Written by: Wang Yapeng
Posted on: December 12, 2018 | 
| 中文
Oracle bone stickers
Which Chinese character resembles the image that a man carries a lighted candle on his head? The answer is “light”. What about a man carrying a hoe? It’s “to carry something” when used as a verb. A man with a walking stick? It’s “aged”.
Speaking of oracle bone scripts, people tend to regard them as something very mysterious. However, “oracle bone script stickers” amaze people and have become a secret weapon of young people’s WeChat sticker fight. This information interpretation is such a fashionable cultural creation that immediately shortens the distance between modern men and the ancient scripts. The oracle bone scripts were included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2017.
The oracle bone scripts are the origin of Chinese characters. It is because the bone scripts gradually developed into modern Chinese characters that have survived in Chinese culture without any interruption. Stickers, as an Internet product, are active on social networks and have become a kind of pop culture. So what happens when ancient scripts meet stickers?
Lately, a pack of oracle bone script stickers designed by a team led by Chen Nan, professor of the Institute of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University and Standing Vice Director of Research Center of Ancient Chinese Characters Art, is trending on social networks.
This new favorite pack of stickers called “bone script that gets facial” contains many gift animations with Internet catchwords. According to Chen, the main image of each sticker is a personification of a certain Chinese character in the font “hanyi chenti bone script.” All the stickers are like motion word cards, combining bone scripts and Chinese characters and containing funny animation and Internet catchwords. They vividly show the pictorial meanings of all the bone characters, which makes them easy for people to remember and use. “Combining oracle bone scripts with WeChat stickers can make us enjoy the beauty of this ancient culture in our present time. This is a genuine cultural experience based on creativity,” said Chen.
Before this, Chen and his team designed a pack of WeChat stickers with Chinese Zodiac symbols as its theme, “Chinese Zodiac in Bone Script.” The twelve animals of Chinese zodiac and the Chinese characters in the font “hanyi chenti bone script” transform bone script into more vivid images, with Internet catchwords by recreation and drawing, making each animal image into a cute sticker.
The success of the bone script stickers is achieved through Chen’s 20 years of creation and research. In 1999, the design project of “digital bone script” was started. Back then, Chen handwrote each Chinese bone script character in smooth strokes and beautiful geometry. From 2016, he collaborated with a font library company and turned all these characters into a font library, hence the “hanyi chenti bone script.”
This font library seeks to bring new life to the ancient oracle bone scripts. Therefore the font designed by Chen seeks to show its modern design, such as its smooth strokes in the shape of thin lines, its animation full of youthful spirit, and Hip-Hop songs. The WeChat sticker pack, as early as in 2011, the Chinese New Year’s cards “oracle bone scripts & lucky idioms” designed by Chen was issued by China Post.
Chen’s work with oracle bone scripts can be dated back to 1999. At that time, he joined an “art and science” exhibition. “I undertook most of the design work of the exhibition. During the preparation phase, I made this plan to create a digitalized traditional Chinese symbol system and to exhibit it. I was thinking whether I could reinterpret Chinese characters with the help of computer technology and digitalized aesthetics. The oracle bone scripts are the most ancient script system, so I chose them as my object of creation,” Chen recalled.
After that, Chen devoted himself to the research and creative work of “the design of digital oracle bone scripts,” aiming to uncover the digital and geometrical beauty and the structural secret of oracle bone scripts. Chen therefore formed his unique “structural design theory.”
In order to further promote oracle bone scripts and the culture of Chinese characters, Chen and his team designed derivative products such as a learning template, sketch book, mouse pad, silk scarf, greeting cards, badges, and canvas bags, hoping that Chinese characters can be better integrated into people’s life. “After we made a font library out of the digitalized oracle bone scripts, they could be used to make more creative products, such as signs and symbols with themes of emotions, nature, and culture and cultural derivative products of various themes. We made it a visual cultural system that can be promoted systematically,” says Chen.
From the very beginning, Chen’s design was not merely a font design but a culture, designed and promoted with the font as its center. In 2013, Chen designed and made the oracle bone script drawing template, which was made of hollowed stainless steel plates. Chen hoped that people, especially children, can draw pictures with Chinese characters and stories and experience the beauty of Chinese characters, with the free combinations of the template.
Translated by Zhu Siyu
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