# Chinese computer keyboard **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 23, 2013, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-computer-keyboard/672023 "2013-10-23T12:58:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bardos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bardos/32/1069_2.png) [@bardos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bardos)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-computer-keyboard/672023/1 "2013-10-23T12:58:29Z")
Stumped. How do they work as there is no alphabet? ---
**Author:** ![Wakinyan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wakinyan/32/352_2.png) [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-computer-keyboard/672023/2 "2013-10-23T13:16:42Z")
My friend who often texts his Chinese girlfriend writes the words with Latin characters (phonetically, presumably) and the phone transforms these words into Chinese signs , so I think that is how it’s generally done, but I guess there might be other solutions as well. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-computer-keyboard/672023/3 "2013-10-23T14:54:59Z")
What about texting? Imagine the size of their cell phones! Actually, I was just in China and saw folks texting. It appears to me that they text using [Pinyin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin) on a normal, Roman-alphabet keyboard, then select the symbol they want from the little Autocomplete list. It’s a pretty quick process. ---
**Author:** ![bardos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bardos/32/1069_2.png) [@bardos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bardos)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-computer-keyboard/672023/4 "2013-10-23T19:15:59Z")
i’m talking about the average computer user in China ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-computer-keyboard/672023/5 "2013-10-23T20:54:48Z")
Don’t know how it works in Chinese, but you can see an example of how it works in Japanese in the movie _Battle Royale_. It does seem to work with a kind of autocorrect scheme : the guy types a number of characters, and each press of the keyboard not only adds a new kanji to the word he’s typing but modifies every other character that came before to make a whole new word. Very much like texting, and presumably based on phonetics rather than “spelling”. Or you could hit Wikipedia, because [it knows everything](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_keyboard) :). ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2013, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-computer-keyboard/672023/6 "2013-10-23T21:33:56Z")
I use a Chinese smartphone I purchased while living in China. It’s no bigger or smaller than any other phone (except of course those “phablets”). There are a few different input methods to type/text in Chinese, just like there are for computers in Chinese. You have Pinyin, Bopomofo, strokes. It’s really not that big of an issue. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-computer-keyboard/672023/7 "2013-10-24T04:09:40Z")
Although it’s almost 20 years old, [The Master speaks…](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1138/how-can-the-chinese-use-computers-since-their-language-contains-so-many-characters)