Seven Years After Bopomofo Was Left Behind • Joyce Chen
By Joyce Chen
One of the most common shared experiences of second generation Chinese American kids everywhere is spending three hours every Saturday morning at Chinese school — often held at empty high schools, in community centers, or in rented spaces above storefronts — from the age of 5 to about 18. And one of the very first things said kids were taught is how to write the Chinese alphabet, otherwise known as Zhuyin fuhao (注音符號).
Or, in plainer terms, bopomofo. The form is phonetic, so it's possible to read an entire page of the characters without knowing what exactly you're saying. But, as times have changed, so has language, and the language system is no longer widely taught, if at all. Now, in place of thing phonetic characters, kids are learning the pinyin system — phonetics written in English letters.
What used to be 手寫 and pronounced ㄕㄡ(3) ㄒㄧㄝ (2) is now Shǒuxiě.
In Four Images: A Handwritten and Happy Holidays by Katy Hartman
HAND-DRAWN BY KATY HARTMAN
We see the winter as the season of the handmade: with the holidays, the end of a year, and familiarity gathering from afar, it is the perfect environment for a little handwritten love. We asked calligraphist Katy Hartman to design four different phrases that, to her, represented the coming and passage of the feeling and atmosphere, which you will see above and below.
In the spirit of the great exchanges, if you have, received, or creates items rooted in the handwritten word, from holiday cards to new year's resolutions, send them to us at info@handwrittenwork.com. Tell us about your time, traditions, and handwritten holidays.
