These days I use too much time on writing Chinese. I do other things as well of course, but my thought are very much captured in the realm of Chinese literature. I dictionary read poems from all eras and am fascinated by how written characters can embody so much semantics and history. The Latin alphabet is efficient and neutral; it aligns with the spoken language. Chinese, however, is something entirely different. It can be written and read by people who speak completely different languages. Within China alone, the two major languages—Mandarin and Cantonese—are as distinct from one another as French and Italian. Yet, they use the same characters. Consequently, a book can be read by people who speak vastly different languages. On the wall above are some of my attempts to write the opening of Qu Yuan’s 2,300-year-old poem, "Crossing the River."
The image above shows four verses from a modern poem by Bei Dao.
From the first line of "Crossing the river"
And then there is the problem of all the paper that I originally just wanted to throw out.
But my wife found a solution to this senseless waste of resources. She finds it beautiful and is using it in her shop as gift wrap.
