In the chapter “Writing System,” Robinson traces the development of many different writing systems in the world. It is fascinated to find that many writing systems supplement themselves through importing parts from other languages. Some of them have already become antique, some have survived, and a lot have evolved. I could not agree with what the author writes about “written Chinese” and “Mandarin” on page 15. The author mixes up the “Mandarin – Cantonese” relationship with the “simplified Chinese – traditional Chinese” relationship. Also, written Chinese is not completely based on Mandarin. Nevertheless, he provides us with keen insights into Chinese and Japanese writing systems that are worth further exploration.

In Kirschenbaum’s Track Changes, the author presents to us a 70s-80s history of electronic writing, which is associated with many important scientists, engineers, writers, entrepreneurs, and scholars in America and Japan. I clearly remember the Microsoft ad, in which Bill Gates holds a CD-ROM by two “trees” of paper: “This CD-ROM can hold more information than all the paper that’s here below me.” After reading the chapters in the book, I realize that it’s not all about storage. Electronic writing offers so many possibilities for writers, especially those who work on big writing projects and those with disabilities. Now, while I am writing this blogpost using Microsoft Word, I cannot help but notice the AI-powered Grammarly plugin on the upper right corner of this window, reminding me of errors and suggesting improvements. I, the writer, may not be the only one who is thinking now.

When I write in Chinese, I find the experience of handwriting is significantly different from that of typing using Pinyin (the romanization of Chinese characters based on their pronunciation). The separation of phonetic and semantic components, which Robinson mentions, represents some challenges for composition tasks like poetry. Many Chinese writers, entering the era of electronic writing, reluctantly switched from paper to computers but used touchpad to input handwritten characters. I personally enjoy the combination of paper and computer to compose an essay: write on paper and type/edit with Microsoft Word.