After many months (and plenty of procrastination), this interview is finally out!! Grateful to @tsmullaney, whose work has profoundly shaped my thinking. It was an honor to speak with him about The Chinese Computer, a book that deeply changed how I understand technology and history.
Sixth Tone
Sixth Tone30.7.2025
Chinese-American Lois Lew who had spent most of her life running a restaurant in upstate New York, had played a key role in demonstrating the feasibility of an invention once thought impossible: an electric Chinese typewriter. Lew passed away in 2023, but her story would form the basis for a crucial chapter in Stanford historian Thomas Mullaney’s @tsmullaney 2024 book, “The Chinese Computer,” which explores the global effort to digitize Chinese characters. It was a problem that drew in engineers, linguists, and entrepreneurs from around the world — but also, as Mullaney points out, ordinary men and women like Lew. Read more:
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