LEISURELY CATHAY

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 34, 3 November 1928, Page 26

LEISURELY CATHAY

One of the large European printing establishments of Shanghai (China) has under way an undertaking ip the nature of type manufacture without parallel any? where. It is the preparation of a set of Chinese type, which will include approxi-mately--10,000 characters, the most comprehensive, set, thus far made by anyone. Each character will be made in five sizes, bringing the total number to about 50,000. ' The work has been in progress already for more than three years, and nearly four more will be required to complete it (according .to the Shanghai correspondent of the “Christian Science Monitor”). The labour of making Chinese type is slow and arduous. Each character is plioto-engfiived'oir copper, plate, and an impression taken in type metal. This impression is cut out by. hand, and a brass-.matrix prepared, from which the. type itself is made. . The work of cutting the impression is as intricate as that of cutting beads, and necessarily, quite as leisurely. It is a Work, too, upon which many men-’ must- -be employed; for- the Chinese frequently grow weary of the exacting .tiisk, and .take a summary .depart-, i)re, often returning after a week or a fortnight's" rest. . The printing establishment, which is doing this remarkable' work,.is the. ABC Press, of- Shanghai, a concern founded a number of years ago by several Swiss printers, the thoroughness of whose work has .brought them the favour of the eommunity to such an extent that their-plant has been enlarged almost yearly, until 'the substantial position of the business has enabled them to undertake-the most “reriiafkiible printing work every known in the Orient, or, perhaps, anywhere else. The set of type which they will produce,and which will be copyrighted with the new Chinese Government, will have more characters by several thousand than the set in use by the. largest of the ShanghaiChinese newspapers.