DOCSLIB.ORG

Chinese Character Synthesis Using METAPOST

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Chinese Character Synthesis Using METAPOST Chinese character synthesis using METAPOST Candy L. K. Yiu, Wai Wong Department of Computer Science, Hong Kong Baptist University [candyyiu,wwong]@comp.hkbu.edu.hk Abstract A serious problem in Chinese information exchange in this rapidly advancing Internet time is the sheer quantity of characters. Commonly used character en- coding systems cannot include all characters, and often fonts do not contain all characters either. In professional and scholarly documents, these unencoded char- acters are quite common. This situation hinders the development of information exchange because special care has to be taken to handle these characters, such as embedding the character as an image. This paper describes our attempt towards solving the problem. Our approach utilizes the intrinsic characteristic of Chinese characters, that is, each character is formed by combining strokes and radicals. We defined a Chinese character description language named HanGlyph, to cap- ture the topological relation of the strokes in a character. We are developing a Chinese Character Synthesis System CCSS which transforms HanGlyph descrip- tions into graphical representations. A large part of the CCSS is implemented in METAPOST. 1 Introduction tion is compact and can be targeted to a variety The rapid advancement of the Internet and the Web of rendering styles. The section on the HanGlyph provides an effective means of information exchange. Chinese character description language describes the However, there is a very serious problem in exchang- language in more detail. Secondly, we use META- ing Chinese documents: the number of Chinese char- POST as our rendering engine to take advantage of acters that now exist or have ever existed is un- its meta-ness and the ability of specifying paths and known. Furthermore, new characters are continu- solving linear equations. ally being created. Therefore, no character set can The HanGlyph language is defined based on encode all Chinese characters. many studies of Chinese characters. The section on Even if a character set could encode all Chinese the sructure of Chinese characters explains the ba- characters, it is very expensive to create Chinese sic structure of Chinese characters for the benefit of fonts using typical methods and a fairly large num- readers who are not familiar with them. HanGlyph ber of Chinese characters would be so rarely used defines 41 basic strokes, 5 operators and a set of rela- that the expense would be very difficult to justify. tions. A character is built by combining strokes us- One possible solution to this problem is to cre- ing the operators recursively. HanGlyph allows the ate an unencoded character according to its compo- user to define macros to represent a stroke cluster sition of strokes and radicals. Several experiments which can then be re-used in building more complex along this line were attempted in the past, but none characters. were very successful. The key reason is that the The CCSS (stands for Chinese Character Syn- composition of the strokes and radicals is very com- thesis System) takes HanGlyph expressions and ren- plex, and the previous attempts did not effectively ders the characters. It can be divided into three divide and resolve the complexity. The section on parts: a front-end to translate HanGlyph expres- related works gives a brief survey of some previous sions into METAPOST programs, a set of primitive attempts. strokes, and a library of METAPOST macros to im- Our approach to Chinese character synthesis re- plement the operators and relations. By varying the solves the complexity in two ways. First, we defined parameters to these macros, or redefining the basic a high-level Chinese character description language, stroke macros, Chinese characters in different styles HanGlyph. It captures the abstract and topological can be formed. Thus, it can create a variety of dif- relation of the strokes. Thus, the character descrip- ferent fonts from the same HanGlyph description. TUGboat, Volume 24 (2003), No. 1 — Proceedings of the 2003 Annual Meeting 85 Candy L. K. Yiu, Wai Wong 2 The structure of Chinese characters while we use a more general term stroke clusters to Chinese characters, or hanzi, have their roots in a refer to any arrangements of several strokes. very long history. A large body of literature on the Except for a small number of very simple char- study of the written form of Chinese language, dat- acters, such as º, Œ, A, which cannot be divided ing from as early as more than 2000 years ago (dur- into component parts, all hanzi can be considered ing the Han dynasty) up to now, is available. The as compositions of certain components. The ways written form of Indo-European languages consists of of composing hanzi from components are known as around 30 characters. Words are formed using these the structure of the character. Many studies, such characters in a linear fashion. In contrast, written as [2] and [8], have identified around 10 different Chinese language is denoted by tens of thousands of types of structures if one considers how to compose hanzi. The exact number of hanzi that have ever a character from only two components. This does existed can never be known. not place serious restrictions, because the composi- Many studies have pointed out that each Chi- tion process can be performed recursively. Figure 1 nese character is composed from strokes. The num- illustrates the commonly used structures. ber of strokes in a character varies from one for the simplest, up to around 50 for the most complex. Un- 3 Related works like the linear composition of words from characters Based on the studies of Chinese characters, several in Indo-European languages, the arrangement of the attempts have been carried out to create hanzi from strokes in hanzi is two-dimensional. a structural composition