Chinese characters have the history of several thousand years. To meet the need for recording information and ideas, unique forms of characters originated and developed from China. The Chinese characters, originated from pictures, were people’s depiction of things, or the original hieroglyphical characters. These are the earliest Chinese characters we have seen which were written on tortoise shells and beast bones. There are big and small forms of characters with slender strokes. Many Chinese characters can be taken apart into different parts, or share the same parts, which are called components or basic structural parts. The same as the English letters that can be formed into words freely.

For today, Chinese characters also are widely used in contemporary art. When they are viewed as the main design elements, what new ideas bring in? In accordance with the exhibition Poster Design of Chinese Characters, the artists from Nanjing Arts University are invited to give a workshop to tell us the ideas and thoughts behind the poster design. Some characters look simple but complicated, what are they representing? You will get answers during this workshop.