The history of the Chinese Typewriter is ultimately, the history of China and the information technology of the rest of the world. Reading this book myself being a Chinese, it provides a unique and fascinating perspective to see how China is playing catching ups in the entirety of the twentieth century. While exploring the incarnations and evolutions of Chinese typewriters (though you'll soon learn that they're exactly not for typing), Mullaney also delves into the politics, wars, intellectuals, zealots, patriots, industries along with the machine.

Most people like me who were born in the digital age are surely oblivious to the extreme difficulties of putting Chinese characters onto a piece of paper. The computers gave us much liberation from the toil. “Typing” on a QWERTY seems second nature to me. However, as Mullaney will point out very soon into the book, it hasn't always been like this. It took generations of experiments, failures, and ingenuity to solve a problem westerners can't even begin to fathom. We'd even think that it was the creation of computers that freed the Chinese from the seemingly impossible feat, it actually began decades prior, with tragedies and setbacks. The unfolding of that piece of story was brilliantly written.

A most interesting chapter 7 described what we call “共产中文”, or Communism Chinese. I find that so relevant even to this very day. Like all histories, one must learn to be cautious of the now with lessons of the then.

Overall I would recommend this book wholeheartedly to anyone who is Chinese or is interested in China/Chinese.