By David AU | July 28, 2025
The Man Who Typed the Impossible
Imagine trying to type Chinese characters on a computer in the 1970s. Back then, publishers needed massive keyboards with thousands of keys just to print a single book—while English publishers could typeset a novel in hours, Chinese publishers took months.
Enter Chu Bong-Foo (朱邦復), a hippie-turned-computer-visionary who refused to accept that Chinese couldn’t keep up with the digital age. With no formal training in computing (he studied agriculture and briefly lived as a Brazilian hippie), he invented the Cangjie input method—a system that let people type Chinese on a standard QWERTY keyboard. And then, in a move that shocked the tech world, he gave it away for free.
This is the story of how a cultural rebel revolutionized Chinese computing—and why his ideas might shape the future of AI.
- From Hippie to Tech Pioneer: Chu’s Unlikely Journey
- Chu Bong-Foo’s life reads like a bohemian adventure novel:
- Born in 1937 in Hubei, China, his family fled to Taiwan during the civil war.
- Studied agriculture but dropped into music composition, smuggling, and hippie communes in Brazil.
Worked at a São Paulo publishing house and had an epiphany: Why did Chinese books take six months to print while English books took a day?
His answer? Chinese needed its own digital alphabet.
The Birth of Cangjie: Breaking Down 50,000 Characters into 24 Keys
In 1976, after years of cutting up dictionaries and analyzing strokes, Chu unveiled Cangjie (倉頡輸入法)—a radical way to type Chinese by deconstructing characters into 24 "radicals" mapped to a QWERTY keyboard.
How Cangjie Works (For Non-Techies)
Characters are split into philosophical, stroke-based, body-related, and shape-based groups.
Example:
- "中" (China) = L (丨) + R (口) → Type "LR"
- "國" (nation) = W (囗) + G (王) + I (丶) + R (口) → Type "WGIR"
- No pinyin needed—just logic and geometry.
By 1980, Chu partnered with Acer to launch the Tianlong Chinese Computer, the first machine to natively process Chinese text. And in 1982, he released Cangjie into the public domain, ensuring everyone could use it—no patents, no royalties.
"A language belongs to its people." —Chu Bong-Foo
Beyond Typing: Chu’s Quest for a "Chinese DNA" Computer
- Chu didn’t stop at keyboards. He believed Chinese characters had "genes"—reusable components that could make computing faster and smarter than alphabetic systems.
His Wildest Ideas
- "Chinese DNA" Theory – Treat characters like Lego blocks, reducing storage needs (e.g., 60,000 characters in just 256KB).
- Fighting Microsoft – In the 1990s, he built Juzhen OS, a lightweight Chinese system that fit on a floppy disk (vs. Windows’ bloated 5MB fonts).
- AI Before AI Was Cool – In 2011, his team made an AI that turned classical poems into 3D animations—years before ChatGPT.
- The Ultimate Dream: A Brain-Like Chinese AI Chip
- At 87 years old, Chu isn’t done. In 2022, his team unveiled the Dragon Chip—a RISC-V processor designed to think in Chinese.
Why It Matters
- Unlike English AI (which treats words as arbitrary symbols), Chinese characters are conceptual (e.g., "火車" = "fire vehicle" = train).
- Chu claims this makes Chinese better for AI reasoning—a controversial but fascinating idea.
- "Chinese will become the language of AI." —Chu Bong-Foo
Why Chu’s Story Matters Today
Chu Bong-Foo wasn’t just a techie—he was a cultural warrior. He proved that:
✅ Open-source beats corporate control (Cangjie outlasted proprietary rivals).
✅ Language shapes technology (not the other way around).
✅ Rebels can change the world—even if they start as hippie musicians.
So next time you type Chinese on your phone, remember: a dropout from Taiwan made it possible.
Want to Dive Deeper?
- Watch: 《記承天寺》 (Chu’s AI-generated poem animation).
- Read: His sci-fi novel Cosmic Drifter (a wild mix of kung fu, AI, and philosophy).
- Explore: CBFHK Foundation (keeping his legacy alive).
Got thoughts? Drop a comment below! 👇
📽 Watch the full documentary here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-08EGtJ6EfY
