Traditional Chinese Typography in the New Era
This is a bilingual publication that records seven articles about contemporary typography. The publication aims to explore the possibility of applying Chinese traditional typography to contemporary publications. One of the challenges was to reconcile the contemporary reading habits and the Chinese traditional typography principles for both English and Chinese audiences. In Chinese traditional typography, the reading order is vertical and right-to-left. For English speakers, the right-to-left reading order and right-aligned texts might significantly reduce readability. Therefore, it is significant to find a balance between modern reading experience and Chinese traditional typography conventions, and also to address the issue of readability.
I have used a different way of designing the layout, footnote, header, page numbers and so on to address the traditional Chinese typography conventions and aesthetics. The publication seeks to find a solution for reconciling the relationship between contemporary typography codes and conventions influenced by Western design styles and those influenced by cultures and traditions of the East. The work looks into how Latin texts and Chinese texts can collaborate with one another to facilitate cultural transmission between the West and the East. This publication indeed reflects my understanding of typography’s functions and values to culture and historical heritage.
