November 21, 2009

MUSEUM OF CHARACTERS.

Anyang, one of the ancient capitals of China, is now home to the National Museum of Chinese Written Language, as reported in a story by Xing Daiqi:

According to Xinhua, the museum, with an initial investment of 400 million yuan ($58 million), covers an area of 54,000 square meters. A combination of the old and new, the building has drawn inspiration from palaces of the Shang Dynasty (C. 1600-1100BC) and post-modern architecture. The five-story facility has a striking embossed golden roof and grand red columns.[...]

Divided into eight exhibition halls, the museum illustrates the history and evolution of Chinese characters through different dynasties and various ethnic groups in China.

Now, that's my kind of museum. Thanks for the link, Bathrobe!

Posted by languagehat at November 21, 2009 07:07 PM
Comments

The museum's website is www.wzbwg.com. In a sign of the times the labels at the museum appear to be in both Chinese and English writing.

Posted by: Jeff Blakeslee at November 22, 2009 12:36 PM

Thanks! Here's the direct link.

Posted by: language hat at November 22, 2009 01:51 PM

At http://www.wzbwg.com/index.asp, has anyone succeeded in getting the "English" link (of "中文 | English") to work ?

Posted by: Philip TAYLOR at November 23, 2009 03:33 AM

As Jeff Blakeslee said, "In a sign of the times the labels at the museum appear to be in both Chinese and English writing". It appears that they also have vaulting ambitions of a bilingual website, but reality hasn't caught up yet.

Posted by: bathrobe at November 23, 2009 03:52 AM