For five thousand years, the written Chinese language--the thousands of complex characters which began as pictograms and evolved to express abstract notions has united the Chinese people. Based on its beauty, subtlety, and rich traditions, the script is one of the splendors of Chinese culture.
In modern times, however, the complexity of Chinese characters has proved a barrier to adopting the Chinese language to the typewriters and computers which are used in nearly every commercial activity. Chinese is not an easy language to learn, and new concepts are only absorbed with difficulty. Existing characters must be combined in different ways to translate new terms in science and business. The absence of an alphabet means that new words cannot be coined.
Because of the inherent nature of the Chinese language, therefore, most of the systems devised to adapt it to computers have not been satisfactory. As a result, students and scientists in the Republic of China have had to learn English before they could use computers, and much of their output was inaccessible to the ordinary citizen.
The bulky Chinese typewriter illustrates the technical problems involved. The typist has to manipulate a handle controlling a gripping device which hovers over a tray of about 2,000 Chinese characters, picking them up one by one for imprinting on paper, before they are returned to their proper places. Each topic has its own tray of characters, making the typist's job even more difficult.
The Chinese computer uses a keyboard on the same lines as a Western one. But the problem of storage and retrieval of information is much more complex. The problem is deciding how to store thousands of Chinese characters, efficiently. If it is done by topic, then there is a great deal of overlapping among categories, and it would be impossible to decide where to put some simple characters, such as the one representing "it." Any system that has to store entire characters would obviously be a tedious memorization task in an age of easy access.
Other systems which save time and/or money have been put forward. One consists of storing the basic units of Chinese characters rather than the characters themselves. The problem here, though, lies in the fact that some characters can be broken up in different ways; this means that a unified approach must first be developed before this system is practical. Another problem is that some characters have a leftright symmetry, and others a topbottom symmetry, which the computer would have difficulty in sorting out. Finally, some characters are written in different ways (as the word "color" is spelled a different way in Britain than it is in the U.S., for instance).
To sum up, there are problems of time and space involved in computerizing the Chinese language--space needed for computer storage and time needed to recover information. This adds up to higher costs, and a third problem connected with economic viability.
All the methods outlined, therefore, fall short of meeting actual needs. Dividing characters into components makes input and output relatively easy, but calls for a bigger keyboard and computer storage space. On the other hand, if fewer components are used the operator will have a problem in deciding how to divide a character.
Recently, however, some advances have been made. One method now used in both international and domestic operations makes use of the fact that all characters can be broken down into 215 "radicals." Phonetic systems based on the pronunciation of each character have also been proposed, but there are too many homonyms in Chinese to make this practical. The number of systems in this genre have seemed virtually endless, with each having its unique advantages and drawbacks. Everything comes back to the fact that Chinese is not an alphabetical language, and instead each character exists as an integral unit. Until the ideal Chinese computer is invented, English-language computers will continue to be used on a large scale in Taiwan, in academic, commercial, and industrial fields.
The government has taken the lead in encouraging the use of computers in such burgeoning industries as electronics, machinery and consumer goods. Since the computer plays such an integral role in the modern society and economy which have evolved in the Republic of China, it is regarded as essential that a Chinese version be invented. Its use will then be further promoted by extending access to people in Taiwan who are not fluent in English.
[Picture Caption]
Left: This Chinese system of information input and output requires only 24 keys. Right: The concept of the Chinese computer is explained by the general manager of the Hungji Computer Co. in Taiwan.
1. Telephone operators use computers to help in looking up numbers. 2. In this large-scale Chinese computer, input of Chinese characters can be done directly. 3. This printer, a computer peripheral device, is used at SINORAMA's printing plant.
Top: Operator giving the command to start printing to the computer. At left is a magnetic tape used for information storage. Bottom: Computers are being used increasingly by business and industry in Taiwan.
The concept of the Chinese computer is explained by the general manager of the Hungji Computer Co. in Taiwan.
Telephone operators use computers to help in looking up numbers.
In this large-scale Chinese computer, input of Chinese characters can be done directly.
This printer, a computer peripheral device, is used at SINORAMA's printing plant.
Operator giving the command to start printing to the computer. At left is a magnetic tape used for information storage.
Computers are being used increasingly by business and industry in Taiwan.
