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.
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.
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.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin
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.
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.
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.
I believe the point being made is that it’s the racist caricature of such a font, and not an actual one.