Status Updates From Kingdom of Characters: A Ta...

‘Behind every written character that can be learned & used today stands a group of human characters who went to extraordinary lengths to make sure that could happen. With no guidance other than their obsessive love—The red pines were in bloom—For centuries pirates—trolling the South China Sea—Because of—hundreds of dialects—what was transcribed in the narrow alleys of Beijing did not work in the ports of Guangdong—’

‘Calligraphy—is one of the few practices—that survived—20th-century revolt against its feudalistic past—But in the Chinese context, literacy means something more than just knowing how to read and write. It has traditionally signalled many things—Deciphering Chinese is—a cross-continental pursuit. To gain entry into a language, one has to cross several thresholds—Depending on a region's dialect, tones also change.’