Stenographers race against each other blindfolded in a contest. Photo: CFP

They are quiet achievers, sitting discreetly close to figures of international power and knowledge, huddled over machines. In the West this skill is disappearing from courtrooms and political institutions, but in Shanghai the art of the stenographers is thriving, driven by a small group of dedicated practitioners.

Stenographers record conference or court proceedings on a small machine that looks like a toy piano keyboard. The Chinese steno machine was invented in 1994 by Tang Yawei, who had developed a standardized Chinese shorthand in the 1930s. The machine has 24 keys and good stenographers can type up to 400 Chinese characters a minute using both hands.

Unlike a computer or typewriter keyboard where just one key can be struck at a time, a stenographer can hit up to 10 keys at the same time to produce several characters at once. Stenographers don't use pinyin but have to remember a code for characters. A good stenographer produces an instant transcript of a speech and many can take down speech at 300 characters a minute.

Stenography has advantages over video and sound recording, says Tang Kewei, vice president of Beijing Stenographer Association (his father was Tang Yawei).

A good stenographer will be able to present a full record of the day's proceedings of a conference within half an hour of its concluding.

"Take the annual meetings for the country's policy makers and political advisors for example, each delegation has its own stenographers. And while major news portals broadcast the sessions live they need stenographers to type the captions," said Tang.

Demanding work

A stenographer needs to be clever enough to handle a wide range of assignments, although most have only high school diplomas. Liu Fengming has just a high school diploma, but his ambition is to compete in and win the world championships of stenography, the Intersteno.

Liu points out that doing stenography in Chinese is a lot harder than most Western languages. At a recent conference of traditional Chinese culture where delegates discussed Laozi, Zhuangzi and The Analects, his skills were pushed to the limits.

"One sound can be represented by several characters. It's hard for a stenographer who has to decide immediately which character to choose," Liu said. "It is also complicated typing some characters. The machine usually produces one phrase at a time. Often you have to type a phrase and then delete one character of the phrase to produce the right meaning. This is involved and difficult."

Liu studies classical Chinese literature in his spare time. He often reads classic works out loud. "I have translated The Analects and Tao Te Ching into modern Chinese and typed them out again and again. Before the conference started I made sure I could type the special characters that were needed quickly," Liu said.

Zhang Lili, a 25-year-old who has been working as a stenographer for a year, is enthusiastic about her work. "Many people think my job is boring because I am just typing all day. But I think of my job as a hobby, a game. I enjoy doing this and I am happy to do it every day. Not a day goes by when I don't spend time on the machine," she said.

A small group of stenographers has created an online game for stenographers to improve their skills. "We have an online group where we compete with each other for speed and accuracy," said Zhang.

Discretion vital

Stenographers often have to work with stars and famous people but have to be discreet at the same time. "I know a lot of things but I have to remain silent and never show off," said Fu Huajun, a 27-year-old stenographer who has been working for seven years.

Fu has worked at several major conferences and lectures. Many of these were so secret that he was not even allowed to tell what they were about or who spoke.

Fu felt especially honored when he was assigned to work at a meeting between the Chinese President Hu Jintao and the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China when they discussed a major commercial aircraft project. "Although I didn't meet the president in person, listening to him talking to the others was a very interesting experience. But the work involves a great deal of pressure," said Fu.

Fu said he was closely supervised during the transcription process and at the finish was told to delete everything he had recorded from his own computer and storage device. "Because a lot of confidential technical information was being discussed they wanted complete confidentiality. Keeping secrets for our clients is part of our professional ethics."

Fu also recorded a press conference with Andy Lau. "I sat so close to him that I could see that he had fewer wrinkles on his face than were seen in the photographs of him that appear in magazines. He looked so much younger than his photos," said Fu who was thrilled to get so close to his idol.

Under pressure

Stenographers work under constant pressure. When a speech or meeting ends, the transcript has to be available quickly - the words have to be typed as they are being spoken.

Complicating this already difficult job are jobs where the language used is very specialized or academic, where speakers have strong accents or where there is a lot of ambient noise.

"If time allows, I like to take the notes back to the office, correct every mistake and then give a complete, neat high-quality text to clients," Liu Fengming said.

But that's often just a dream although Liu has been China's champion contest stenographer for three years in a row.

Xie Haiyan runs a stenographers' agency in the city and said there was more hardship than amusement in the job. "Some people think you can be a stenographer as long as you can type quickly. The truth is that it usually takes at least two years of intensive training before you can work as an independent professional stenographer. It requires skill, knowledge and talent. Although very few stenographers have degrees, they broaden their knowledge by themselves in their spare time." Xie's company handles between eight and 10 assignments every day.

Xie said that there are fewer than 40 experienced and skilled stenographers in the city. Monthly wages for this skill vary from 2,000 yuan ($316) to 10,000 yuan.