The Very First Day of School (1945) Essay -- Personal Narrative

   My mother took me to school on my first day. Mother had been telling me for weeks prior to the big day how wonderful school was going to be, so I was dutifully excited. She failed to mention that she was going to leave me with seventeen little strangers and one large lady. The large lady seemed to think that she was in control. I later learned that she was the teacher. She was trying to explain to Mother that I was not eligible to attend first grade because I would not be six until November of the following year. My mother was having none of that. She wanted me out of the house and into school and she did not care what the rules were. We had just moved from New Orleans to the woods of St. Helena Parish, where school had started two weeks before we arrived. Although it was 1945 in the rest of the world, it was still 1920 in St. Helena. Our home in New Orleans had had indoor plumbing, a gas stove, and electric heaters. In the country, however, we had an outhouse. Every drop of water we used was pumped and carried inside. We chopped wood for our stove and heaters. The back breaking, never ending labor did not bother me as much as having to live in such a degrading manner. I hated the woods. I missed the comforts of the city and I hated the primitive conditions of our new country life. I missed my good-natured little playmates who had treated me so kindly for the first five years of my life. I missed the gentle accents spoken in soft voices by my friends and neighbors, and the endless hours of playtime that we enjoyed. But now I was going to have to go to school! For a while, I thought the rule that a child had to be six before entering the first grade would rescue me. School rules back then, li... ... At lunchtime, I offered to share my cookies with a very angry girl. She had been staring at them ever since I had taken them out of their wax paper wrapping. They were only vanilla wafers, and certainly were not my favorite. She told me that she had never tasted store bought cookies, and pronounced them fit for a king. She became my lifetime friend and protector. She remained an angry person, but seldom got angry with me. The big boy dumped me in the fifth grade for a girl who had matured very early. The first day of school, I learned these valuable lessons. Accents only sound strange to people who have different accents. Never bother arguing with my mother. Crying does not help, but sometime you just have to do it anyway. A little sweetness can make an angry person nicer. Flattery goes a long way with a guy; sometimes it can even go as far as the fifth grade.

Chinese Typography Study

Typography in Publication Design Chinese Typography Study Training for cultural awareness and sustainability Choi Chi Kit Jackson, Hong Kong Design Institute, Hong Kong, [email  protected] edu. uk Monica Chiu, Hong Kong Design Institute, Hong Kong, [email  protected] edu. hk Sylvia To, Hong Kong Design Institute, Hong Kong, [email  protected] edu. hk Abstract: This paper aims to present the unique quality of Chinese letterforms & characters, and to discuss our approach of teaching Chinese typography as a tool of nurturing cultural awareness and sustainability.Through in-depth research of traditional literature, study the philosophy from past, examine the visual symbols and tangible artifacts in the surrounding at present-day to enable students’ to translate and transform the materials into experimental typographic designs for modern communication. We believed that this is a good method for our future creative talents to engage with traditional value and essence sustainab ility through typography design practice. Key words: cultural awareness, Chinese aesthetics, letterform appreciation, iconic architectural elements, pictogram, philosophy, cultural identity . Introduction Movable types have contributed a major way of communication since the invention of printing. Today, the existence of digital media has drove typography design to a formulaic nature. For Chinese typography, the unique human philosophy contained in writing system enriched our life and soul since it’s developed by ancestors and scholars. However, the reliance of digital media made this distinctive philosophy being disregarded by many design students in Hong Kong.Since ancient time, human civilization reflected and recorded cognition towards their living environment by direct imitation to produce imagery or drawings, for example cave paintings, monumental carving and primitive written symbols. However the direct copying of objects and forms had its limitation when it came to abs tract association of ideologies. During civilization development, languages were formulated and gradually migrated into two different streams: one headed to the direction replacing pictographs with phonetic system all together.Pictographs were soon replaced by alphabets; which the meaning of words were constructed by combinations of different sound, later developed into language system with enormous amount of words. Another different direction was extension from pictograph with phonetic component and the additional association from pictographs. The former was well adopted by western world to become roman alphabets whereas the latter was Chinese characters for Chinese culture. AaBbCcDdEeFfGg Chinese typography constituted a major way of communication for literature and culture sustain.Unlike roman alphabets, the meaning of Chinese characters comes with the unique combination of ancestor’s artifacts, activities, space and sounds in daily life. Even though the representation of Chinese letterforms changed according to human civilization, this unique way of writing system ( Kanzi) still transmit in today’s Chinese characters since oracle bone script been found. Horse ? Herd ? Despite the changes and amendment made along the rise and fall of dynasties, Chinese written language is basically retained with the same ancient artifacts and literature and still in used today.In some sense, we are communicating with our ancestors. ? In this paper we discuss the nature and characteristics of Chinese writing system with the approach of training aims to revitalize this cultural philosophy on contemporary Chinese typography. 2. Design Principles of Chinese Character 2. 