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I like the spirit of the comic, but we probably don't need the racist font here
Edit: here is an interesting video on the topic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP9gEeVQZ2U
Typeface nerd here.
This person is referring to “chop suey” fonts. Fonts that were created by westerners to convey “Asian,” and they have a history of being used along side anti-Asian propaganda in the 1800’s / early 1900’s.
Thanks, didn't know what the font was called.
Found this wikipedia article about it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonton_font
How is that a racist font?
Its the font you would see in an american midwest buy 1 scoop get the 2nd scoop free type of place. Its only used to show white people that something is vaguely "exotic". You don't see this font in China when reading pinyin.
In this comic, they should just use the same font as the speech bubble. It's not like trumps speech bubble font is drawn in golden sharpie by someone with small hands and dementia.
In the comic they didn't need to label the wall at all, IMHO. What happened to the lost art of subtlety. That label is just there because the author thinks the audience is too dumb to recognize the great wall of china.
Subtlety in political comics? Man old political comics had to label nearly everything.
Dunno where you are but that's definitely not true of all french/European political comics/caricatures. Some of them can be pretty damn abstract and you need to be keeping up with the news closely to understand them. Of course there's some that use labels too but I think it's considered like a bit of a copout.
I'm in the US. A lot of older political cartoons look something like this:
You don't see this font in China when reading pinyin.
Yes, because in China it wouldn't be "China"; it'd be 中国. Given that this is supposed to be the great wall of China, it fits.
Okay so the Asian equivalent of the sort of font in the OP is used for fancy/historical stuff in countries that use Chinese characters. They're usually used to evoke a sense of historicity (as it looks like it was written using a brush, as was typical before Western culture started pouring in), so for example in Japan you see it in anime set far in the past. What I'm trying to say is: This font is a perfect fit for the great wall of China, which is obviously really fucking old. Ideally you'd want the text to be 中国 rather than China but this cartoon is meant to be comprehensible to an English-speaking reader. I mean I doubt the artist intended any of this, but taken in aggregate the use of the font seems appropriate here.
Wonton fonts were invented in America, like fortune cookies. The font is a caricature of Chinese writing systems. And it's confusing for anyone that isn't American and isn't already accustomed to the stereotypes of Chinese culture in America.
When Chinese people use pinyin or write in English, they don't write like this.
I also don't think it's intended by the artist in a negative way. I'm only pointing out that there's no need for a font that's used often in a negative way. If wonton fonts were needed for the joke, then I'd let it slide. However, since it actually doesn't matter how the word China is written, it just stands out as weird.
However, since it actually doesn't matter how the word China is written, it just stands out as weird.
Fair enough but I think it does (almost certainly unintentionally) add to the joke. Rather than modern English it looks like someone wrote "China" on the Great Wall centuries ago like they'd write Hanzi with a brush. Could be just me though.
One of the examples from your wiki source on the font is in Hong Kong. It's literally just a calligraphy font using brush strokes, you don't write in pinyin in Chinese, so the only place it's used is to communicate east Asian calligraphy in Latin characters. The controversy is when it's paired with racist portrayals, not that it's racist in itself.
I believe the point being made is that it's the racist caricature of such a font, and not an actual one.
racist font
Facepalm.
You're actively harming the causes you claim to support
Fuck that noise, if I see bigotry I speak out.
You have a moral responsibility to be effective
That's a decent point.
However i feel my primary responsibility is to call out issues. If I can be effective in persuading people to agree that something is an issue, then that's great. However I'm not perfect and I won't try to be when I comment on a internet post just before I go to bed.
Yeah, that's 100% fair
Someone needs to play the Oriental Riff followed by a gong to really make this picture
Erhm what?
Ah hell, I never would have thought of that. That font does feel kinda gross. Thanks for throwing that out there
I am so, so sorry for this person's past teachers. ☹️ I'm sure you tried...
