The Wubi Effect

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

Natural Sciences, History, Documentary, Science, Society & Culture

4.6 • 44.5K Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2020

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When we think of China today, we think of a technological superpower. From Huawei and 5G to TikTok and viral social media, China is stride for stride with the United States in the world of computing. However, China’s technological renaissance almost didn’t happen. And for one very basic reason: The Chinese language, with its 70,000 plus characters, couldn’t fit on a keyboard. Today, we tell the story of Professor Wang Yongmin, a hard headed computer programmer who solved this puzzle and laid the foundation for the China we know today. This episode was reported and produced by Simon Adler with reporting assistance from Yang Yang. Special thanks to Martin Howard. You can view his renowned collection of typewriters at: antiquetypewriters.com Support Radiolab today at Radiolab.org/donate.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Wait, you're listening.
0:03.1	Okay.
0:04.4	All right.
0:05.6	Okay.
0:07.0	All right.
0:08.5	You're listening to Radio Lab.
0:11.4	Radio Lab.
0:11.9	From W. N. Y.
0:13.9	C.
0:14.8	See?
0:15.1	Yeah.
0:19.1	Hey, I'm Chad. I'm Brad. This is Radio Lab.
0:21.5	To start things off today, a couple months ago.
0:24.2	You want some coffee?
0:26.0	Too small?
0:27.5	In that magical, forgotten time before the coronavirus, our reporter, Simon Adler,
0:33.9	somewhat mysteriously walked me a few blocks from our office, Mike in hand, to a coffee shop.
0:40.7	Okay, with our coffee purchased.
0:42.4	Let's go stand in the corner where it's maybe a little less loud.
0:45.0	Sort of a fancy one, exposed brick, bare Edison bulbs.
0:48.5	So let's gaze out upon the hipsters of Lower Manhattan.
0:53.0	Do you intend to survey and count the number of laptops?
	...

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