1 Traditional Chinese culture in modern design context Chinese arts and crafts development reached its peak as early as Han Dynasty (206 B. C. – 8 A. D. ). Lots of documents have been found such as the Kaogong ji (1) that llustrated and stated rules and dimensions for architecture and deco rative ornaments. These information was however more inclined to the technical aspects of construction and production rather than the design principles and thinking in a modern context. Pages extract from Kaogong ji The closest attempt to design theory and thinking seems to be embedded in the deepest roots of Chinese culture when our ancestors tried to create the primitive form of communication, the Chinese letterforms. This can be trace in the six categories of Chinese Characters, the ‘liushu ’. 2. Generation of Chinese characters Chinese characters evolved basically from pictographs that represent objects, actions, events and sounds since 5000BC. This is distinctive from roman alphabets which the meaning of words comes from a combination of alphabets but not from one single alphabet. Every Chinese character has its own meaning, or even more than one. Various types of character were first classified systematically in Han Dynasty, around 100 AD by the Chinese linguist Xu Shen , whose etymological dictionary ‘Explaining Simple and Analyzing Compound Characters, Shuowen Jiezi, divides the script into six categories, the ‘liushu’. 1. Pictographs ( xiangxingzi) 2. Pictophonetic compounds ( , Xingshengzi) 3. Indicative Characters / Ideograph ( , zh shizi) 4. Associative Characters / Logical aggregates ( , Huiyizi) 5. Associate Transformation ( , Zhu nzhuzi) 6. Borrowing ( , Ji jiezi) We have approximately over 60,000 Chinese characters. Although some strokes were simplified or lost occasionally in the past, Chinese characters are basically is in its stable structure since Qin Dynasty. (2)The 6 categories of Chinese Character (‘liushu’) mention here is an extreme important knowledge for Chinese for maximizing our communication possibility, to serve as guideline for new letterform creation in coherent logic; this can be discussed as similar as western design principles. 3. Chinese Typography Training Today, we are const antly bombarded by excessive visual excitement and information. In the process of coding and decoding visual message, if the origin of Chinese letterform can be well preserved, one can reveal the purest form of visual dialogue for our next generation. Communication depends on common principles -assumptions and meanings, purpose and values – but common meanings can be established only by communication and agreement† (Richard McKeon, 1998). 3. 1 The consequence of traditional and modern Chinese characters Although the unique combination of symbolic marks still exists in modern Chinese letterform, a major problem is modern fonts design concentrate very much on modification of geometrical shapes to relatively simple structure for the needs of digital media.Hence, we see the large gap between the combination of symbolic marks and cultural meanings obtained within. In order to sustain the unique literate and cultural traditions, we believe the co-existing of symbolic marks an d geometrical structure should not be overlooked. Pictogram Oracle Bone script Bronze script Seal script Clerical script Regular script Cursive script Movable type Digital font ? ? Same as many western typography design, our practical guide to Chinese typography training is a combination of origin and new, involved literature review and experimental workshops.Along with our four years coaching experience gone through with the application and interpretation of philosophical notion of Chinese calligraphy emerged with theoretical, aesthetic and contextual approaches. Time Space Social Artefacts ? Literature Cultural People 3. 2 Cultural sustainability Chinese letterform composed of symbolic marks for linguistic and visual communication. It is a significant medium to connect Chinese culture and social ideologies. In this regard, we obtain Chinese typography as perfect channel to facilitate student's creativity as well as literature and cultural knowledge.Literature Review Exper imental Workshops Design for cultural awareness and sustainability. 3. 3 Teaching and learning strategy Our training method consist two main stages: 3. 3. 1 Literature review It is our essential stage to buildup theoretical and methodological brought from ancient Chinese intellects, a practical based training leading students to translate and transform the Chinese calligraphy philosophy into new visual dimensions. 3. 3. 2 Experimental workshops Another approach to learn typography is to forget about typography.By employing experimental graphic treatments, materials and imagery, we hope to further enhanced audience’s emotional and spiritual responds in reading. Through serious of experimental workshops, we facilitate students to explore and experiment new visual codes. Through our practice-based research project fused with theory and medium in all kinds, we established new aesthetic perspective and approach that manifests the fusion of cultural and functional qualities for con temporary Chinese typography design.Eventually, increase the awareness of cultural sustainability. Literature review Experimental workshops Learning process Origin ? Translate ? Transform + Learning process Explore ? Experiment To demonstrate the idea how we embrace literature and cultural knowledge as well as facilitating students’ Chinese typography creativity, our learning contents and work examples will be further discussed. Student’s examples will be show to demonstrate our academic achievements including the awarded projects in national competition. 3. Learning Contents 3. 4. 1 Fundamental Principles of Chinese Letterform Chinese calligraphy is an expression of innermost spirit of one’s well-being. Calligraphy appreciation enriches viewers experience through acknowledge of one's expressive strokes, shapes and structure. In the past, painter and calligraphers has a common practice to developed skills begun by imitating works from great masters. The exercise shown here was intended to revisit, rethink and embrace the very fundamental principles of Chinese writing system.By respecting the origin to establish new forms, and be free to give personality to that form. Exercise: Calligraphy in practice Knowledge: principles of writing order, 8 strokes theory, 34 grid systems, origin of Chinese calligraphy, personality, express, control. Technique: structure, strokes, form, shapes, and grid. Learning process: Origin 3. 4. 