I don’t think that anything could have prepared me for China. In so many ways, China is an incredibly exotic place to me as an American college student, but in others, it is strikingly familiar. There were many aspects of the culture that truly wowed me, but the element with the strongest pull was Chinese design.
Different "fonts" of Chinese characters in Wuhan and Beijing.
One thing that surprised me (although it probably shouldn’t have), was the fact that there are many “fonts” of Chinese characters. As a graphic design student currently taking an advanced typography class, I couldn’t help but compare and analyze the fonts I saw on every store sign, water bottle, street sign, etc. I don’t know why character typefaces seemed like a crazy idea to me… probably because I see them as an art form in themselves. To me, Chinese characters seem more like perfected elements of design than like letters or words. However, I was delighted to see the wide variety of different fonts in the signage, packaging, etc. everywhere I went.
Art by Chinese high school students in Wuhan.
Hand in hand with my appreciation of design in China was my love of the art that we saw there. For example, when visiting the high school, we got to peek into an art room and see a quick teacher demonstration of a watercolor painting. Since I’m and artist and art student, I loved seeing the teacher’s demonstration and the work of the students.
Another aspect of the art the fascinated me was the attention to detail in every area. For example, many of the business entryways that we say had intricate designs on them, and multiple buildings that we toured had astonishingly detailed patterns on the ceilings. Additionally, the styles of both the architectural art and the watercolor art, although different from each other, were very consistent and showed a perfection and development of style very different from the west, but uniformity as styles of Chinese art.
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