Because Regular Rubik’s Cubes Weren’t Hard Enough

To the best of my knowledge, the Techi crew has let fly with a number of interesting Rubik’s Cubes in the past… or maybe it’s just been me. Either way, this one pretty much takes the cake in my opinion, as it’s made of movable type. Being a nut for both typography and Rubik’s Cubes, I’m tickled shades of pink not found in the visible spectrum of light.

But the catch, as you’ve no doubt noticed by the photo, is that this Cube is in Chinese type. Only Cube you’d have to learn a new language before solving. Unless, of course, you already know Chinese. Designed by fellow type enthusiast Shaun Chung, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sexier spatial puzzle.

See Shaun rap. Rap, Shaun, rap.

Chinese has a long history with the printing. In 105 AD, Cai Lun invented the paper. In 200 AD, the Chinese invention of Woodblock printing produced the world’s first print culture. In 1040, Bi Sheng invented the first known movable type technology. Therefore, I want to use a Chinese text for my cube. The text I used for my cube is called “Three Character Classic.” It is a traditional Chinese text that teaches young children to be a good person in the society. The text is written in triplets of characters for easy memorization, which is perfect for the cube since the cube is 3 by 3 on every side. The text is written by Wang Yinglin during the Song Dynasty, so I used a font called “Song,” which is correspond to the Song Dynasty when a distinctive printed style of regular script was developed.