[ID: A comic titled "Evolution of Written Chinese vs English". On the left, emperor Qin Shi Huang holds up a scroll and angrily points an ink brush at the viewer and shouts, "There should not be seven different ways to write 'horse'. Starting today everyone will use the same characters-- or else!" On the right, William Shakespeare laughs gleefully while holding a skull and quill and exclaims, "The first rule of English is to have fun and to thine own self be true!" Every word uses a non-standard spelling. Below the cut are full versions of the the panels and a blank version of the Chinese one. End ID]
I'm fascinated by the evolution of chinese and english "spelling." I grew up on hard-to-read Ye Olde English, and assumed all languages were like that. Imagine my shock when I discovered the chinese language had been standardised since 221BC, and I can read words written in the Han Dynasty.
full versions:
notes under the cut
For much of it's history, the English language played it fast and loose with spelling. (No one can spell things wrong if no one can spell things right!) Standardisation only began in the late 15th century as the use of the printing press spread across Europe.
I thought the best person to show this carefree attitude was the Bard himself; Willy Shakes. We have six surviving examples of Shakespeare's signature, and none of them are spelled the same way twice.
In comparison, Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, standardised the writing system as early as 221 BC. He had conquered the six warring states and decided to do away with their writing systems. This made the administration of a centralised government easier, and it served as a demonstration of his absolute authority. The writing on the book* is "horse", and "torn apart by carriage".
**That scroll he's holding is actually called a book in Chinese, it is made up of bamboo slips, like a big sushi mat!
All designs are available on redbubble: I thought it would be fun to include a blank version of qin shi huang, so you can write stuff on him.
oh god oh god oh god oh god thinking about hamlet coming back to elsinore and horatio is mourning black and hamlet is in white until the end of the play, a colour often associated with burial.......horatio is ready for a funeral he just doesn't realise it's also hamlet's he doesn't know just how soon he'll be mourning him help me i'm sick
timon of athens dir ken holmes (1999) - it was hard to care about this one after the last shakespeare play (the absolute banger love's labour lost). unmemorable.
henry viii dir mary ann jung (2018) - i think this is officially the least popular shakespeare play by terms of stage productions published to youtube! that said, it was okay. only an hour, loved their lil feather hats.
winter’s tale dir beth lopes (2018) - serious!!! lovely costuming, terribly boring story. the characters & plot were distinctly uninspired, which imo would've been redeemed by truly funny comedic acting.
hamlet dir rhodri huw, robert icke, & ilinca radulian (2018) - recorded stage production, my love! super modern costuming & set design, you were so fun! andrew scott you were an excellent hamlet!!
Shakesperes (very) brief fixation on pirates and the very strange mentioning of them in hamlet is so fucking funny to me because i picture his ass writing and being like "ohh hoho this is crazy and fun" and now theres full on debates held as to wether hamlet just made that the shit about pirates up (very probable, its hamlet were talking about here, but also hes talking to horatio who he never lies too) or if it actually happened (kinda unlikely sadly)
