<The visible marginalization>

Typography at the Crosroads: 
Exploring Cultural Marginalization and Chinese Typography

What is bonsai or penjing  It’s the ancient Eastern art of depicting artistically formed trees, plants, and landscapes in miniature. In other words, it’s an attempt to capture nature in a small pot—for gazing.

Penjing is not a natural creation; it is shaped by external forces, manipulated and distorted. If you look closely, you’ll see how the branches are bent by wires  to force growth in a particular way.

Earlier last year, another friend, Shiqing, and I planned something fun. We curated a workshop called "Type Shredder"  in Chinatown, NY, hosted by Accent Temple, a local Chinese bookstore committed to building a Chinese book community. They also co-founded the Rehersal Art Book Fair , which celebrated Chinese art books in Brooklyn in 2022.

The workshop venue was unique—located next to a temple , with a small door leading to a semi-basement where Accent Temple used to be (they’ve since moved to Jersey City).

During the workshop, we explored the intersection of performance and typography using experimental tools like webcams, MIDI boards, laptops,  and sharpies, . We encouraged participants to challenge traditional typography forms.

We also posed the statement: Illegible typography illustrates the invisible history and culture that cannot be written on paper.

Through collaborative type-making, captured by cameras, the midi board and participants could manipulate typography, distorting it in ways similar to penjing. 

We connected sensors and remotes to TouchDesigner, 

generating bizarre patterns from character drawings. The results were very fun.



As we continued with this workshop, we brought it to Tandon School of Engineering at New York University  and the CAMLab  at Harvard University  last summer.

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