Zhe Wang

Language in the wind

Graphic Design - MFA

School of Design

1401738264@qq.com

Zhe Wang's research website

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Project description

“少小离家老大回，乡音无改鬓毛衰.”

(I left my hometown when I was young and came back when I was very old. The dialect of my hometown has not changed, but my hair is white.)

This is a poem by Chinese poet He Zhizhang. However, my hair is not white yet, but I can gradually see the trace of the disappearance of my hometown language- Wu.

Wu language — “the most populous unofficial language in the world. It is strange that it is listed as a critically endangered language by the International Language and Culture Organization (ILCO).” In the project, I explored the unique attributes of Wu language(such as soft but hard; eight-tones; diverse types, etc.) through different visual languages such as tie-dyeing, painting, installation, etc. Hoping to make more people remember this language by showing its beauty and uniqueness.

Research process：Visual experiment

Clothing + graphic design

Clothing is a silent language.

Traditional clothing integrates history and culture and the unique aesthetic style of a region. After investigating the clothing characteristics of the region (spliced shirt, binding, protecting the hair with a headscarf, etc.), I combine the clothing with the visual output I created in the research to make a top that can be used as a headscarf at the same time.

Cloth Making

Tie-dyeing, ink painting, fire burning, splicing, and other technologies were used in the production of this top. On the left side of the top is a map of the Wu language region, and on the right is the "lung", an important organ of the human voice. There has hand-embroidered with some unique language expressions of the Wu language region.

Embroidery is the intangible cultural heritage of the Wu dialect area, with a long history and extremely high artistic attainments.

1. Embroidery, like learning Wu language, requires a lot of time and meticulous work

2. The sewing process of embroidery on cloth is very similar to the changes of Wu dialect in the process of communication

A wearable Book

At the same time, I studied the printing method of cloth and made a book that can be worn in any combination. It is composed of squares of different sizes, which can be changed into different splicing shapes by users. In terms of materials, soft and transparent materials are selected, which can clearly see the back of the cloth through the sunshine and can be blown freely in the wind.

In terms of content, this book introduces the characteristics of Wu language from different aspects such as sound and image. It is also an arrangement of self-learning.