approach. According to the convention of writing Chinese Toshiyuki et al [10] proposed a way of describ- characters, a stroke is a continuous movement of the ing Chinese characters using sub-patterns. In princi- brush over the writing surface without being lifted ple, their method is similar to the approach of Han- up. It is commonly agreed that there are five ba- Glyph because the underlying theory of character 1 sic strokes: h (k he´ng ), s (N shu`), p (‡ pieˇ), structure is intrinsic to all Chinese characters. n (z na`) and d (Þ diaˇn). Dong [11] and Fan [5] reported their work on the In practice, each of these basic strokes has some development of a Chinese character design system variations depending on the position in a character. which took a parametric approach to create charac- For example, the stroke p ‡ can have two varia- ters in different styles. Lim and Kim [7] developed tions: P (s‡ pı`ngpieˇ) (as the top stroke in C) and a system for designing Oriental character fonts by q (N‡ shu`pieˇ) (as the leftmost stroke in ). In composing stroke elements. addition, a number of combinations of these basic Inspired by the success of METAFONT [6] in movements are considered as strokes because they creating latin character fonts, Hobby and Gu [3] are connected in a natural way in writing. For ex- attempted to generate Chinese characters of differ- ample, a h (k) followed by a p (‡) is a single ent styles using METAFONT. A small set of strokes stroke k called (k˜‡ he`ngzhe´pieˇ). Modern stud- were defined in METAFONT. A small set of radi- ies of Chinese characters [1, 9] identified a small set cals were then defined as METAFONT macros by us- of around 40 strokes as the basic elements of hanzi. ing the strokes. Characters can then be specified as Although the arrangements of strokes to form METAFONT programs using these macros as build- a hanzi is very complex, there are some rules that ing blocks. By varying some parameters governing guide the formation of characters. Further, some the shapes of the strokes, fonts of different styles stroke arrangements are relatively stable and appear can be generated. However, the research was not in many characters. Some of these arrangements are conclusive because they only generated fonts with a themselves hanzi, for example, å; some of them very small character set (128 characters). are known as radicals which are used in Chinese dic- Another attempt similar to Hobby and Gu was tionaries to index characters, for example, s. done by Hosek [4] who aimed at generating hanzi There are some relatively stable arrangements that from a small sets of components. are not hanzi themselves, nor radicals, but appear in A common theme of the works mentioned is the many characters. We will use the term components difficulty of handling the complexity of the struc- to refer to all these kinds of stroke arrangements, tures and the numerousness of characters. Our ap- proach handles the complexity by using an abstract 1 The word he´ng following the hanzi name of the stroke description and a layered CCSS to decompose the is in pinyin, a phonetic transcription of Chinese characters. complexity into several sub-problems. On the Han- We hope these pinyin transcriptions can help readers who do Glyph level, we consider strokes as abstract objects. not know Chinese to pronounce the names of the strokes. 86 TUGboat, Volume 24 (2003), No. 1 — Proceedings of the 2003 Annual Meeting Chinese character synthesis using METAPOST Top−bottom: Partially− 021 3 enclosing: Left−Right: 4567 Enclosing: Cross: Figure 1: The basic structure of hanzi. We need to specify only the relative positions be- 4.1 The strokes tween these abstract objects. On a lower level, we After studying a number of Chinese linguistic and can work out the outline of the strokes and fine tune graphological works, we selected a set of 41 strokes the positions.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Neural Substrates of Hanja (Logogram) and Hangul (Phonogram) Character Readings by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
    ORIGINAL ARTICLE Neuroscience http://dx.doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2014.29.10.1416 • J Korean Med Sci 2014; 29: 1416-1424 Neural Substrates of Hanja (Logogram) and Hangul (Phonogram) Character Readings by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Zang-Hee Cho,1 Nambeom Kim,1 The two basic scripts of the Korean writing system, Hanja (the logography of the traditional Sungbong Bae,2 Je-Geun Chi,1 Korean character) and Hangul (the more newer Korean alphabet), have been used together Chan-Woong Park,1 Seiji Ogawa,1,3 since the 14th century. While Hanja character has its own morphemic base, Hangul being and Young-Bo Kim1 purely phonemic without morphemic base. These two, therefore, have substantially different outcomes as a language as well as different neural responses. Based on these 1Neuroscience Research Institute, Gachon University, Incheon, Korea; 2Department of linguistic differences between Hanja and Hangul, we have launched two studies; first was Psychology, Yeungnam University, Kyongsan, Korea; to find differences in cortical activation when it is stimulated by Hanja and Hangul reading 3Kansei Fukushi Research Institute, Tohoku Fukushi to support the much discussed dual-route hypothesis of logographic and phonological University, Sendai, Japan routes in the brain by fMRI (Experiment 1). The second objective was to evaluate how Received: 14 February 2014 Hanja and Hangul affect comprehension, therefore, recognition memory, specifically the Accepted: 5 July 2014 effects of semantic transparency and morphemic clarity on memory consolidation and then related cortical activations, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) Address for Correspondence: (Experiment 2). The first fMRI experiment indicated relatively large areas of the brain are Young-Bo Kim, MD Department of Neuroscience and Neurosurgery, Gachon activated by Hanja reading compared to Hangul reading.
