Decolonizing Chinese Typography With New Font “Ku Mincho”
Hong Kong native Julius Hui is on a mission to build a new typeface that traces the lineage of the Chinese language, a font he calls Ku Mincho. In China, typography has a sordid history of colonialism and political standardization—first, calligraphy styles were dictated by the whims of emperors, then by Japanese imperialism, and then by the boom of digital media which introduced “fat and blocky” styles. Hui’s goal is to distill characters to get back to a Mingti type that is inherently and historically Chinese yet commercially viable. Already, his crowdfunding campaign has raised over $70,000 USD and he’s just getting started. “Typography is a tool but not just for displaying words. Type reflects culture and influences it,” he tells Brian Ng at Rest of World, where you can read more about Hui’s work on decolonizing fonts.
Image courtesy of Ku MinCho Project
Via restofworld.org link opens in a new window