2 Letterform and Chinese Philosophy Chinese Yin-yang philosophy used to describe how polar opposites or seemingly contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other in turn.The Yin-yang concept is not opposing force, but complementary opposites that interact within a greater whole, as part of a dynamic system of equilibrium. Chinese typography consists of Yin-yang philosophy within. Elements of each letterform are in placed within a grid system of 34 different for mats. Everything is organized in a right position of perfect balance. Yin-yan Examples of Chinese letterform ? ? ? ? ? Symmetrical Balance Asymmetrical balance Stability Visible & invisible Spacing Fullness and emptiness Balance and sense of space Balance and hierarchyIn this content, students were asked to learn historical knowledge of Chinese calligraphy and principles of Chinese letterform design. Through extensive exploration and experiments to develop, translate and transform the principles into modern typography design. The training is to nurture the appreciation of aesthetic quality of Chinese letterform. 3. 4. 3 Simplified type strokes and forms Although there are straight structure and format for standard characters, designers still have flexibility during actually implementation of Chinese characters (Junior school teachers may disagree with this).Since Chinese characters are the graphic representation of what we see in real world, there is no absolute right or wrong compo sition of letterform. In fact the development of script has reflect this flexibility: pictographs > metal script>seal script >clerical script >regular script, not to mention the drastic change from Traditional Chinese to Simplified. Letter strokes and composition are continuously morphing and altering over time. Historically, it is a visual game which artists play around with the forms and strokes for visual interest such as , , . Today, these hrases are still in use in our ordinary life such as paper cut, red banners for blessing; embroidery, furniture and architecture for decoration†¦ So, almost every character has its own meaning or a story to tell. The following examples demonstrated how Chinese characters can be read as graphic forms with an intentional to remove strokes and emerge two or more forms together to become new composition. Viewers are amused by the tricks, and enjoy the process of reading and decoding the design. And we believed that this can be a good appeti zer for students to start off the feast of Chinese Typography.For this content, students were asked to play with their own Chinese names by simplifying strokes and forms. They may find it confusing in the beginning but soon discover the fun of â€Å"being wrong†. Strokes were removed deliberately but the principle is that the characters could still be read and be understood. The process includes reduce strokes ? add weight ? use counter space ? align grid ? create style. The experimental exercises show below demonstrated how students examine the equilibrium philosophy with strokes from Chinese name.Through practicing the principles as first step, several techniques were employed (Diagram 1-5). Next, students were asked to come up with a suitable idiom or phase that can well express the visual quality from previous design, finally translate and transform the visual approach and ordinary letterform to new image structure (Diagram 6). Exercise: Type structure Knowledge: structur e, strokes, grid, form, shapes, space, yin-yang philosophy. Technique: eliminate elements, graphic treatment, Visible & invisible space, positive & negative association, counter space, form and deform, distortion, grouping, illusion, positive and negative space, fullness and emptiness, visual balance in strokes, counter-space, the subtle interchangeable black and white marks Learning process: Origin > Translate > Transform 3. 4. 4 Characteristics from materials Chinese characters are pictogram compose with symbolic marks of artifacts to become the foundation of our culture, however people today are often ignore the beauty and stories behind. The beauty of such simple geometrical form revealed the culture, activities, space, sound or motion of daily life at the time.Each letterform build within a grid contained a story, a connotation or more. If Chinese characters are originally invented by our ancestor with an instinct to be survive, why can’t we create typography from ignor ing everything about typography? Psychologists suggested that human being is capable of internally organizing and representing aspects of his environment, and this representation or map is subject to continuous change and revision. Each time this cognitive map is changed or reinforced that can be said to have ‘learned’. (Kerry J.McGarry, 1981). Our following exercise requires students to examine the properties of various materials and explore the possibility to create Chinese characters which convey message in both visual and language. Through the assignments, students were asked to keep repeat testing by manipulating materials. Our workshop for this particular topic consists of two stages: 1. 2. By playing with physical materials to examine and explore the possible appearances or performance Observe to discover the human physiological reaction against the experimental workSoftness within hardness explores the physical property of bamboo stick Cloth ? , surround ? , pe netrate ? , stand ? , Rise ? , transparent ? , roll ? The above works demonstrated our process to obtain human physiological reaction through materials. The collected information and experiments such as textual elements or visual appearance will be transformed and developed into typography that can convey a message with physiological response. Exercise: Play with materials Experiments: materials, texture, objects, etc.Techniques: flat laying, top-up, layering, reduce/destroy, add on or attach, transparent, marks or scare, positive & negative space, lighting & shadow, 2D or 3D, physical & chemical reaction, interaction, alternation, etc. Learning process: Explore > Experiment 3. 4. 5 Artefacts This is another experimental workshop attempted to challenge the functional aspect of letterforms. If Chinese characters concealed imagery of artefacts for functional communication for humane society, we doubted if this communication still serve effectively? Would this be a communication gap be tween ancient time and modern world?Can this problem be fixed by rediscovering the elements consisted in our present time? In this exercise, students were asked to discover their own letterform story through image capture. Students were asked to capture the expressive cultural artefacts or physical environment, with those elements found from existing place and time, a contemporary letterform is possibly formulated. Exercise: Type finding Exploration: cultural artifacts, icon, architecture, humanity, society. Technique: photography, discover, observation. Learning process: Explore > Experiment 4. Type design inspired by ‘liushu’ 4. 