![]() Bhutan Gross National Happiness.jpg 1,890 × 1,183 433 KB. Handwriting – among other techniques – cannot. Media in category 'Chop suey fonts' The following 3 files are in this category, out of 3 total. Glyphs: The symbols in a typeface that represent characters like A, ! or 5.Type: Printed or digitally reproduced glyphs.Typesetting: The act of arranging physical or digital type. ![]() Typography: The art and technique of arranging physical or digital type.Rule of thumb: If your submission is about Comic Sans MS misuse, bad keming or a funny typo, it’s likely better not to post it.ĭo not use URL shorteners. Only exception: It’s educational and non-obvious. No memes, image macros and similar submissions.No lettering, calligraphy, handwriting, graffiti, illustrations.One might be forgiven for innocently selecting Gill sans, even when contacting the local dog shelter. While posting a notice in the office canteen in Comic Sans is one of the few offences that demands instant dismissal without appeal, it is largely an aesthetic crime, like wearing a cycling helmet indoors. Chop suey fonts are a subcategory of so-called 'ethnic' display fonts, and are a unique American invention with roots in the 170 year history of Chinese migrants in United States. Some typefaces are more subtly problematic, I admit. It is pretty obvious, isn’t it? If you want your celebration of ‘white boys’ to slip into the mainstream of celebrity endorsement like a swan, rather than an excited spaniel, then don’t use a script principally associated with the Third Reich. And no doubt when I am dragged away in the middle of the night, a few years hence, my preference for blue black Parker ink having become suddenly more problematic (for reasons I can now only guess at now but that will probably be something to do with colonialism), I will have cause to look back on this abject shrug of mine, with some bitterness.īut still. ![]() I realise that, when it comes to giving unwitting offence, I should embody the principle no exceptions, no doofus left behind. Over the door of a Cotswold toffee emporium, or a tattoo parlour in Reading, or a new, hand-tooled legacy edition of Frankenstein? No problem at all.īut if you proclaim it’s time for a ‘White Boy Summer’ in Old High German Gothic, then yeah, people are going to think you mean troüble. Karate, Wonton, Chow Fun: The end of chop suey fonts Heres a thought experiment: Close your eyes and imagine the font youd use to depict the word 'Chinese.' Theres a good chance you pictured. If it had been used to announce a Sheffield-based heavy metal band some way down the bill at Monsters of Rock, no one would notice either - much to the disappointment of the bass-playing welder who’d suggested they use it to grab a bit of notoriety. It would be able to enjoy a pint in peace, and privately mourn the passing of the old ways without attracting much attention. You know, the one with blocky strokes that feels vaguely racist but also is used widely by Chinese. If the font was on the masthead of a staid old county newspaper, no one would notice it. Chop Suey is a book about that Chinese restaurant font. It’s only when typography is suspected of being racist that it fires up our jaded synaptic palates Or at least, one that resonates with obvious racist undertones. I have to say, despite my weariness, that yes, it is a racist font. Young Hanks - who I think it’s fair to say deserves to be referenced only in his filial relation to The Great Tom rather than by his own forename, or brand, or QI code or whatever kids have these days - has unquestionably kicked a singularly stinky fox into the henhouse of popular discourse here. The exact origin of this dish is widely disputed. ![]() The name chop suey refers to pieces of different foods and is the English translation of the Mandarin tsa-sui, and the Cantonese tsap seui. Meat, poultry or fish is often added or it may be vegetarian. So now here we are, coming up on two hundred years since The Spectator leant its shoulder to driving through the Great Reform Bill of 1832, discussing the possibility of a Typeface of Evil. Chop suey is a classic Chinese-American stir fry vegetable dish. Take this example last week from the Guardian: ‘Tom Hanks’s son criticized for using “racist” font on merchandise collection.’Īs I sat down to interrogate Times New Roman’s imperialist past to ensure my letter to the editor wouldn’t be similarly charged, I discovered CNN had run an entire feature on those belittling artefacts of Orientalism, the ‘Chop Suey’ fonts. So many headlines over the last year have read more like deadpan satire than actual news that it’s hard to believe we don’t live in an episode of Chris Morris’s still unequalled The Day Today. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |