Faces (2025)
Seeking Shade in the Desert (2025)
Muted Pink Desert
(2025)
from ab to zu
(2025)
You do not need to worry about what we said (2024–2025)
A Piece of History (2024)
Flee Ye Into Another (2024)
At The Time When (2024)
Between Faces, Stories and Power (2023)
flo-o-o (2023)
The State of Being Vanished (2021)
dok dat dap dap (2021)
I am not a robot (2020–2021)
The Rise of Modern China (2018)
Affirmative Resonance (2018)
‘Parts’ of China (2017)
Transliterations (2017)
Ximplification of a Language (2016)
A Living Space: Houses (2014–15)
Breathe (2012)
Circle (2011)
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Mandarin Chinese In China
It brings up the discussion in relation to the most populous country–the People’s Republic of China. Mandarin Chinese is the only of cial standard language for the nation. Over 70% population speak the language in the territory, and it can be foreseen that the number is growing.
Zhongwén =中文 = meaning: the Chinese language
Transliterations is the phonetic conversion of a text from one script to another, namely the closest phonetic description in another languages. To transliterate, is to map the sounds of one language into a writing system of another. The adapted pronunciations are usually compromised.
The work uses the Mandarin pronunciation of the word ‘中文 ’ Zhongwén (meaning: the Chinese language), and transliterate it in numerous other languages’ alphabets.
People who participated may have different transliterations, for instance, when English speakers were asked to transliterate the word Zhongwén, the result can be ‘jong wen’, ‘joong wu’, or ‘zhong wen’.
The Reinterpreted Standard
The official standardised pronunciation (Mandarin Chinese) has been through the conversion of other distinct and unconnected languages. This ‘standard’ was reinterpreted by many different scripts. The pronunciation–the standard, has been reconstructed and challenged.
Sonic Subtraction of the different standard
The work includes 26 transliterations (involving 15 languages) as script materials, and employs the language reading algorithm (Google/Apple) to speak those scripts in different language.
Later the different pronunciations also undergo another stage, sonic subtraction. The sonic spectrograms of each ‘new’ standard created by the transliterations, and the official Chinese standard, have been over-layed and subtracted with each other, and the sound of each pronunciation become fragmented.
Audio Excerpt of the work: here
