Tsang Chieh

倉頡––漢字的瑪雅化重構，2024

Tsang Chieh––Mayanized Reconstruct of Chinese Characters, 2024

"When Tsang Chieh created Chinese characters, corn fell, and ghosts cried. When hypocrisy arises, smarty-pants will use wisdom to frighten the public".

Writing might be a divine gift. However, ancient Chinese philosophers believed that the creation of Chinese characters was not only a means of remembrance but also an easy way for wise men to use writing to fool and control the common people. On the other side of the earth, Maya rulers used the script to glorify their authority and sanctity. They consolidated their position and maintained power through the written word. Are words a tool to convey information or a reality shaper?

By tracking down the principles of ancient Chinese character formation, I disassemble and reconstruct the Chinese characters in the ancient poem " Quiet Night Thoughts" through Mayanization. As one of the most famous poems in China, Li Bai, a poet, used twenty Chinese characters to express his nostalgia. By combining Mayan characters, which convey political ideology, and ancient poetry expresseing the poet's personal feelings, I hope to use this work to glimpse the complex interweaving of personal emotions and power in ancient civilizations, exploring the profound meanings carried by ideograms. 

I retraced the evolution of the Chinese characters and investigated the background, structure, and component meaning of each character.  I reconstructed them following the Mayan glyph structure, writing sequence, and font style. The new script was designed to be engraved on movable type printing blocks symbolizing Chinese culture and incorporated the imagery of the Mayan stele.