Radiolab
The Wubi Effect
Aug 18, 2023
Simon Adler, a Radiolab reporter, dives into the revolutionary story of Professor Wang Yongmin, who created the Wubi input method for Chinese characters. Tom Mullaney, a Stanford history professor, adds depth with insights on how this innovation reshaped China's technological landscape. They discuss the challenges of typing in Chinese, the clash between modern tech and cultural heritage, and the evolution of input methods. The conversation ultimately reveals how typing innovations reflect broader societal changes in China, showcasing a fascinating intersection of language and technology.
57:40
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Quick takeaways
- The development of the Wubi method allowed Chinese characters to be typed on a QWERTY keyboard, saving the Chinese language from being replaced and becoming widely popular.
- The adoption of the QWERTY keyboard layout has influenced language and perception, with a preference for words with more right-handed letters, even extending to the naming of offspring since 1990.
Deep dives
The Challenging Puzzle of Typing Chinese Characters
Typing Chinese characters on a QWERTY keyboard has posed a complex linguistic and engineering challenge. Professor Wang Yongmin, also known as the Chinese Steve Jobs, developed the Wubi method, breaking down Chinese characters into their components and assigning each component to a key. This allowed users to input the characters by typing the components. The ingenious method saved the Chinese language from being replaced and became widely popular, even winning in typing competitions. However, the Chinese government has promoted phonetic-based input methods like Pinyin to unify the language. Despite this, Wubi and other shape-based methods continue to be favored for speed and preserving character writing.
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