A Beautiful Narrative of Chinese Characters

by Zhao Miao

One of the oldest scripts still in use globally， written Chinese has a history of over 4，000 years. Chinese characters are the sole writing system in the world to combine images， pronunciation and meaning， which gives the script a special charm. It is an important system of symbols preserving the soul of Chinese civilization and the roots of Chinese wisdom.

In the late Qing Dynasty （1644-1911）， the spread of information recorded with Chinese characters changed from woodblock printing to movable type printing. This caused the design of Chinese characters to change greatly. The unique beauty of Chinese characters radiates from visual features unrelated to phonograms. The charm attracts many calligraphers， character designers and graphic designers， who have created endless typefaces and designs which serve as effective tools for spreading knowledge and visual information in Chinese society.

Over the past five years， Zhou Bo， the author of The Story of Modern Chinese Typography， collected loads of primary material and information and interviewed many eminent designers and collectors in Beijing and Shanghai. As a “history in pictures，” the book delicately displays the unique visual effect of Chinese characters in modern times. It also showcases designers affection for Chinese characters across the last century.

The book is divided into three parts. In the introduction， the author expresses views on some basic issues concerning the modern design of Chinese characters. The second and third parts introduce their evolution across two periods： one is from the late Qing Dynasty through the Republic of China （1912-1949） and the other is after the founding of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. Zhou Bo wrote in the Preface， “Compared with the rapid development of media for printing and digital technology， the history， culture， and aesthetics of character design definitely provide more sustained value. This is the fundamental faith that drove me to collect the gigantic volume of material necessary for the book and write it all down.”

Li Gongming， a professor with the Department of History of Fine Arts at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts， remarked that this book presents an overall picture of the development of modern Chinese characters design， with extraordinarily rich pictures and concise narrative. It is the fruitful result of ongoing historical research of the design of Chinese characters. However， the influence of this book goes far beyond character design. It has major academic value for the research of modern Chinese culture since the late Qing Dynasty. Zhao Jian， a professor of the Academy of Art & Design under Tsinghua University and director of the academys Department of Visual Communication， hopes that the book not only benefits academic research， but also bolsters public ability to understand and appreciate the modern design of Chinese characters.

Author Zhou is an associate professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. His research focuses on art， design and visual culture. He authored Modern Design and Ethical Thinking （2014） and translated Typographie （2017）. He won the Fine Arts Award of China for Theory Criticism in 2014 and Beijings award for excellent research on philosophy and social science in 2017.