    [Show full text]
  • A Comparative Analysis of the Simplification of Chinese Characters in Japan and China
    CONTRASTING APPROACHES TO CHINESE CHARACTER REFORM: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE SIMPLIFICATION OF CHINESE CHARACTERS IN JAPAN AND CHINA A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN ASIAN STUDIES AUGUST 2012 By Kei Imafuku Thesis Committee: Alexander Vovin, Chairperson Robert Huey Dina Rudolph Yoshimi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express deep gratitude to Alexander Vovin, Robert Huey, and Dina R. Yoshimi for their Japanese and Chinese expertise and kind encouragement throughout the writing of this thesis. Their guidance, as well as the support of the Center for Japanese Studies, School of Pacific and Asian Studies, and the East-West Center, has been invaluable. i ABSTRACT Due to the complexity and number of Chinese characters used in Chinese and Japanese, some characters were the target of simplification reforms. However, Japanese and Chinese simplifications frequently differed, resulting in the existence of multiple forms of the same character being used in different places. This study investigates the differences between the Japanese and Chinese simplifications and the effects of the simplification techniques implemented by each side. The more conservative Japanese simplifications were achieved by instating simpler historical character variants while the more radical Chinese simplifications were achieved primarily through the use of whole cursive script forms and phonetic simplification techniques. These techniques, however, have been criticized for their detrimental effects on character recognition, semantic and phonetic clarity, and consistency – issues less present with the Japanese approach. By comparing the Japanese and Chinese simplification techniques, this study seeks to determine the characteristics of more effective, less controversial Chinese character simplifications.
    [Show full text]
  • On the Pictorial Structure of Chinese Characters
    National Bur'SaU 01 Jiwiuuiuu Library, N.W. Bldg Reference book not to be FEB 1 1965 taken from the library. ^ecltnlcai v|ete 254 ON THE PICTORIAL STRUCTURE OF CHINESE CHARACTERS B. KIRK RANKIN, III, WALTER A. SILLARS, AND ROBERT W. HSU U. S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS The National Bureau of Standards is a principal focal point in the Federal Government for assuring maximum application of the physical and engineering sciences to the advancement of technology in industry and commerce. Its responsibilities include development and maintenance of the national stand- ards of measurement, and the provisions of means for making measurements consistent with those standards; determination of physical constants and properties of materials; development of methods for testing materials, mechanisms, and structures, and making such tests as may be necessary, particu- larly for government agencies; cooperation in the establishment of standard practices for incorpora- tion in codes and specifications; advisory service to government agencies on scientific and technical problems; invention and development of devices to serve special needs of the Government; assistance to industry, business, and consumers in the development and acceptance of commercial standards and simplified trade practice recommendations; administration of programs in cooperation with United States business groups and standards organizations for the development of international standards of practice; and maintenance of a clearinghouse for the collection and dissemination of scientific, tech- nical, and engineering information. The scope of the Bureau's activities is suggested in the following listing of its four Institutes and their organizational units. Institute for Basic Standards.
