# How do Chinese typewriters work? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 18, 2005, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-chinese-typewriters-work/313032 "2005-07-18T20:30:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![the\_nettle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecae2f/32.png) [@the\_nettle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_nettle)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-chinese-typewriters-work/313032/1 "2005-07-18T20:30:55Z")
Are there thousands of keys for every letter? Or are there “merely” few hundred most frequently used? ---
**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-chinese-typewriters-work/313032/2 "2005-07-18T20:42:22Z")
You have to understand how Chinese characters are written. There are no letters, but there are components and these components are written in a commonly set order. Nowadays, with the software that’s available, someone can start typing a character by starting with the first component, the software will start “filling in” the other parts. The software can even anticipate the next character based on what has already been typed. This is a vast improvement over the old days, but it’s still a lot more cumbersome than typing in English. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-chinese-typewriters-work/313032/3 "2005-07-18T20:48:32Z")
The answer to your OP question: > [@the nettle](#): > > Are there thousands of keys for every letter? Or are there “merely” few hundred most frequently used? WAG Exactly like any other typewriter. Hit a key, print a character. :rolleyes: OH. What you meant to ask was: “What characters are used by a Chinese typewriter?” Probably PC’s with whatever character set they can get. ---
**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-chinese-typewriters-work/313032/4 "2005-07-18T20:56:18Z")
But what was used before the PC era? Were western mechanical typewriters used to type Pinyin or similar? ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-chinese-typewriters-work/313032/5 "2005-07-18T21:39:53Z")
A somewhat-relevant [article](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_177.html) by the Perfect Master. ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2005, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-chinese-typewriters-work/313032/6 "2005-07-18T22:06:26Z")
> [@Troy McClure SF](#): > > A somewhat-relevant [article](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_177.html) by the Perfect Master. I’ve never understood why Cecil ended the article with “Japanese, now . . . they say Japanese is _really_ complicated”, since the Japanese system for text entry is pretty much the same as for Chinese, but simpler. More on topic with the OP’s question is a quote From a book I’m reading at the moment, _Language Planning and Language Policy: East Asian Perspectives_: > [@](#): > > Because of the size of its character set, Japan was never able to experience a successful typewriter age; the machines were just too bulky and too slow to be efficient. If that’s the case for Japan, it must have been even more true for China. Which isn’t to say that they didn’t try. [Here](http://www.msm.cam.ac.uk/phase-trans/2004/HIT4/HIT4-Pages/Image24.html) is a picture of a Chinese typewriter from the 70’s. Another can be found [here](http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/chinlng2.html).