Cosmos Typing
installation of the “mysterious typewriter” from the fictional story
photos @
Shao-Chun Hsu
photos @ Shao-Chun Hsu
HD video - 4 minutes
installation - metal, paper, glass
Translation does not only happen on the linguistic level of finding the corresponding smallest meaning unit when transversing between the phonographic and logographic language. As this project does not simply critique the Western-centric nature of modernity or the role of the typewriter as a manifestation of linguistic imperialism. Beyond this, the aim of this project is to foster a reflection through a ficition story telling of how differing cultural cosmos clash at the interface of progressing of techniques. This vision will examine how so-called non-Western cultures have transformed, adapted, reflected upon, and forged their own paths within both practical applications and theoretical discourses when it comes to modernity.
VIDEO
romanization of Chinese
in the early - mid 20th century
an ironic comic which depicts
an imaginary chinese typewriter=
The Struggle of Translation
In the late nineteenth century, there was a rush in East Asia to introduce Western culture. A vast number of Western classics on science, politics, and philosophy, were translated into Chinese.At the same time, sort of cultural self-defense mechanism kicked in. Dominant ideologies such as: “Chinese Learning as Substance, Western Learning for Application” and “ Western knowledge has its roots in Chinese sources” indirectly taking control of how people translating those works and literatures. Take the term “science” for example: Itwas translated into various Chinese phrases, and the dominant translation at that time, “格物致知”, comes from Confucian’s classic, meaning: the investigation of things to attain knowledge, which seem quite adequate. However, “格物致知” has its own roots and history for over 3000 years, with the meaning of this term evolving, changing, and being debated throughout history. In this case, the insistence on translating in reference to traditional Chinese classic caused great confusion and exposed the discrepancy of concepts between the West and the East across time and space.Later, “科学” was gradually adopted, a version of translation of “science” introduced from Japan. This change symbolized that modern science has established its legitimate position in China, and no longer requires the misleading disguise of “Western knowledge has its roots in Chinese sources”. Meanwhile, the phrase “格物致知” is not often used in modern Chinese anymore. In the course of its decline, one witnesses the overall fading discussions around Chinese methodologies for acquiring knowledge and the heritage of tranditional Chinese knowledge.
The Culture Clash due to Technological Incompatibility
Character Amnesia refers to, people who, despite being able to speak and understand the language: Chinese, are unable to remember how to write certain characters. This is a “disease” that only occurs among logographic language users. As it became more prevalent than before, one observes the causality between this phenomenon and the digitalization of information. To draw a comparison, most languages worldwide are phonography, where there is a direct correlation between the sound and the written form, when typing on the keyboard, what one type is what one get. As a logographic language, what one type, as a primary transcript, is just a code to trigger the secondary transcript, leading to the final character selection and input confirmation. In this context, the keyboard is the interface one encounters, concealing the logic of computing, the expectation of modernity, the history of linguistic imperialism. While the mapping of typing sequences to numerous different characters allows Chinese to find its a place in the digital world, the keyboard’s predecessor, the typewriter, is a ghosty proof of Chinese being regarded as an essentially inferior language that is incompatible with modernity: when giant print capitalism in the early 20th century tried to break into the Chinese market, none succeeded with Latin-alphabet based typewriter. To maintain their claim of universality of their product, Chinese, the language, was rendered abject. This undoubtedly intensified Chinese people’s identity and culture anxiety in the general background of semi-colonization. Simultaneously, the romanization of Chinese was initiated by Chinese liberals and communist intellectuals, which aimed to completely abolish Chinese characters and exclusively using latin alphabet. This marked a significant crisis in the history of the Chinese language. Though Chinese does not end up in latin alphabet, the movement had huge impact for the Chinese language as it is used today.