    [Show full text]
  • The Chinese Script T � * 'L
    Norman, Jerry, Chinese, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. 1 3.1 Th e beginnings of Chinese writing 59 3 FISH HORSE ELEPHANT cow (yu) (m ii) (xiimg) (niu) " The Chinese script t � * 'l Figure 3.1. Pictographs in early Chinese writing 3.1 The beginnings of Chinese writing1 The Chinese script appears as a fully developed writing system in the late Shang .dynasty (fourteenth to eleventh centuries BC). From this period we have copious examples of the script inscribed or written on bones and tortoise shells, for the most part in the form of short divinatory texts. From the same period there also Figure 3.2. The graph fo r quiin'dog' exist a number of inscriptions on bronze vessels of various sorts. The former type of graphic record is referred to as the oracle bone script while the latter is com­ of this sort of graph are shown in Figure 3.1. The more truly representational a monly known· as the bronze script. The script of this period is already a fully graph is, the more difficult and time-consuming it is to depict. There is a natural developed writing system, capable of recording the contemporary Chinese lan­ tendency for such graphs to become progressively simplified and stylized as a guage in a complete and unambiguous manner. The maturity of this early script writing system matures and becomes more widely used. As a result, pictographs has suggested to many scholars that it must have passed through a fairly long gradually tend to lose their obvious pictorial quality. The graph for qui'in 'dog' period of development before reaching this stage, but the few examples of writing shown in Figure 3.2 can serve as a good illustration of this sort of development.
    [Show full text]
  • The Challenge of Chinese Character Acquisition
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Faculty Publications: Department of Teaching, Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Learning and Teacher Education Education 2017 The hC allenge of Chinese Character Acquisition: Leveraging Multimodality in Overcoming a Centuries-Old Problem Justin Olmanson University of Nebraska at Lincoln, [email protected] Xianquan Chrystal Liu University of Nebraska - Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/teachlearnfacpub Part of the Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, Chinese Studies Commons, Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Instructional Media Design Commons, Language and Literacy Education Commons, Online and Distance Education Commons, and the Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons Olmanson, Justin and Liu, Xianquan Chrystal, "The hC allenge of Chinese Character Acquisition: Leveraging Multimodality in Overcoming a Centuries-Old Problem" (2017). Faculty Publications: Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education. 239. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/teachlearnfacpub/239 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications: Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Volume 4 (2017)
    [Show full text]
  • The Chinese Strokes
    The Chinese SSStrokesStrokes Far from being complicated drawings, Chinese characters are made out of simple single strokes, all of them variations of only eight basic ones. All strokes have their own name and are written according to a few rules. 1. The following are the first six strokes, the fundamental ones: as in the horizontal stroke character heng (written from left to right) yi (one) as in the vertical stroke character shu (written from top to bottom) shi (ten) as in the down stroke to the left character pie (written from top right to bottom left) ba (eight) as in the down stroke to the right character na (written from top left to bottom right) ru (to enter) as in the dot character dian (written from top to bottom right or left) liu (six) as in the upward stroke character ti (written from bottom left to top right) , 我 ba (to grasp) 2. The last two strokes have several different variations. The first group is composed by five strokes with a hook: as in the character henggou horizontal stroke with a hook zi (character) as in the character shugou vertical stroke with a hook xiao (small) as in the character wangou bending stroke with a hook gou (dog) as in the character xiegou slant stroke with a hook wo (I, me) as in the level bending stroke with a character pinggou hook wang (to forget) 3. And the following by two single strokes with a turn: as in the character vertical stroke with a horizontal shuzhe turn to the right yi (doctor, medicine) as in the horizontal stroke with a vertical character hengzhe turn kou (mouth) 4.
    [Show full text]
  • CJK Strokes Range: 31C0–31EF
    CJK Strokes Range: 31C0–31EF This file contains an excerpt from the character code tables and list of character names for The Unicode Standard, Version 14.0 This file may be changed at any time without notice to reflect errata or other updates to the Unicode Standard. See https://www.unicode.org/errata/ for an up-to-date list of errata. See https://www.unicode.org/charts/ for access to a complete list of the latest character code charts. See https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/Unicode-14.0/ for charts showing only the characters added in Unicode 14.0. See https://www.unicode.org/Public/14.0.0/charts/ for a complete archived file of character code charts for Unicode 14.0. Disclaimer These charts are provided as the online reference to the character contents of the Unicode Standard, Version 14.0 but do not provide all the information needed to fully support individual scripts using the Unicode Standard. For a complete understanding of the use of the characters contained in this file, please consult the appropriate sections of The Unicode Standard, Version 14.0, online at https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode14.0.0/, as well as Unicode Standard Annexes #9, #11, #14, #15, #24, #29, #31, #34, #38, #41, #42, #44, #45, and #50, the other Unicode Technical Reports and Standards, and the Unicode Character Database, which are available online. See https://www.unicode.org/ucd/ and https://www.unicode.org/reports/ A thorough understanding of the information contained in these additional sources is required for a successful implementation.
