Tone in Tongue 如影同音 presented by Radical Characters.
Work Featured.
Incoming Exhibition Design in Baltimore x Maryland Institute College of Art, Fall 2025.
Curators: Mary Y. Yang & Zhongkai Li
Guest Curator: Mac Wang
Curatorial Assistant: Vincent Liu
Exhibition Support and Design: Jaylen Wang, Shuang Wu, Xinran Zhou
Editors: Yao Meng, Ziming Lin
Work:
Inspired by the pictographic nature of Hanzi and the inclusive coexistence embodied in 同, these three emoticons use digital glyphs to visually translate a phrase by Chinese sociologist and anthropologist Fei Xiaotong: “各美其美，美人之美，美美与共，天下大同.” (Each has its own beauty, appreciates the beauty of others, and together, we unite the world.)
Referencing oracle bone script, I deconstructed key elements from four characters: the decorative feather atop 美 (beauty), the highly raised hands of 共 (shared), the shouting mouth within 同 (common/together/similar), and the legs of 人 (human). These elements were reimagined into three emoticon-characters, merging oracle script forms with digital glyphs to create a contemporary typographic expression of “togetherness.”
These emoticon-characters invite reflection on world unity, mutual appreciation, and shared humanity—particularly in this time of global change and transformation.
Exhibition:
Radical Characters presents the launch of Tone in Tongue, a multi-venue international exhibition running July 18–Nov 14, 2025, hosted across Otis College of Art and Design (Los Angeles, CA), Shanghai Printing Technology Research Institute (Shanghai, China), and Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) (Baltimore, MD).
Inspired by the pictographic nature of Hanzi and the inclusive coexistence embodied in 同, these three emoticons use digital glyphs to visually translate a phrase by Chinese sociologist and anthropologist Fei Xiaotong: “各美其美，美人之美，美美与共，天下大同.” (Each has its own beauty, appreciates the beauty of others, and together, we unite the world.)
Referencing oracle bone script, I deconstructed key elements from four characters: the decorative feather atop 美 (beauty), the highly raised hands of 共 (shared), the shouting mouth within 同 (common/together/similar), and the legs of 人 (human). These elements were reimagined into three emoticon-characters, merging oracle script forms with digital glyphs to create a contemporary typographic expression of “togetherness.”
These emoticon-characters invite reflection on world unity, mutual appreciation, and shared humanity—particularly in this time of global change and transformation.
Exhibition:
Radical Characters presents the launch of Tone in Tongue, a multi-venue international exhibition running July 18–Nov 14, 2025, hosted across Otis College of Art and Design (Los Angeles, CA), Shanghai Printing Technology Research Institute (Shanghai, China), and Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) (Baltimore, MD).
Otis College of Art and Design, Exhibition designed by Jaylen Wang.
Upcoming: Baltimore Exhibition x MICA. Designed by Shuang Wu and Xinran Zhou.