1.Pictographic Characters ( xiangxingzi): Strokes and structure VS iconic elements and symbols Pictograph, also known as pictogram to conveys its meaning through pictorial illustration of a physical object. The forms of these Chinese characters can be linked and associated directly to the physical objects such as Horse, Fish, Sun and Moon ( ). As highly simplified graphic representation of objects, motion and stories, a scene of drama all frozen into a still frame, all these dialogue, props, lights and textures are condensed into graphic strokes. The beauty of culture is locked into the visual codes of each letterform.When we believe that Chinese characters are frozen images of drama/stories, the best way to unfreeze them is by placing them back to the physical/material world. There has no necessity to create additional visual elements if they are already out there in the real world. Perhaps all we have to do is to re-discover them again. In this exercise, students were asked to create their typeface through captured image of iconic structures and cultural artifacts of architecture, temples, street scenes, Chinese restaurant, local tea shops, road signs, ritual materials, and any thing relates to our heritage and culture.Students will then ask to identify the patterns and images until the basic visual elements can be rev ealed. A new letterform will be formulated and developed with those elements they found. Students were also encourage to study the pictorial origins and stories of Chinese characters, experiment to decode all underlining meanings, almost like an archaeologist interpreting the prehistoric world of life with unearthed fossils. (Left to Right) Light ? , Hole ? , Bamboo Scaffolding Light ? : It depicted the simplest form of light beam that created the strokes radiated from the center point.Hole ? : There had no stroke in the word. The form was generated with layers of corrugated boards that created the depth of a hole. Bamboo Scaffolding : The student studied thoroughly the materials and structure that construct the unique characteristics of the bamboo scaffolding. All elements were reduced to their basic forms such as the bamboo sticks, tiding strings, broken pieces, dirt and objects around the building site. Viewers could associate the visual structure of the typeface with the conte xt of the design immediately. Left) visual elements (Right) Temple Temple : The student took a lot of photos at an old temple to grasp the detail of the ancient architectural style of Chinese buildings such as censer, stone carving lion and pagodas that reflected not only the life style of ordinary people, but also their religious beliefs. With these unique visual elements, student was able to formulate the letterform of primitive, simplicity of rich textural quality typography. 4. 2 Indicative Characters / Ideograph ( zh shizi) The indicative characters are used to express things that are abstract in meaning. They may be purely abstract symbols that indicate directions, or symbols will be added to pictographic characters to indicate abstract nature of matters. Examples are Chinese words indicating above, beneath, concave and convex. ( ) In this content, students will have to experiment with different materials with textual properties, conditions and mood to see how they can be co nnected to represent the meaning of Chinese characters. In the history of Chinese ainting, there is a famous saying of â€Å"One will be enlightened in inner-self if one can learn from the greater nature in one’s surrounding. † (3) It is to get rid of the computer table and go out to discover the origin and beauty of nature. (Left to Right) Trapped ? , Diffuse ? , Concave ? , look ? 4. 3 Pictophonetic compounds ( , Xingshengzi): Another category of character is a pictophonetic compound, which is to have one component to indicate the type or meaning of word, named as radical, while the other component to indicate the pronunciation of the word. ( This increases largely the possible combination of words, and nearly 90% of Chinese words used nowadays are created as pictophonetic compounds. This category can sometimes indicate the relationship between words with the same radical, and makes classification of characters very efficient. Here is an interesting student’s experimental work for lyrics design of Chinese Opera (Cantonese Opera). Traditional Chinese music notes is embedded into the lyrics characters. Music notes become the strokes of the letterform, and the length and distance between characters indicate the rhythm of the song.The design integrates the sounds with the meaning of characters, and reveals the aesthetics of traditional Chinese calligraphy. 4. 4 Associative Characters / Logical aggregates ( , Huiyizi) Pictograph is a very effective medium of communication for indicating physical objects and visual materials, but it has its own limitation when comes to abstract concepts and ideologies. Instead of switching completely phonetic system, our ancestors created flexible manipulation of the formation of letterforms so as to enrich the complexity of Chinese and allow broad dimensions of communication.To express abstract concepts, they created the associative characters that put two or more pictographic characters together to describe an action, or something abstract. ( ) For example the character â€Å"illuminate† is the combination of two pictographs of sun and moon, which are obviously the biggest illuminating objects at that time. The character ‘? ’ is the pictographs of one man after another showing the meaning of follow / by. (Left to Right) Stack ? , Wrong ? , Sun-drying of Clothes The students’ works above show the creativity of making logical aggregates through objects and letterforms.Stack ? : by piling up a stack of corrugated boards, the form and appearance of the material associate the image with the meaning of the word ‘stack’. Wrong ? : The symmetric image of the character is created by a strong contrast of ‘black & white’ colour. This also depicts the meaning of ‘right & wrong’ carried by the Chinese character. ( ) Sun drying of clothes : The design captures very common street scenery in Hong Kong where people dry their laundry ou tside public estates. The clothes form the shape of Chinese characters.Viewers can understand the meaning of the words even they do not understand the Chinese words. 