The development of modern Chinese punctuation and challenges in typography

Xicheng Yang | 2022

Punctuation is essential for reading text and expressing the accurate mean- ing of a sentence. The Chinese system of punctuation has evolved over a long period of time, it has gone through many technological changes such as woodblock, metal type and eventually digital. During its evolution, some challenges developed in typography. This dissertation briefly describes how Chinese punctuation evolved before the middle of the 19th century, illustrating the influence throughout the course of the development. It organises the reform process of Chinese punctuation in great detail after the 19th century and compares it extensively to the early 20th-century scenario in Japan and Korean peninsula, as they were also developing their punctuation systems at the time.

The dissertation shows how the Chinese punctuation system developed, the impacts from various cultures and scripts, and the evolution of the usage guidelines and typographic requirements that are in place today. The essay then begins with an analysis of the sequence of encoding, typeface and typography, describing the problems that arise in the current use of typography. It explains the impact on typography and the experience of using DTP software by analysing the residual problems from Unicode during the encoding process and the introduction of Unicode into the Chinese encoding standard. It also suggests some solutions at the level of typeface design and the use of typography software features.

This dissertation focuses only on the punctuation marks used in mainland China for Hanzi and Pinyin orthography. Additionally, it makes comparisons with the punctuation used in present day Taiwan and Hong Kong region, as well as the punctuation in Japan and the Korean peninsula in the early 20th century.