Chinese Character Processing Systems in China

A general review of Chinese character processing systems developed in China is presented. Three main categories of existing entry schemes, i.e. character entry, encoding and component keying-in, are described. After examing the diversified encoding schemes based on phonetics, shape and phonetics-shape, it is pointed out that computer-aided component keying-in scheme is more ergonomical and promising in the near future. Section of Main Features gives an overall picture of the Chinese editor, character font, software for bilingual processing, display and printer for Chinese characters. Then the standardization of the character font, code for information exchange, machine code as well as Chinese character terminal are discussed. Finally, an overview of the applications of Chinese character processing systems in the enterprises, offices, facilities for public service and Chinese medical diagnosis are given.