A Professor’s Search for the MingKwai, a Lost Chinese Typewriter - The New York Times
A historian went down an 18-year rabbit hole in search of obsolete machines. But there was one he thought he’d never find. The difficulty of designing a typewriter that can produce Chinese characters means there have been dozens of different styles made in the last century and a half. Credit... Christie Hemm Klok for The New York Times Supported by By Veronique Greenwood In 2010, Tom Mullaney found himself way out in the suburbs of London. A woman there wanted to show him a Chinese typewriter. She was going to be renovating her house soon, she told him, and it needed a new home. Dr. Mullaney, a professor of Chinese history at Stanford University, had spent years searching the globe for Chinese typewriters, wondrous machines capable of printing thousands of Chinese characters while remaining small enough to keep on a desk. The typewriter, 50 pounds of metal frame and levers, was one of a dying breed. If he didn’t save it, would it wind up on a scrapheap? It went into a suitcase and he t
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