she jianzhang deng yiji shehui ju de piwen) [關於創辦北平市私立廣德文打字補習學社的呈文及該社簡章等以及社會局的批文],” BMA J002-003-00754 (May 1, 1938).

  105 See “北京市私立東亞華文打字科職業補習學校常年經費預算表” in “北京東亞華文打字職業學校關於創辦學校請立案的呈及市教育局的指令,” BMA J004-002-00559 (September 30, 1939).

  106 “Regarding the Foundation of the Guangdewen Typing Supplementary School in Beiping (Guanyu chuangban Beiping shi sili Guangdewen dazi buxi xueshe de cheng­wen ji gai she jianzhang deng yiji shehui ju de piwen) [關於創辦北平市私立廣德文打字補習學社的呈文及該社簡章等以及社會局的批文],” BMA J002-003-00754 (May 1, 1938).

  107 Zhou’s associate at the school, twenty-three-year-old Shaoxing native Zhang Menglin, was also a graduate of the East Asia Japanese-Chinese Typing School. Zhang Menglin [張孟鄰] is referred to elsewhere as Zhang Yuyan [張玉鄢]. See “Curriculum Vitae of Teaching Staff of the Private Yucai Chinese Typing Vocational Supplementary School in Beiping (Beiping shi sili Yucai Huawen dazike zhiye buxi xuexiao zhi jiaoyuan lüli biao) [北平市私立育才華文打字科職業補習學校職教員履歷表]” and “Student Roster of the Private Guangde Supplementary School in Beiping (Beiping shi sili Guangde buxi xuexiao xuesheng mingji biao) [北平市私立廣德補習學校學生名籍表],” in “Curriculum Vitae of Teaching Staff and Student Roster of the Private Yucai Chinese Typing Vocational Supplementary School in Beiping (Beiping shi sili Yucai Huawen dazike zhiye buxi xuexiao zhijiaoyuan lüli biao, xuesheng mingji biao) [北平市私立育才華文打字科職業補習學校職教員履歷表、學生名籍表],” BMA J004-002-00662 (July 31, 1939).

  108 The name or location of the Japanese language school is not provided in source materials. The associate Li brought with him experience as the former principal of his own typing school, the Tianjin-based Chenguang Typing School. See “Beijing Baoshan and Guangde Chinese Typing Supplementary Schools (Beijing shi sili Baoshan, Guangde Huawen dazi buxi xuexiao) [北京市私立寶善、廣德華文打字補習學校],” BMA J004-002-00579 (July 1, 1938).

  109 At the East Asia Japanese-Chinese Typewriting Supplementary School, Chinese-language typing instruction was overseen by Shen Lianzhen, a thirty-eight-year-old woman, also hailing from Lianyang county in Fengtian, and also a graduate of the Fengtian Japanese-Chinese Typing Institute. See “Petition Submitted by the Private Yadong Japanese-Chinese Typing Supplementary School of Beijing to the Beijing Special Municipality Bureau of Education Regarding Inspection of Student Grading List, Curriculum Plan, and Teaching Hours for the Regular-Speed Division of the Sixteenth Term, and the Order Received in Response from the Bureau of Education (Beijing shi sili Yadong Ri Huawen dazi buxi xuexiao guanyu di’shiliu qi putong sucheng ge zu xuesheng chengjibiao, kecheng yuji ji shouke shi shu qing jianhe gei Beijing tebieshi jiaoyuju de cheng yiji jiaoyuju de zhiling) [北京市私立亞東日華文打字補習學校關於第十六期普通速成各組學生成績表、課程預計及授課時數請鑒核給北京特別市教育局的呈以及教育局的指令],” BMA J004-002-01022 (January 31, 1943).

  110 Lori Watt, When Empire Comes Home: Repatriates and Reintegration in Postwar Japan (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2009).

  111 People’s Welfare Typewriter Manufacturing Company (Minsheng daziji zhizaochang) [民生打字機製造廠], ed., Practice Textbook (Lianxi keben) [練習課本], n.p.: c. 1940s, cover.

  112 Fan Jiling [范繼舲], Fan’s Wanneng-Style Chinese Typewriter Practice Textbook (Fan shi wanneng shi Zhongwen daziji shixi fanben) [范氏萬能式中文打字機實習範本] (Hankou: Fan Research Institute Publishing House (Fan shi yanjiusuo yinhang) [范氏研究所印行], 1949), i.

  113 “Red Star Chinese Typewriter Plant 1952 Construction Plan (Hongxing daziji chang yi jiu wu er nian ji jian jihua) [紅星打字機廠一九五二年基建計劃],” TMA X77-1-415 (1952), 13–17, 16. See also Tianjin People’s Government Local-State Jointly Run Hongxing Factory (Tianjin shi renmin zhengfu difang guoying huyeju Hongxing huchang) [天津市人民政府地方國營互業局紅星互廠], “Report on the Improvement of the Chinese Typewriter Character Chart (Huawen daziji zibiao gaijin baogao) [華文打字機字表改進報告],” TMA J104-2-1639 (October 1953), 29–39.

  114 “Shanghai Chinese Typewriter Manufacturing Joint Venture Marketing Plan (Shanghai Zhongwen daziji zhizaochang lianyingsuo chanxiao jihua) [上海中文打字机製造廠聯營所產銷計劃],” SMA S289-4-37 (December 1951), 65. The domestic industry was further challenged by pricing challenges and market instability in the wake of the Second World War, the Civil War, and the revolution of 1949. See “Regulating the Pricing Problem of Domestically Produced Chinese Typewriters
(Wei tiaozheng guochan Zhongwen daziji shoujia wenti) [為調整國產中文打字機售價問題],” report sent from the Chinese Typewriter Manufacturers Business Association (Zhongwen daziji zhizao chang shanglian) to the Shanghai Cultural and Educational Supplies Trade Association (Shanghai shi wenjiao yongpin tongye gonghui), SMA B99-4-124 (January 15, 1953), 52–90.

  115 The domestic Chinese typewriter manufacturing and retail industry was fractured among many companies, including the Yu-style Typewriter Manufacturing Plant, the Jingyi Chinese Typewriter Manufacturing Plant, the Wanneng Typewriter Company, the China Typewriter Manufacturing Company, and the Minsheng Chinese Typewriter Manufacturing Plant, among many others. At least five others were founded between 1949 and 1951, moreover. These included a new Yu-style Typewriter Manufacturing Plant, founded in April 1949, which employed 55 people to manufacture the Wanneng-style typewriter; the Ziqiu Industrial Plant, founded on January 4, 1950, which employed 47 people and manufactured both Chinese typewriters and alloy characters; the Wenhua Chinese Typewriter Manufacturing Plant, founded in September 1950, which employed a total of 42 workers primarily for the manufacture of Chinese typewriters; the Jingyi Typewriter Manufacturing Plant, founded October 1, 1951, which employed 16 people and manufactured Chinese typewriters and office supplies; and the Wanling Scientific Apparatus Manufacturing Plant, founded in September 1951, which employed 12 people and focused primarily on typewriters. “Draft Charter of the Shanghai Chinese Typewriter Manufacturing Plant Joint Management Organization (Shanghai Zhongwen daziji zhizaochang lianyingsuo zuzhi zhangcheng cao’an) [上海中文打字機製造廠聯營所組織章程草案],” SMA S289-4-37 (December 1951).