A Chinese typewriter (Zhōngwén dǎzìjī 中文打字機; Huáwén dǎzìjī 華文打字機; Hànzì dǎzìjī 漢字打字機) is a manual or electric apparatus used to type Chinese characters. The construction of this machine required engineers and linguists to solve the unique puzzle of fitting a non-alphabetic script containing thousands of characters onto a desktop apparatus with a user-friendly design.

Starting in the late 19th century, and continuing through the 20th, there were three main approaches to Chinese typewriting. The first approach was the common usage method, which was p…