http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_typewriter

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2789525&forum_id=2Elisa#27169724)

The room that housed this behemoth was a vaulted space above the teeming streets, where shadows played upon walls lined with characters as if to hold back the clamor from below. It was here that Meiying, whose father's laundry service perfumed the air with starch and soap, often watched Lin from afar. She saw in him a reflection of her own unvoiced dreams.

As twilight embraced the city and fog weaved its silver threads through alleyways, Meiying lingered after Lin's demonstration to potential investors—men who couldn't see past the machine's unwieldy form to its revolutionary heart. They departed with murmurs of "impractical" and "impossible," leaving Lin disheartened amidst his metal forest of ideographs.

Meiying approached him then, her voice a hushed tremor in the vast room. "It's magnificent," she said, her fingers grazing a key labeled "strength" (力). "But it is like asking one person to carry a mountain."

Lin looked at her—really looked—and in her gaze found clarity. "Perhaps smaller is better," he murmured, an idea unfurling like dawn light in his mind.

Their eyes locked in shared understanding; they were two dreamers against the world. In that moment, they came together among the iron and ink—a fusion of passion and intellect. Meiying climbed onto the typewriter as if it were an altar for their aspirations. Her touch on each key was deliberate—“harmony” (和), “passion” (情), “future” (未)—spelling out their silent dialogue.

Beneath them, the typewriter held fast—its weight a testament to their burden of dreams. Yet as they moved together in fervent rhythm, it was not the heaviness they felt but rather the buoyancy of possibility. Each press of a key was a whisper of what could be: more intimate machines that could bridge worlds without bearing down upon them like mountains.

In their embrace atop the leviathan device, Lin and Meiying wove a tapestry of new meanings—a story told not through words but through sighs and caresses. The typewriter became their canvas and conduit—a giant they would not carry but transform into something that could be carried forward into an age awaiting its script.

And when dawn cast its first golden rays upon San Francisco's awakening streets, Lin Yutang emerged from his workshop with sketches for something revolutionary—a smaller typewriter that could connect East and West without weighing down either shore. The investors would see; they would understand this time.

For within that night's entwined passion lay not just love but also invention—the seed of an idea made manifest by two hearts beating in unison against steel and expectation.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2789525&forum_id=2Elisa#47033831)

It's still slower than typing with character based languages. Even non-retard chinese admit that their writing system is SPS.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2789525&forum_id=2Elisa#27170192)

nowags explain

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2789525&forum_id=2Elisa#27170269)

japanese has a syllabary, not an alphabet

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2789525&forum_id=2Elisa#27339935)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2789525&forum_id=2Elisa#27340005)

so you can use either kanji if you're listening to a concert, but one usage is more literary even though they're exactly the same verb just written differently

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2789525&forum_id=2Elisa#27340648)

If I type literally the five keys n i h a o on my mac, it will recognize and convert that to the correct Chinese. But if I type something that is not like the most common Chinese phrase of all time, it might present me with a couple options ranked by likelihood based on what else i've typed, etc. and i can arrow down among the selections

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2789525&forum_id=2Elisa#27339951)

1. good

2. luxe

3. horn

4. vast

5. Hao (surname)

6. expend

... the list goes on

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2789525&forum_id=2Elisa#27342463)

There are 2 more boxes of millions of little keys

WTF

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2789525&forum_id=2Elisa#27338615)

i took a year of mandarin and think something about this sounds totally weird.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2789525&forum_id=2Elisa#27342448)

So you type/text just as you do in English, type the alphabet "pinyin" first and choose the corresponded character. The tricky part is that some spellings (like shi, yi, dao, xing, etc) can correspond to several dozen characters. To solve this problem, most programs default to the most common character for each spelling, and if you want a more obscure one you have to scroll or tab down.

The programs also auto-fill/autocorrect certain spellings based on context or preceding characters

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2789525&forum_id=2Elisa#29037203)