Charles Bliss: Remarkable Inventor of Blissymbolics

By Michael Li

[Note by Rena Krasno: Michael Li, who is preparing to write a book on Charles Bliss, visited with me at the Hoover Institute Archives to examine some of the Sino-Judaic Institute files on Jews in Shanghai. Here is what he says about himself:]

I was born in Beijing and came to the U.S in 1981 for graduate study at the University of Washington when I was 19 years old. I got my PhD in physics in 1987 and then did postdoctoral research and teaching at the UCLA and University of Maryland at College Park. Thereafter I worked for several hi-tech companies, mostly in Seattle, in medical imaging, software and wireless communications, in R&D and senior management. I am also an affiliated professor at the University of Washington.

My interest in Charles Bliss started when I was studying visual languages and further enhanced when I developed my own synthetic language called EastXi ("Xi" means West in Chinese). I can be contacted at mli@computer.org.

I became interested in the history of Jews in China, and particularly in the city of Shanghai during the extraordinary time of WWII, by pure accident. In 1999, I was involved in some research and development work related to visual languages and came cross for the first time the Bliss Symbols which is a comprehensive visual language developed by Charles Bliss based on a set of 100 or so elementary symbols that were inspired significantly by both Chinese and English.

From reading some of Bliss' writings, I found out that much of the work for Bliss Symbols (also known as Semantography or Blissymbolics) were done when Charles was a WWII Jewish refugee living in Shanghai between 1940 and1946. For the next few years, Charles and his symbols has stayed in the back of my mind while my focus has shifted to some other, not quite related technology field in communications. However, since last year, in the process of developing a new synthetic language based on modern linguistic theory and analysis and the combination of essential features in both Chinese and English, I had more time and opportunity to look again and deeper into the work and life of Charles, especially during the important period that he lived in Shanghai in the WWII.

One thing led to another, and before long I found myself reading all sorts of books on Jews, Shanghai, and WWII, and became absorbed by the historical time, events, and personal stories. They grew richer, bigger, and deeper in my heart and mind, and took me to the deepest and shallowest, darkest and brightest, the most devastating and the most hopeful corner of the human race, and back with fresh understanding and perspective on human nature.

Along my journey of finding out more about Charles Bliss, his wife Claire, and the Jewish history in Shanghai, a number of people have provided generous and valuable help. Among them, Rena Krasno (my "Jewish Grandma") of the Sino-Judaic Institute is always there, ready to give a hand, and has given me excellent advice and wonderful help. Also Beverly Friend of the China Judaic Studies Association has helped me to link up with some of the right people. I am continuing my work to discover more about Charles and Claire's life and to write about them. I hope that I can connect soon with someone in Sydney or Canberra who understands German and who would be interested in helping to translate some of Charles' and Claire's document collections in the Australian National Library.

Charles Bliss's life and personality were as unique as his work on Blissymbolics and his personality. Placed in the bigger historical context of the warring world and turbulent Shanghai, his life's journey became one microcosm which overlapped and reflected the unusual time that he had lived through.Charles was born in the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, on Sept.10, 1898, as the oldest of four in a Jewish family. He attended the Vienna University of Technology and graduated in 1922 as a chemical engineer. After graduation,
he joined an electronics company as a research chemist. But with the invasion of Austria by Germany on March of 1938, Charles was sent at first to the concentration camp at Dachau, near Munich in Germany, and then to Buchenwald. Through the fearless efforts of Charles' wife, Claire, a non-Jewish German, he was released from the Gestapo. But as a condition for his release, he had to depart right away for England and leave Claire behind in Vienna.

With no possibility for his wife to immigrate to England when the war broke out in Sept. 1939, Charles and Claire decided, as a last resort, to escape to the only city in the world that demanded no visa: Shanghai. Charles managed to reach Shanghai by crossing the Atlantic to Canada, and then the Pacific to Japan. Claire, who had been staying with Charles' family in Czernowitz (Romania), arrived in Shanghai by traveling alone at the age of 58 via Greece, Turkey, Siberia, Manchuria, and the Yellow Sea. The couple finally reunited in Shanghai on Christmas Eve 1940, after almost three long years of separation.

Life in Shanghai was not easy in an unfamiliar environment, relatively poor living condition and the unbearable summer heat and humidity. They tried to make a living by working as filmmakers documenting daily life in Shanghai and trying to market their films abroad. At one point, Claire contracted typhoid fever, which was endemic in Shanghai. After Pearl Harbor, Charles and Claire, together with thousands of other European Jewish refugees then living in Shanghai, were forced into the Hongkew Restricted Area (ghetto) by the Japanese occupation forces in Shanghai.

When World War II ended, Charles and Claire moved to Australia in July of 1946 to join Charles' cousin Karl. For the next 40 years, Charles continued to devote most of his time and effort to further developing his visual language, the Blissymbolics. His wife supported him in all his efforts. In order to focus on his research, Charles bypassed well paying jobs that would leave little time for other things. Instead, he took on a manual labor that gave him more time to devote to his language work.

Charles was as much a philosopher and social commentator, perhaps even more so, as a language designer. Much of his views and values were shaped by WWII and the Holocaust. He had witnessed the Nazi takeover and seen first hand how Hitler and his followers manipulated and hijacked all of Germany with twisted words and distorted reality.

One does not always have to agree with Charles, but his views and opinions are always interesting, stimulating, and often provocative in positive ways since his heart was always filled with compassion and hope. I believe it was this very spirit that projected him forward with clear vision, total devotion, and determination. It is this same spirit that helped millions of Jews to survive the horrors of WWII and continue to imagine, invent, create and courageously seek new knowledge benefiting the humankind as a whole.

Claire passed away on August 14, 1961. Her death devastated Charles for several years until he was finally able to continue his work and put his language to good use. Starting in 1971, the applications of his lifetime efforts began to be used for disabled and handicapped children with cerebral palsy. Today, Bliss's work facilitates communication between, and with, non-verbal children in dozens of countries. Thousands of children have been helped by this method.

Charles had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and made a Member of The Order of Australia (A.M.) for services to the community, particularly handicapped children. Charles passed away in 1985. He and Claire had no children of their own, but their labor of love, the Bliss Symbols, have brightened the lives of hundreds of disabled children around the world. Thanks to the hard work and admirable spirit of Charles and Claire Bliss, the world has become a better place.