5. Pictogram with Chinese Aesthetics and Chinese Philosophy Traditional Chinese intellects enrich one’s literate spirit through practicing calligraphy and painting. It is an expression of innermost beauty of one's integral soul of balanced lifestyle. Calligraphy enriches the intellectual capacity of viewers through appreciation of expressive quality of strokes, shapes and structure that extends to acknowledgement of one's well being.Chinese painters spent their life to reveal their spirit and emotion through the use of ink, washes and impressionistic brushstrokes. Both components of black and white shared the same level of importance. Realism is never their aim, and sometimes the negative space is the message. Like landscape painting, masters drew their landscape freely with changeable perspectives, and white spa ce is used to suggest distance. â€Å"The nature is an entity as ONE, and then separated into wind, rain and four seasons. The brightness and darkness, high and low, close by and far away, the peak of imitation is between alike and unlike. (Shi Tao, 1642–1718) (4) The surrealistic and impressionistic nature of Chinese arts provides a perfect laboratory for student’s exploration of Chinese typography. Below example shows how Chinese calligraphy reflects Chinese philosophy of yin-yang positive & negative, fullness & emptiness to works hand in hand with another significant art form carried from Chinese painting. Through the necessary process from studying literature and ideologies of the ancient time, he attempted to extract and translate those beliefs and principles into graphic rules and visual principles.The exercise offered students a good opportunity to test extensively if the rules and principles are versatile and applicable. (Left) Typographic poster of a Chinese poem (Right) Traditional Chinese Landscape Painting It is human instinct to gain knowledge from the past for the needs of improvement. When we learn that iushu is the traditional ways of creating meaningful and comprehensive characters, we start to think that may be we can employ similar principles to create new characters for things that do not exist in the past.Or maybe we can take advantage of the constructional nature of Chinese character to create new letterforms through imagination. For words or objects with more than one meaning, or with ambiguous meaning, they will lead to subjective interpretation. (Paul Rand, 1985) Nowadays young generation is so used to the ‘Martian language’ online which is a new language based on traditional Chinese. The principle of creating that language is amazingly similar to those developed from liushu. A good example is the borrowing of a long-term unused character ? for a helpless facial expression.Seemingly, the principle of charact er creation developed over long period of time is already embedded in our DNA and influence every move we make. In the last session, we are going to present our student’s contributions on typography design with their enthusiasm on cultural phenomenon. The essential and efficiency for adapting typography principles into contemporary of representation were successfully demonstrated. Night Street: With highly developed and sophisticated transport network in Hong Kong, paved highways and roads were built to serve the needs of busy local economy 24 hours a day.No other place would witness this unique energetic transportation, bustling bridges and highway nightlife on earth. Street lamps and vehicle lights mark the night and become the energetic strokes that reveal the scenic impression of a cosmopolitan city. (Left) Joss paper . (Right) Awful Taoist incantation Joss paper : Paper offering is a common tradition in Hong Kong during funerals, festivals and special occasions to ensu re the well being of the deceased and ancestor.Joss paper, also known as ghost money, a traditional handmade paper product, which is decorated with seals, stamps, engraved designs or other motifs. The type was created by the rich texture and quality of the ritual paper products with visual elements interacting with original strokes to unfold this cultural distinctiveness in a contemporary approach. Awful Taoist incantation : The original meaning of the phrase means poor works of calligraphy that is difficult to read and understand. The design employs the traditional symbol of incantation and combines it with new online languages used by youngster nowadays.This is a good example showing the potential of bringing new life to our tradition especially when we know that we are sharing the common language with our ancestors. (Left) Chinese Input Method (Right) Rock’N roll against the organizational system Chinese Input Method : In modern digital world, unlike using roman alphab ets, Chinese have to type in characters with different input methods (Cangjie, Pinyin, Jianyi) They are dictated by the keyboard format and the graphic form of characters, both of which are unrelated to the original meaning of the characters.This design challenges the idea by creating the letterforms with keyboard radicals, and the results are semireadable, between alike and unlike. Rock’N roll against the organizational system : All Chinese characters are the results of different composition with 8 basic strokes. This provides the possibility to decompose and recompose the strokes to generate new letterforms. This design decomposes the strokes of the words ‘organizational system’ and recomposed into ‘Rock & Roll’ in Chinese, so as to demonstrate the conflicts between the two forces. (Left) Suppression in Childhood Right) Fourth of June Suppression in Childhood : The big rectangular shape in Chinese character always conveys the meaning of trap, s urround and block. The design employs this symbol as a metaphor of suppression in childhood where all letters written by the child is surrounded and blocked, no matter they are about study, games, toys, friends, examination, dreams, and etc. Fourth of June : The design makes good use of the characteristic of Chinese characters that the combination of strokes is quite flexible and sometimes could be quite ambiguous.The words of ‘Six’ and ‘Four’ are mixed with ‘Patriotism’ and ‘Riot’ intentionally to post a question â€Å"Is 4th of June an patriotic action or a riot? † 6. Conclusion If we see typography as a powerful tool of visual communication, the unique visual quality of Chinese typography could definitely empower the creativity of designers, and enrich the communicative value of text. Typography can do a lot more than just providing a comfortable and legible platform for message delivery.By creative manipulation of Chine se character, viewers can firstly look at the visuals at textual material, and then look through the visuals to discover the underlying concepts embedded inside with the clever correlation with culture and information. It can prepare readers by setting the right context and atmosphere, and enhance the meaning and impact of message. We have described our complete approach for Chinese typography training. Our philosophy of Chinese typography training has been proven effective to facilitate heritage concept and necessary information in typography design. Image and text are the two major lements in visual communication. For Chinese typography, letterform composes both elements in an entity. With this unique communication quality, Chinese typography is a perfect medium to bridge the traditional Chinese cultural to the modern world of communication. Although it is no easy task for young generation to understand the knowledge in full, with our enthusiastic to embrace heritage and creativit y into Chinese typography, students gradually develop and grow themselves from aesthetic appreciation and eventually sustain the cultural identity for Hong Kong. Footnotes: 1. Kaogong ji sometimes translated as Book of Diverse Crafts, is a classic work on science and technology in Ancient China, compiled towards the end of the Spring and Autumn Period. 