Finding the diglossia between written and spoken Japanese and Chinese languages to be a highly engrossing topic, we really appreciated being directed to this essay on what’s been termed “character amnesia”—coined and studied by our friend Victor Mair from Language Log for the past decade—from the universal and age-old lapse called ‘lift the pen and forget the character’ (ๆ็ฌๅฟๅญ, tรญbวwร ngzรฌ). Given over thirteen-thousand glyphs (four-thousand required for basic proficiency) and the relatively high learning-curve, various attempts (with varied success and reception) have been instituted for reform—<from the introduction of an alphabetic script to character simplification, reducing the complexity and number of brushstrokes, though literacy rates for mainland China and Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao (that maintain the classical characters) are about the same. Hanyu Pinyin (ๆผข่ช, spell the sounds) was formalised and introduced post war to facilitate trade and teach standard Chinese to non-Sintic speakers (see also) and unlike previous systems of phonetics accorded for tonal qualities and aided the nation’s transition into the digital age—but with the drawbacks that come with outsourcing one’s knowledge and the code-switching of such short-cut keys. The article compares it to the recognition of the treble clef (๐ผ) plus an array of symbols used alongside out activity of composition and committing ideas to the page, which typing reinforces, whereas the others must be learnt and it would be a challenge to draw such a symbol from memory—plus the lost art of penmanship. The pictured shopping list from Mair illustrates the tip-of-the-tongue frustration with the person who jotted down these items eventually giving up, and I can attest to doing the same forgetting the English or German—Kuchenrolle paper towels. Perhaps rallying against the inevitable (though a worth fight to choose), the government of China is trying to combat amnesia through a variety of programmes, including a rather tense, televised game show competition to render characters correctly, as nerve-wracking as a spelling-bee with the contradictory, inscrutable conventions of English.
Friday 1 November 2024
extended character set (11. 953)
Friday 18 February 2022
long-exposure
Via the Awesomer, we are enjoying this new gallery of time-slice composite photographs from artist Fong Qi Wei (see previously) whose montage represents a sliver of night and day passing in a single, heightenedly static image. Click through for more of his work. This is a technique that I would like to try to replicate.
Tuesday 8 June 2021
hippodamian plan
Via the always excellent Maps Mania, we are referred to a mapping project that twins cities based on similarities and correspondences found in the layout of their streets and boulevards. Medium to larger populated areas from all over the world can be found—Wiesbaden’s road network (see previously) sharing some features with Luxembourg, Singapore, Lviv, Haifa and Bologna. I wonder if visitors exchanging towns would have a better sense of orientation and be able to intuit their way around. As far I can tell, none of these arterially similar cities are also Sister Cities (Stรคdtepartnerschaft, Jumelage). As opposed to a more organic ordering of streets, the title refers to the grid arrangement we fancy as a very modern and tidy imposition, for the eponymous city-planner of ancient Greek Miletus.
Thursday 3 June 2021
8x8
such good: a dating app based on shared meme-affinity
boulevard du crime: a lost Parisien theatre district that specialised in putting on felonious melodramas
lion city rising: photographer Keith Loutit captures eight years of change in Sinagporelunachicks: a flamboyant punk rock group who are a product of unvarnished New York
broodclipjes: more fun with twist-ties and related species (see previously)—from Pasa Bon!
horological constraints: the typography of watches—see also
profiles in pride: World of Wonder showcases some of the gay rights movement’s pioneers (see also), starting with Frank Kamey of the DC Mattachine Society
masterpieces of streaming: a collection of the subtle genius of dumb viral videos—via Waxy
catagories: ⚖️, ๐ซ๐ท, ๐ธ๐ฌ, ๐ญ, ๐ณ️๐, ๐ท, ๐ฝ, networking and blogging
Thursday 13 May 2021
party on the patio
We quite enjoyed this series of artful photographs taken from a bird’s eye perspective of these vintage mosaic tile and concrete outdoor furnishings as captured by Jonathan Tan of Singapore’s public housing shared balconies. Put in context, these bright tables and stools reflect the optimism of the city-state’s Housing & Development Board’s efforts to help alleviate a housing crisis and foster a communal spirit and encourage neighbours to dine together on the decks. More at the link above.
catagories: ๐ธ๐ฌ, ๐, ๐ท, architecture
Tuesday 24 November 2020
words of an unprecedented year
Saturday 12 September 2020
arrivals and departures lounge
Though it was endearing to see a family undertake a cancelled trans-Pacific vacation or to tour airports with a sense of nostalgia and Wanderlust, Singapore Airlines’ plans to take travellers aloft on actual flights to nowhere both starting and ending at Changi airport (the city state bereft of domestic travel opportunities) seems wasteful and perverse. What do you think? Circling the runway is very resource intensive and an economy that need to maintain such circulation seems childish and like a bit of grifting that we’d do better to move beyond and not let a cloying attempt to save a market with no rehabilitation further take down the environment with it.
