(Invention) Introduction and Overview
Bridging Modern Languages through Ancient Technologies
An exhibit exploring the relationship between technology, culture, and entrepreneurship.
In 2016, Dr. Jonathan Stalling, Professor of English and Curator of the Chinese Literature Translation Archive at the Univerity of Oklahoma, invented Pinying, a new app that enables Chinese speakers to learn English in an entirely new way.
While English phonetics were not a popular concept until midway through the nineteenth century, the widespread study of Chinese phonetics can be traced back well over 1,000 years. But, more importantly, the solutions invented a millennium ago actually solve the problems that English learners in China have today.
The most formidable challenge to thinking comparatively about innovation lies in the effort of becoming familiar with distant ways of producing and organizing knowledge. Therefore, this exhibit is designed to reflect the idea that using a system such as the Traditional Chinese Imperial Knowledge System as a model for thinking in different ways is one of the key engines of creativity.