2. Being pictographs, the graphic forms of characters are good for story telling and readers can â€Å"guess† the meaning of words by simply looking into the graphic forms. However Simplified Chinese Style drastically reduced total number of characters by combining words of similar pronunciation, and simplified the letterform by removing strokes, but the characters lost the quality of storytelling because they are not longer pictographs. . , ( ) 4. , , ( , 1642–1718) References Richard McKeon (1998) Selected Writings of Richard McKeon, Vol. 1, Philosophy, Science and Culture. McKeon, Zahava K. , and William G. Swen son, eds. University of Chicago Press. Kerry J. McGarry, (1981) The Changing Context of Information: An Introductory Analysis. Clive Bingley. Paul Rand (1985) A Designer’s Art, Yale University Press.

Pierre Bourdieu Biography and His Work

Pierre Bourdieu was a renowned sociologist and public intellectual who made significant contributions to  general sociological theory, theorizing the link between education and culture, and research into the intersections of taste, class, and education. He is well known for pioneering such terms as symbolic violence, cultural capital, and habitus. His book  Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste  is the most cited sociology text in recent decades. Biography Bourdieu was born August 1, 1930, in Denguin, France, and died in Paris on January 23, 2002. He grew up in a small village in the south of France and attended a public high school nearby before moving to Paris to attend  the Lycà ©e Louis-le-Grand. Following that, Bourdieu studied philosophy at the École Normale Supà ©rieure—also in Paris. Career and Later Life Upon graduation, Bourdieu taught philosophy at the high school of Moulins, a small town in mid-central France, before serving in the French army in Algeria, then taking a post as lecturer in Algiers in 1958. Bourdieu conducted ethnographic research  while the Algerian War continued. He studied the conflict via the Kabyle people, and the results of this study were published in Bourdieus first book, Sociologie de LAlgerie (The Sociology of  Algeria). Following his time in Algiers, Bourdieu returned to Paris in 1960. Shortly after he commenced teaching at the University of Lille, where he worked until 1964. It was at this time that Bourdieu became Director of Studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales and founded the Center for European Sociology. In 1975 Bourdieu helped found the interdisciplinary journal Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales, which he shepherded until his death. Through this journal, Bourdieu sought to denationalize social science, to break down the preconceived notions of ordinary and scholarly common sense, and to break out of established forms of scientiï ¬ c communication by commingling analysis, raw data, ï ¬ eld documents, and pictorial illustrations. Indeed, the motto for this journal was to display and to demonstrate. Bourdieu received many honors and awards in his life, including Mà ©daille dOr du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in 1993;  the Goffman Prize from the University of California, Berkeley in 1996; and in 2001, the Huxley Medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Influences Bourdieus work was influenced by founders of sociology, including Max Weber, Karl Marx, and Émile Durkheim, as well as by other scholars from the disciplines of anthropology and philosophy. Major Publications The School as a Conservative Force (1966)Outline of a Theory of Practice (1977)Reproduction in Education, Society, and Culture (1977)Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste (1984)Forms of Capital (1986)Language and Symbolic Power  (1991)

Deconstructing The Model Minority Myth - 2046 Words

Karen Yang Writing 39C Aaron Peters 30 April 2015 Deconstructing the Model Minority Myth â€Å"Asian Americans are the highest-income, best educated and fastest-growing racial group in the United States. They are more satisfied than the general public with their lives, finances and the direction of the country, and they place more value than other Americans do on marriage, parenthood, hard work and career success, according to a comprehensive new nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center.† --- Pew Report: The Rise of Asian Americans The Pew report on Asian Americans is one physical manifestation of the Asian model minority myth- the belief that all Asians are educated, wealthy, assimilable, and submissive. The model minority myth which was actualized during the World War II has since evolved to be more than a stereotype. For many Asian Americans, it has become a tangible barrier, barring disadvantaged Asian Americans equal access to social programs and educational opportunities. The myth has grown to become so influential, so pervasive that it has manifested itself in the discourses on legal policies such as affirmative action and in the rhetoric of the pseudo statistical Pew report. Racism is far from being over; it has taken on new form-praise and laudation- to justify rejection of aid to underprivileged people. The Asian model minority myth has stripped Asian Americans of their diversity and homogenized them as a privileged, educated community. As a result, Asians h aveShow MoreRelatedPublic Policies Of A Public Policy1606 Words   |  7 Pageslearning about other cultures, recognizing and deconstructing white culture, recognizing the legitimacy of other cultures and developing a multicultural outlook. There are similarities between this model and Helms model of white identity development. Before entering the model of multicultural education, an individual may be in the contact stage as defined by Helms, where they may lack awareness of other cultures. 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Applying Staining Techniques to View and Identify...

