Chinese character festival kicks off in Taipei

Taipei City Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Lee Yong- ping told a press conference that unlike various forums and exhibitions on the topic that have been held regularly over the past few years, this year’s event also features programs that demonstrate how Chinese characters can be applied to various aspects of life.

As modern traditional Chinese writing has evolved from pictographic characters, she said, their forms “contain a strong artistic sense, “ which can serve as inspiration for creative design.

Lee said that with the global trend of learning the Chinese language gaining momentum, Taiwan should not regard traditional characters only as “functional meaning carriers, “ but also as a modern artistic medium.

With this in mind, the festival — which is taking place in various different venues throughout the city until Jan. 11 next year — includes a creative market, which she said will surprise visitors when they see “the diversity of items evolved from Chinese characters that can be created.”

In addition, Lee invited the public to take part in a calligraphy writing activity at the Huashan Creative and Cultural Park — site of part of the festival — which she hopes will attract at least 10,000 participants in an attempt to break the world record for the largest number of calligraphers working at the same time.

Lee said the festival also features civic forums on Chinese language, in particular a discussion on the blend of Oriental elements in Taiwan’s popular music scene, a trend that has piqued the interest of Taiwan’s lyricists and composers in appreciating traditional literature,to which some of them now turn for inspiration.

Temple tours, as well as traditional opera and music performances, are other highlights of the festival, while Huang Chuan-chin, one of the organizers, said this year’s program also includes a fashion design show with a concept based on the shapes of Chinese characters or the strokes of Chinese calligraphy, along with the use of traditional design techniques such as printing, dying and embroidery.

He added that the festival also has a section in which foreigners can learn the rudiments of the traditional artform of Chinese brush calligraphy.

With Taiwan one of the few remaining countries that still use traditional Chinese characters rather than the simplified form developed in China, Yang Du, secretary-general of the National Cultural Association, said the country should take advantage of its heritage by developing a branch of the cultural and creative industry centered on Taiwan’s writing system.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos Respond to this email