Wai-te-ata Press presents Hanzi: A documentary on Chinese Typography & Voices of Kaishu Film Screening & Talk

5-7pm, Friday 30 September

The Pit, Te Ara Hihiko, Block 12

Massey University Wellington, Pukeahu Campus

Roll over Helvetica! Hanzi (dir. Mu-Ming Tsai, 2017) is a 57-min, feature-length documentary exploring international design, visual culture and identity through the lens of modern Chinese typography. This film is not just about Chinese characters, exploring universal subjects such as "How does language shape identity? What role does handwriting play in the digital age?”, Hanzi encourages audiences around the world to revisit and rethink their own culture, language and identity.

This special screening was brought to us by Wai-te-ata Press,Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington. After the screening, The Printer, Sydney Shep shared the work that her and Chinese letterpress scholar Ya-Wen Ho’s have done at the Press as kaitiaki of New Zealand’s only collection of Chinese letterpress type, used in the printing of the New Zealand Chinese Growers’ Journal, which was the de facto voice of the New Zealand Chinese community in the mid-twentieth century. This collection featured in their exhibition The Voice of Kaishu: a typographic journey「楷書: 字體源流之旅」on from 10am-4pm, 14 September to 26 October, 2022 at Wai-te-ata Press.

Documentary trailer here.

Limited capacity. Free and all welcome.