Abstract The main objective of this lab was to identify different bacteria by simple, negative, and gram staining. To view each bacteria cell, the bacteria was transferred aseptically to a slide, and they were then viewed by using oil immersion, by a light microscope. From this lab, it was determined that E. coli and B. megaterium are gram negative and B. subtilis and S. Marcesans are gram positive. Introduction The purpose of this lab was to view the different characteristics of bacteria by applying various staining techniques. It is important to know the make up if a certain bacteria so an antibiotic may be engineered to destroy the bacteria. From the gram stain, it was possible to determine which bacteria was gram positive†¦show more content†¦Distilled water Three different staining procedures were then used for all four types of bacteria. The directions for each staining process can be found on pages 18-19 of the lab manual. For simple stain, bacteria was removed with a sterile inoculating loop and placed on a glass slide. Methylene blue was then applied until the slide was covered. Distilled water was then poured on the slide until the methylene blue was removed. The slide was allowed to dry. Next, oil was placed on the slide so that the oil objective lens on the light microscope was employed. The bacterium was viewed and a sketch was made. For the negative stain, a loopful of bacteria was placed on a slide. A drop of Nigrosin solution was placed next to the bacteria, and the blood smearing technique learned in the first lab was applied to cover the slide with nigrosin solution. A sketch was then made. Gram staining was more complicated. First, two separate types of bacteria were used. One type was placed on one slide, and the other bacteria were placed on the opposite side. Both bacteria were also placed in the middle of the slide so they could be viewed together. Crystal violet, iodine and safranin were all placed on the slide and washed off with distilled water. Once dried, oil was applied to the slide, and it was ready to be viewed. Again a sketch was made. Results The sketches were drawn on a separate piece of paper and then revised. AShow MoreRelatedIdentify The Identities Of Two Unknown Bacteria A Mixed Broth Culture By Using Several Separation Methods Essay1441 Words   |  6 PagesAbstract: The purpose of this project was to identify the identities of two unknown bacteria in a mixed broth culture by using several separation methods. To separate the organisms, a four-way streak plate technique was used to isolate the two unknown bacteria into separate visible colonies. Then after each colony were clearly isolated; the two unknowns were processed through Gram staining test to determine the Gram stain and morphology. After Gram staining, a carbohydrate test was performed on eachRead MoreLab Report On Microbial Unknowns Essay1793 Words   |  8 PagesUnknowns Objective: In the past couple of weeks, our class received a single broth that contained two species of bacterium. One bacterium was gram positive and one bacterium was gram negative. We were required to use our techniques and knowledge we learned in class to separate and identify the two species we were given in our broths. Methodology: Day One: On the first day of our Biochemical Unknown Lab we were given a tube that contained broth media which held two different types of bacterium. OnceRead MoreCommon Laboratory Operations5997 Words   |  24 Pagesinvented the mechanical calculator, the syringe and created hydraulic press   Rene Descartes(1596-1650) A French philosopher and mathematician. He was the first major philosopher in the modern era to make a serious effort to defeat skepticism. His views about knowledge and certainty and those on the relationship between mind and body have been very influential over the last three centuries. I am thinking there fore I exist (Latin -Cogito ergo sum- from the discourse on method). He revelolutionizedRead MoreCleaning Support Portfolio - Hotel Management12907 Words   |  52 PagesCLEANING SUPPORT TECHNIQUES Team 9.2.3 EHLs Honour Code: As a student at the Ecole Hà ´telià ¨re de Lausanne, I uphold and defend academic integrity, academic rigor and academic liberty as core values of higher learning. I attest, on my word of honor, that work submitted in my name is my own work, and that any ideas or materials used in support of this work which are not originally my own are cited and referenced accordingly BINGGELI Vanessa DANG Yung GOUVEA Priscila KRAMER Toby ORLANDO Giulia SCHNYDER

Skating Essay Example For Students

Skating Essay Have you ever gone skating on a BRIGHT, SUNNY day?!?!?! Well.probably not, But oh well cause it really sucks, cause its to hot. Well anyway, skating RULES not only is it fun but its challenging, for me at least. Another reason to skate is cause in this town its RISKEY and ADVENTUROUS, if u want to call it that, because its ILLEGAL so thats pretty much all the reasons I like it. Others who dont skate seem to just like watching us cause of our AWSOME wrecks. The skateboard has been revolutionized over the years. It has had many changes, which are very helpful and make the sport much more fun. I do know that skateboarding commercially started around 1965 with the Roller Derby board, I can also say that the old school skateboard was a crap load harder to work with then the modern day skateboard. The Old school skateboard was VERY wide and only had a square tail. The modern day board is not quite as wide and has a slanted nose and tail with curved ends. The slanted nose helps with tricks suck as a NOLIE. The newer designed boards also come with a curve that goes from side to side, this is called concave this helps u keep your footing on the board, old school boards did not have this wonderful addition. The modern day board is MUCH lighter then the old school board which weighed a ton. The social effect of skating is positive because it allows you to interact with others, unless you skate alone which most people dont do. Skating could have an educational effect I suppose, if so it would be that it teaches you persistence and