Dialect is not just a language used for communication, it is also how people define their identity.
Mandarin(普通话) is the official national language of China. The word "普通" means "universal" and "common". Mandarin as a language system makes it easier for Chinese people to communicate. However, the first language of Chinese is not Mandarin but the dialect of their hometown, and they learn Mandarin in school. Each state in China has its own dialect, and some states even have more than five dialects. The pronunciation and tone of each dialect are different, which is why people have different feelings about different dialects—some are rude, some are humorous, some are sentimental, and some are gentle. Because of the promotion of Mandarin and population mobility, Mandarin has become the language of communication for China, and dialects have gradually become a way for people to strengthen their identity.
This project collects the Dongtai dialect that I speak most often. I am from Dongtai, Jiangsu, China. I speak Mandarin when talking with my friends, and I speak the Dongtai dialect when talking with my family. Because the Dongtai dialect is not a common dialect, my friends thought I was rude and seemed to be arguing when they heard my conversation with my parents. Mandarin, as a language designed for the majority of people, allows people from different cities to communicate, while the Dongtai dialect, as a language of a small city, has its own characteristics but is not suitable for use by the people of the whole country.
I had a similar thought after I finished Steven Heller's "Cult of the Ugly". The appearance of that kind of rough and cheap style seems to make it difficult for people who have not received design education to distinguish the difference between professional and non-professional. But rough, cheap, and breaking the rules are the characteristics of this style. As long as there is no lack of information transmission, and the visual picture of information transmission is also completed, I think there is no problem. The beauty or ugliness of a piece of design lies in the perception of its audience.
The form of the archive is inspired by Chinese street advertisements, which are cheap and only care about emphasizing the message. The government also compulsively cleans the street for the beauty and order of the city. These advertisements are indeed ugly, but people also accurately accept and remember the information conveyed by the advertisements. I layout the words according to the high and low sounds of the dialect, forming various irregular graphics, and using bright colors for the background to emphasize the text information.
The audience of this archive is me, and dialect is the way I express my thoughts. It may sound rude, but it directly expresses my real thought without any embellishment.
