The purpose of this paper is to investigate into the unique position of Hong Kong, both geometrically and culturally, as a blender of Western and Eastern cultures, and create design principles and solution for multi-lingual and multi-cultural information design. Having a history as a British colony for over 150 years, Hong Kong has become an interesting hybrid of Western and Eastern cultures where new forms of visual communication have been evolved and developed. New words, new letterforms, contradicting reading patterns and unique graphic icons are designed with characteristic of both cultures. Chinese letterforms are evolved basically from pictograms that represent objects, actions, events and sounds. Every Chinese character has its own meaning, or even has more than one meaning. This is very different from roman alphabets where the meaning of words comes from the combination of letters but not from individual alphabet. Therefore it is interesting to see how the two languages come together in bilingual conditions. It could be a burden, but the chemistry could also be inspirational. Hong Kong has her reputation of being flexible and adaptive. Hong Kong people, with their wisdom and energy, extract essential parts of western and eastern cultures and blend together in any ways they see fit. This is interesting and especially obvious in local living experience and daily life of Hong Kong citizens. Examples could be found in signage system, magazine design, charts and diagrams and in menu design, etc. The situation is becoming more complicated after hand-over to Mainland China after 1997. Hong Kong is moving from bi-lingual city to tri-lingual if not multi-lingual. Simplified Chinese has been added to the list of common written language under English and Traditional Chinese. The information hierarchy and visual balance in typographic design becomes great challenges for information designers. Hong Kong has its own complex contextual information structure because of its high urban density and mixture of population from all over the world. Like other modern cosmopolitan cities, Hong Kong is overflowed with information and visual signals, and many of them are more of visual noise than useful information. Information designers have to develop new tactics and methodologies in design so as to maintain the accuracy and relevancy of information itself but at the same time to stand out from the rest of the world and arouse the attention of audience. Are there rules and principles in information design that we can innovate when we need to blend different cultures together seamlessly? In the debate of Globalization Vs Localization, what is the balance between preserving strong local c

1. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG
Cultural
BLENDERS in
Hong Kong:
East meets West
Choi Chi Kit, Jackson HKDI, Hong Kong ckchoi@vtc.edu.hk

2. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG
Hybrid Language for
multi-lingual society
Cultural BLENDERS in Hong Kong: East meets West
Choi Chi Kit, Jackson HKDI, Hong Kong ckchoi@vtc.edu.hk

3. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 1 » INTRODUCTION
Introduction
» The purpose of this presentation is to investigate
into the unique position of Hong Kong, both
geometrically and culturally, as a blender of
Western and Eastern cultures, and analyze design
possibility for multi-lingual and multi-cultural
communication «

4. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 1 » INTRODUCTION
Hong Kong Photo by ixfd64/Danny

5. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 1 » INTRODUCTION
Hong Kong is in the south of Guangdong Province

6. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 1 » INTRODUCTION
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is in the Southern China

7. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 1 » INTRODUCTION
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is in the heart of Asia

8. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 1 » INTRODUCTION
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is in the center of Pan Asia Region

9. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 1 » INTRODUCTION
Having a history as a British colony for
over 150 years, Hong Kong has
become an interesting hybrid of Western
and Eastern cultures where new forms of
visual communication have been evolved
and developed.

10. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 1 » INTRODUCTION
Hand over in 1997
means return Uncertainty? Anxiety!

11. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 1 » INTRODUCTION
Before 1997
After 1997
Verbal Language
Cantonese Cantonese
English English
Putonghua
Written Language Traditional Chinese Traditional Chinese
English Simplified Chinese
English


12. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2  New Language in Multicultural Society

13. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 1 » INTRODUCTION IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2  NEW LANGUAGE
2 NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
New Language in multicultural society
In Hong Kong, both Western and Eastern cultures have
been imported, merged, mixed, combined together in
various aspects like customs and manners, festivals and
living styles.
Big SALE

14. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
»What is affecting the
quality of communication
in Bilingual society?«

15. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.1  EXCHANGE AND BLENDING OF LANGUAGE
2.1  Exchange and Blending of Languages

16. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.1  EXCHANGE AND BLENDING OF LANGUAGES
over 95% of local citizens are
Chinese who speaks mainly Cantonese and
Putonghua.

17. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.1  EXCHANGE AND BLENDING OF LANGUAGES
Apart from Cantonese speaking citizens;
there are immigrants migrated from Mainland
China and Taiwan who speak Putonghua
and Mandarin, there are foreigners from
Western countries who
speak mainly English; and there are
considerable amount of workforce from the
Pan Asia regions. Hong Kong is just like a
United Nation.

18. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.1  EXCHANGE AND BLENDING OF LANGUAGES
In the book entitled “Languages in Contact: Findings
and Problems”, Uriel Weinreich made a distinction
between different types of
bilingualism:

19. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.1  EXCHANGE AND BLENDING OF LANGUAGES
1. The co-ordinative type of
bilingualism applies to individuals who have
two functionally independent systems.

20. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.1  EXCHANGE AND BLENDING OF LANGUAGES
2. The compound type of
bilingualism applies to individuals who
have two linguistic signs.

21. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.1  EXCHANGE AND BLENDING OF LANGUAGES
3. The sub-ordinative type of
bilingualism applies to individuals who have
dominant in one language. They have two
linguistic signs but only one unit of
meaning, which is that of the dominant
language.

22. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.1  EXCHANGE AND BLENDING OF LANGUAGES
Hong Kong is of the sub-ordinative type of
bilingualism where Chinese/
Cantonese
is the dominant language.

23. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.1  EXCHANGE AND BLENDING OF LANGUAGES
Interference
Bilinguals cannot find their words in non-native
context, even with their mother tongue. The words
that do come to their lips are those belonging to the
other language.

24. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.1  EXCHANGE AND BLENDING OF LANGUAGES
To deal with this problem, the skill employed by
bilinguals is called code switching. There are two
basic concepts of code switching.
1. Borrowing
2. Language choice

25. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.1  EXCHANGE AND BLENDING OF LANGUAGES
1. Borrowing: It starts when new imported
objects from one culture do not have relevant
counterpart in another culture. People will use direct
phonetic translation and find words of similar
pronunciation to call those objects.

26. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.1  EXCHANGE AND BLENDING OF LANGUAGES
Borrowed words
phonetic translation to Chinese
bus
taxi
egg tart
toast 
store

27. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.1  EXCHANGE AND BLENDING OF LANGUAGES
Borrowed words
English words with Chinese origin
kung fu
zen
dim sum
coolie 
gweilo

28. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.1  EXCHANGE AND BLENDING OF LANGUAGES
Borrowing also applies where a word or expression
from one language is used in the other, it is made to
comply with the rules of grammar or pronunciation of
the second language.

29. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.1  EXCHANGE AND BLENDING OF LANGUAGES
“Do you understand?”
You =
Understand =
“ ?”
“ ”
“ ”
“ ?”

30. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.1  EXCHANGE AND BLENDING OF LANGUAGES
Chinese
English

31. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.1  EXCHANGE AND BLENDING OF LANGUAGES
2. language choice, where the
speaker changes from one language to another
according to the person he is speaking to.

32. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.1  EXCHANGE AND BLENDING OF LANGUAGES
Youngsters are trying to establish their own
community by creating a language, which can only be
understood by members of their own tribe.
» » Rise of NEW language

33. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.2  BASIC STRUCTURE AND PRINCIPLES OF CHINESE
CHARACTERS
Chinese characters are evolved basically from
pictographs that represent objects, actions, events and
sounds since
5000BC.

34. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.2  BASIC STRUCTURE AND PRINCIPLES OF CHINESE
CHARACTERS
Pictogram
Development of Chinese character
Fish

35. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.2  BASIC STRUCTURE AND PRINCIPLES OF CHINESE
CHARACTERS
Oracle Bone script

36. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.2  BASIC STRUCTURE AND PRINCIPLES OF CHINESE
CHARACTERS
Metal script

37. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.2  BASIC STRUCTURE AND PRINCIPLES OF CHINESE
CHARACTERS
Seal script

38. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.2  BASIC STRUCTURE AND PRINCIPLES OF CHINESE
CHARACTERS
Clerical script

39. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.2  BASIC STRUCTURE AND PRINCIPLES OF CHINESE
CHARACTERS
Regular script

40. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.2  BASIC STRUCTURE AND PRINCIPLES OF CHINESE
CHARACTERS
Cursive script

41. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.2  BASIC STRUCTURE AND PRINCIPLES OF CHINESE
CHARACTERS
Every Chinese character has its own meaning, or even
has more than one meaning. This is very different from
roman alphabets where the meaning of words comes
from the combination of letters but not from individual
alphabet.

42. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.2  BASIC STRUCTURE AND PRINCIPLES OF CHINESE
CHARACTERS
Light is the combination of Moon and Sun.
Book is the image of 2 hands holding a roll of
bamboo sticks.

43. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.2  BASIC STRUCTURE AND PRINCIPLES OF CHINESE
CHARACTERS
Wood and pot
Lid
Wine bottle
Herbs
 Prepare bottle with ingredients and herbs, then cover
it with weighted objects such as wood and pot, then
wait the wine to ferment.
WINE fragrant depress suppress

44. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.3 Development of ‘Martian’ Characters
The history of Chinese Character development has a
dramatic twist when the Internet becomes popular.
Young online surfers attempt to establish their own
community and social groups as a rebellious gesture
against the adult society.

45. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.3  DEVELOPMENT OF MARTIAN LANGUAGE
Martian language appears as a new sub-
culture language on the Internet, mostly for fun. This
can be considered part of a statement used to achieve
differentiation purpose and to articulate cultural
identity.

46. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.3  DEVELOPMENT OF MARTIAN LANGUAGE
Martian #01 Homophonous, wrongly written character
Martian #02 To break down a word into two
Martian #03 By combining sounds of two words and represent the
sound with one character
3Q pronounce like Thank you.
Martian #04 Cantonese phonetic transcription
wo ng g nei kong mud ar =

47. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.3  DEVELOPMENT OF MARTIAN LANGUAGE
Martian #05 Use character with some features resembling the
required character.
} {
=

48. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.3  DEVELOPMENT OF MARTIAN LANGUAGE
Martian #06 Mixed usage with graphic Icons.
;-)
:-p Orz
:-O OTZ
8-) OTL
verticon emoticon

49. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
2.3  DEVELOPMENT OF MARTIAN LANGUAGE
Combined character like emoticon?
両

50. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
» Chinese and English
could be amazingly
similar visually «

51. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
English alphabets look like
Chinese Seal Script

52. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY

53. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY

54. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG
3  Lost in Translation

55. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 3  LOST IN TRANSLATION
3.2  TO READ AND TO BE READ
“Who is the potential reader?”

56. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 3  LOST IN TRANSLATION
3.2  TO READ AND TO BE READ
Customer can only know the pronunciations of the
product name but not the actual meaning of it.

57. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 3  LOST IN TRANSLATION
3.2  TO READ AND TO BE READ
means Stir-Fried Beef Rice Noodle
means dry, but also means to have sex;
is rice noodle, but also means river.
It is translated literally to
Fuck to fry the cow river.

58. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 3  LOST IN TRANSLATION
3.2  TO READ AND TO BE READ
The week beats the fish soup
The day type fries the black winter
Three silk soup idea powder
Slippery Chicken in Mushroom Gruel

59. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 2  NEW LANGUAGE IN MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY
» How effective can
translation be if the
context is missing? «

60. INFORMATION DESIGN
CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG
CHARTS DIAGRAM
3  LOST IN TRANSLATION
3.2  TO READ AND TO BE READ
There are experiments in putting multiple languages
together, and hope to design something that can
communicate across culture but at the same time to
maintain cultural identity.

61. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 3  LOST IN TRANSLATION
3.2  TO READ AND TO BE READ
Analysis of research 3

62. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 3  LOST IN TRANSLATION
3.2  TO READ AND TO BE READ
Happy New Year of Goat

63. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 3  LOST IN TRANSLATION
Hair
See
Use photographic images to work with Chinese Characters to
express the meaning of words, such as SEE and HAIR
Stanley Wong

64. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 4  CONCLUSION
4  Conclusion

65. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 4  CONCLUSION
Hong Kong people, with their
wisdom and energy, extract
essential parts of western and
eastern cultures and blend
together in any ways they see fit.

66. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 4  CONCLUSION
What is the balance between preserving strong local
culture characteristic and at the same time being
understandable for audience of another culture?
Could we design a hybrid language that allow
communicative elements of different language to co-
exist? And is easy to comprehend too?

67. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 4  CONCLUSION
Now may be a good time to evaluate the possibility of
using new form of language in a wider perspective,
like emoticon, Martian language and Chinglish.

68. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 3  LOST IN TRANSLATION
3.2  TO READ AND TO BE READ
Roll To cut Forbidden
One Stone two Birds 两

69. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 3  LOST IN TRANSLATION
3.2  TO READ AND TO BE READ
English alphabets composed into graphic forms that
look like Chinese.
Xu Bing, Art for the People

70. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG 3  LOST IN TRANSLATION
3.2  TO READ AND TO BE READ
to facilitate the effectiveness of communication as well
as maintaining the cultural characteristics.
Horse Hate

71. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG
Hybrid Language for
multi-lingual society

72. CULTURAL BLENDERS in HONG KONG
» THANK YOU