patience, as well as discipline. Skating is not socially excepted if you skate you are automatically stereotyped as a bad kid. People only think this because we are not provided with a legal place to skate therefor we skate at Car washes and Circle Ks, and get arrested in the process sometimes. Supposedly this is a problem because we ruin their business cause were loitering this is no different from what all the other people who drive around at 9 oclock and go to the car wash and sit their in there cool cars. The solution to this problem would be to let us skate in town or build us a Skate Park. Another solution to all these stereotypes is to educate the public, which is next to impossible cause all the old idiots in this town wont listen to a bunch of little hoodlums who think they know it allstupid old people. One way to put the solutions into practice would be to send out a petition asking for the support of the taxpayers and registered voters for a Skate Park. I recently spoke with one of the globe police officers and he said that they wanted to build a Skate Park up at the community center but no one would support their tax dollars to build this cause supposedly we had been running our boards into windows and such and breaking stuff. This is not true and is just an accusation so that they can put the blame on some one. If this were true I would have heard about it from my friends, seeing as how Im friends with most of them. (ask class) How many of you would support an us in constructing a skate park Would you guys and girls be willing to help us out in trying to get the support of the community to build a Skate Park and get ride of the stereotyping by talking to your parentsAll we want to do is go out and have a little fun its just like going and playing basketball or baseball, we have a batting cage, football field, and basketball courts, so why cant we just have a Skate Park, its no different its just another sport but a whole lot cooler and a lot less liked. Bibliography:

Video Game Violence Essays - Violence In Video Games, Windows Games

Video Game Violence Doomed: Are Teens Taking Video Games to Far? A sniper perched high in a eagles nest zooms in through his scope to the head of his enemy, pulls the trigger, the enemy falls to the ground headless. This is a image that is common in the world of war, and now in the world of video games. Teens all over the world have become completely addicted to first person fighting games. With technology as great as it is today game makers are able to designed games that are so real it is truly scary. Millions of teens ( mostly male) play games in which they walk around various levels picking up weapons and killing ruthlessly their opponent. In the same day, we have teens walking around schools killing classmates ruthlessly. As an avid video game player I admit I have played many of the shootem up games. I completely agree that these games are fun and tend to feed the male ego. I also have played games that are too violent. Games wherein enemies bleed everywhere and almost nonstop. Games that you can see the opponents facial expression before yo ur shoot them between the eyes. I have even played a game in which there is a secret level that is modeled after Columbine. Do these violent video games influence teen violence? Probably the first violent video game was Death Race, which spawned in the 1970s. The object was to drive and kill as many pedestrians as possible. Early games such as Missile Command and Space Invaders both had to do with the destruction of the planet. (Violence, 375) With the onset of Nintendo the video game world exploded, going from one home console to a 6.1 billion dollar industry. In the 1980s video game companies designed games for every audience but many had a similar plot of violence. In a 1982 TV Guide eighteen popular video games were reviewed, fourteen of them were violent. There has always been some sort of violence in games. In the 90s two of the probably most influential video games of the decade were introduced. Doom, and Quake they were first person shooters in which you went level by level slaughtering your opponents. With the onset of the internet, the companies who made Doom, Quake and others made their games available for anyone to download trial versions via the internet. Along with downloading the video games, gamers where allowed to play other players across the world. Another huge game that had plenty of violence and gore in it was the arcade smash Mortal Kombat. The public finally realized how violent video games were when this game was released in 1994 for home consoles. The publics concerns led to congressional hearings in order to set up a rating system for video games similar to the rating system used in movies and television. ( 375) After the hearings a definant rating system was set on all games in order to prevent young children from viewing the bloody violence seen in games. The rating systems ranged from; E for everyone, T for teens and M for mature. Today violence is apparent in thousands of video games. The question now is, where does the American public stand on this issue? If one where to utilize a search engine and look up the words Teen Violence they would find numerous articles, journals, and publications stating several opinions on the issue at hand. They all come down to two arguments: those that feel that video games directly correlate to teen violence; and those who oppose the idea that any video game or media tool could cause such actions in a young adult. Proponents of the idea that video games could directly cause teen violence hold one core belief: video games encourage/promote teen violence directly, and that inherently violent children are only encouraged further by such intensely violent games. The American Medical Association (AMA), in a statement before a House subcommittee in 1994, stated this: like violence depicted elsewhere in the media, video game violence has a horrifying potential to coarsen society, promote acts of violence against real victims, and desensitize children to the real thing (Violence 195). Their report mentioned some