Saturday 6 June 2020
wonkavator
Though still under construction, the spectacular “horizontal skyscraper” of Chonqing’s Raffles City project in the central Yuzhong district is welcoming visitors—like its namesake development in Singapore, called in honour of Sir Stamford Raffles (*1781 – †1826), Lieutenant-Governor of the East India Company and founder of the modern city state and British Malay.
The skybridge, the Crystal, is three hundred metres long and is supported by four towers at a height of a quarter of a kilometre and features a park, a history and industrial museum of the city, and an observation platform with future plans for a lounge, restaurants, bars and an infinity pool. Within the glass and steel columns, there are spaces allotted for offices, hotels, shopping centres as well as fourteen hundred residential units.
Friday 24 April 2020
the candy-stripe of incident tape
We’ve encountered several compilations of tape measures, interventions (see also) to remind people to practise physical distancing in order to lessen the spread of COVID-19 and found this round-up from My Modern Met to be one of the more comprehensive and visually compelling. For as much as we seem accepting and even complicit of the figurative and literal velvet rope for enforcing order and norms, it is truly outstanding how we can turn on a dime and respect those marks laid out for us.
catagories: ⚕️, ๐ธ๐ฌ, ๐ท, architecture
Saturday 2 November 2019
gilded age or singapore sling
Though a beautifully brooding building, Parkview Square of downtown Singapore, the office complex that hosts embassies and art galleries on its twenty-four storeys, also boasts a multi-level bar at its core, complete with a “library” of some thirteen-hundred varieties of gin from around the globe (the signature cocktail was invented at the venerable, nearby and more authentically Art Deco Raffles Hotel on Beach Road). Prior to acquiring its current theme—which offers no less of an experience, the space hosted a wine bar with the sommelier on duty magically hoisted up and down by a wire to retrieve bottles from the high stack of shelves.
catagories: ๐ธ๐ฌ, ๐, ๐น, architecture
Saturday 24 November 2018
little red dot
The always interesting Present /&/ Correct directs our attention to a new logographic resource in the Singapore Graphic Archive, showcasing dozens of vintage specimens from epherma like drink coasters and matchbooks to the emblems of corporations and professional associations of the city state. The title isn’t referring to a specific brand or establishment but rather to the way that the relatively diminutive manner in which the country is displayed on maps with its much larger neighbours—which punches culturally and economically well above its comparative stature. There are additional databases and galleries to be found at the links above.
Tuesday 12 June 2018
it takes one to know one
We’ll see how much history is determined by the historic meeting between the leadership of the US and North Korea but it does already strike me as a little hollow and quite asymmetrical with the regime of Kim Jung-un being accorded the legitimatising recognition that it’s sought for some time and preternaturally under the same terms and conditions that Trump bewailed his predecessor as concessions to Iran, making America look weak and dopey.
Much in the same way that the Manchurian Candidate’s revolting behaviour has markedly improved the image of loveable, old war-criminal Bush II, not only does his eagerness to meet with Kim deflect attention from the hermit kingdom’s atrocious human rights standards (zero freedom of movement, zero freedom of speech and mandatory, universal adoration—not to give Dear Leader any more ideas) with the optics, this plum bargain asks little in concrete terms from North Korea while having US military presence on the peninsula characterised as “provocative” (after so much mutual sabre-rattling) and pledges to suspend large-scale training exercises with the South and Japan.
Monday 11 June 2018
6x6
empanelment: ten anti-Trump cartoons that the Pittsburgh Post Gazette refuses to publish
won’t you be my neighbour: Anthony Bourdain was like Mister Rogers (previously) for adults, plus the article that launched his career, via Coudal Partners
binney & smith: Crayola launches a cosmetic line based on its crayons
race to the bottom: a business-model based on the destruction of the resources it relies on is strikingly uneconomic
here we come on the run with a burger in a bun: dinosaur taco-butlers
bodyguard: a profile of the elite Nepalese Gurkha contingent protecting the Kim-Trump summit in Singapore
catagories: ๐ธ๐ฌ, ๐บ๐ธ, ๐, ๐, environment, food and drink
Sunday 22 September 2013
hanging gardens
catagories: ๐ธ๐ฌ, ๐, ๐ฑ, environment