    [Show full text]
  • Chinese Calligraphy: Standard Script for Beginners Free
    FREE CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY: STANDARD SCRIPT FOR BEGINNERS PDF Qu Lei Lei,Jane Portal | 32 pages | 21 Jun 2004 | BRITISH MUSEUM PRESS | 9780714124254 | English | London, United Kingdom Chinese script styles - Wikipedia In Chinese calligraphyChinese characters can be written according to five major styles. These styles are intrinsically linked to the history of Chinese script. When used in decorative ornamentation, such as book covers, movie posters, and wall hangings, characters are often written in ancient variations or simplifications that deviate from the modern standards used in Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese or Korean. Modern variations or simplifications of characters, akin to Chinese Simplified characters or Japanese shinjitaiare occasionally used, especially since some simplified forms derive from cursive script shapes in the first place. The Japanese syllabaries of katakana and hiragana are used in calligraphy; the katakana were derived from the shapes of regular script characters and hiragana from those of cursive script. In Korea, the post- Korean War period saw the increased use of hangulthe Korean alphabet, in calligraphy. Today, this style of Chinese writing is used predominantly in sealshence the English name. Although seals name chopswhich make a signature-like impression, are carved in wood, jade and other materials, the script itself was originally written with brush and ink on bamboo books and other media, just like all other ancient scripts. However, because seals act like legal signatures in the cultures of ChinaJapanKoreaand Vietnamand because vermillion seal impressions are a fundamental part of the presentation of works of art such as calligraphy and painting, seals and therefore seal script remain ubiquitous. Clerical script characters are often "flat" in appearance, being wider than the preceding seal script and the modern standard script, both of which tend to be taller than they are wide; some versions of clerical are square, and others are wider.
    [Show full text]
  • General Explanations Nihon Kokugo Daijiten Editorial Policy 1
    General Explanations Nihon kokugo daijiten Editorial Policy 1. This dictionary attempts to offer a historical account of the meanings and usages of the Japanese language through reference to various written materials. 2. Entry items include the vocabulary of modern Japanese as well as items from historical texts. Proper nouns, including names of places and people, and technical and specialized terms are also included. 3. Definitions of a given word are generally arranged in historical order; usage citations are accompanied by the name of the text in which they appear. 4. Sources for citations are taken from a broad spectrum of texts including literary, historical, religious, and other works of various periods. 5. Citation sources range from works of antiquity to works of the Meiji, Taishō, and Shōwa periods. Chinese texts are also used for Sino-Japanese words. 6. Citations are taken from the most reliable versions of historical texts; in cases where variant texts are cited, notice is given. 7. Identification of citations is a specific as possible. In order to facilitate comprehension, some citations include the author's name and the field with which the text is associated. 8. Separate subheadings for Dialectal Variants, Etymology, Pronunciation, and Premodern Dictionary Citations are included with commentary where appropriate. 9. Entry headings and definitions are based on modern standards, and are intended to make location and comprehension as easy as possible. Components of the Descriptions The descriptions of words in this dictionary are composed of the following elements: entry heading, historical kana orthography, kanji, part of speech, definitions, examples and sources, supplementary notes, dialectal variants, etymology, pronunciation, and premodern dictionary citations.
