Typing

You may find my grumbles on Chinese history boring. More likely you may wonder: why didn't I write this in Chinese ? It is in fact painstaking to check the English translation of all those names - people and places - which I do every time.

The reason is simple: I cannot type Chinese, at least not fluently - to the satisfaction of writing down my idea as I think. (Visitors to my office would notice a dingy page of instruction on Chinese typing [倉頡輔助字形表] posted on my memo board.) In the only Chinese paragraph that I wrote in this blog, I deliberately did it in traditional Chinese (文言文), which needs fewer number of words.

Of course the traditional Chinese writing was meant for the time when writing (or markings on pieces of bamboo, when there was not yet any paper) was not as convenient. It seems ironic to go back to the old writing system because of advance in technology.