home and energy thoughts
Mar. 19th, 2026 07:49 pm( thinky thoughts )
In part 1 of this post, "The (ir)reality of the MingKwai typewriter" (10/17/25) and many preceding, related posts (see "Selected readings" and the links to which they lead), we saw what a boondoggle and fiasco the Chinese typewriter (especially Lin Yutang's MingKwai) was. Yet people are still glorifying and extolling the clumsy, clunky, cumbersome Chinese typewriter as though it were leading the IT revolution (when the reality is quite the contrary). So much hype and sensationalism about the retrograde Chinese typewriter!
The following bilibili video, although in Chinese, will show how complicated and expensive to replicate such a device is:
Remarks by Xinyi Ye:
I just saw this behind-the-scenes video of HTX Studio's Chinese typewriter production. In another interview video, HTX said their studio was experiencing a financial deficit last year [when they made the video attempting to replicate Lin Yutang's MingKwai]. Probably not as bad as what happened to Lin Yutang [who went bankrupt building the MingKwai], but again shows how much investment goes into doing something like this!
It behooves all those who preach the gospel of the MingKwai and related Chinese typewriters to read and take to heart the scholarly critiques in the bibliography below.
Selected readings