    [Show full text]
  • Knowledge and Perception of Stroke Order Among Chinese-As-A-Foreign Language Students in a Malaysian University
    International Journal of Education and Research Vol. 2 No. 11 November 2014 Knowledge and Perception of Stroke Order among Chinese-as-a-Foreign Language Students in a Malaysian University Lee Pin Ling [email protected]* Chinese-as-a foreign language Teacher School of Languages, Literacies and Translation, Universiti Sains Malaysia Paramaswari Jaganathan [email protected] Senior Lecturer School of Languages, Literacies and Translation, Universiti Sains Malaysia ABSTRACT This research presents the knowledge and perception of the Chinese language stroke order among undergraduates of Chinese-as-a-foreign (CFL) language course in a Malaysian university. A total of 73 participants from four levels of minor and option courses participated in this mixed-method study. The data was obtained via questionnaire, teaching intervention and interviews with respondents. The results showed that the overall respondents have a good knowledge of the Chinese language stroke order and perceived it useful in producing accurate Chinese writing, hastening the writing tasks and providing the accurate spelling of words. The data also showed that the respondents at the beginner levels showed a higher score of interest in acquiring the stroke system compared to the advance learners who were keener in enhancing their proficiency in other aspects of the Chinese language writing process. Findings from this study recommend that the teaching of stroke order needs to be implemented at the elementary level for more accurate and effective teaching, learning and retention of writing in a Chinese-as-a Foreign Language course. The results have clear implications for effective language acquisition as well as the teaching and learning of second language.
    [Show full text]
  • Chinese Writing and Calligraphy
    CHINESE LANGUAGE LI Suitable for college and high school students and those learning on their own, this fully illustrated coursebook provides comprehensive instruction in the history and practical techniques of Chinese calligraphy. No previous knowledge of the language is required to follow the text or complete the lessons. The work covers three major areas:1) descriptions of Chinese characters and their components, including stroke types, layout patterns, and indications of sound and meaning; 2) basic brush techniques; and 3) the social, cultural, historical, and philosophical underpinnings of Chinese calligraphy—all of which are crucial to understanding and appreciating this art form. Students practice brush writing as they progress from tracing to copying to free-hand writing. Model characters are marked to indicate meaning and stroke order, and well-known model phrases are shown in various script types, allowing students to practice different calligraphic styles. Beginners will fi nd the author’s advice on how to avoid common pitfalls in writing brush strokes invaluable. CHINESE WRITING AND CALLIGRAPHY will be welcomed by both students and instructors in need of an accessible text on learning the fundamentals of the art of writing Chinese characters. WENDAN LI is associate professor of Chinese language and linguistics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Cover illustration: Small Seal Script by Wu Rangzhi, Qing dynasty, and author’s Chinese writing brushes and brush stand. Cover design: Wilson Angel UNIVERSITY of HAWAI‘I PRESS Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96822-1888 LI-ChnsWriting_cvrMech.indd 1 4/19/10 4:11:27 PM Chinese Writing and Calligraphy Wendan Li Chinese Writing and Calligraphy A Latitude 20 Book University of Hawai‘i Press Honolulu © 2009 UNIVERSITY OF HAWai‘i Press All rights reserved 14â13â12â11â10â09ââââ6 â5â4â3â2â1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Li, Wendan.
    [Show full text]
  • Draft This Article Is Yet to Be Copy Edited. It Is Not the Final Version
    Dr. Nicola Foster November 2018 Draft This article is yet to be copy edited. It is not the final version which will be published. Journal: Art in Translation Title: Translating Nüshu: Drawing Nüshu, Dancing Nüshu Author: Dr. Nicola Foster Senior Research Fellow, Solent University, East Park Terrace, Southampton S014 0YN, UK e-mail: [email protected] Other e-mail: [email protected] Word Count: 7006 words Abstract: Since the mid/late 20th Century many women artists and art historians have been engaged in acknowledging art works produced by women but historically attributed to their male guardian. However, in a remote rural area of south China women developed their own script, nüshu (literally women's writing) in which they wrote songs, ballads, laments, autobiographies and correspondence in the context of wider art activities. Nüshu works were produced by women and for women and as such were left unacknowledged. This article argues that in order to acknowledge nüshu as an art practice it needs to be 'translated', referenced and acknowledged by other artists. The paper thus explores the way in which two Hong Kong artists – working in drawing and dance respectively - translate, commemorate and construct an artistic heritage and a genealogy of women artists in China. Key Words: Women artists nüshu Drawing Feminism Contemporary Dance Translation China Key Names: Yuenyi Lo Helen Lai Luce Irigaray Dorothy Ko Walter Benjamin Lisa See Fei-Wen Liu 1 Dr. Nicola Foster November 2018 Translating Nüshu: Drawing Nüshu, Dancing Nüshu Nüshu and Translation The small county of Jiangyong in Hunan province of South China, is rural and remote.
    [Show full text]