Degrees of Clarity and Obscurity in Chinese Images
This essay examines the relationship between clearly visible and deliberately concealed visual symbols. Sharing a linguistic basis, the range of visual code may be thought of as comet shaped, with freely broadcast messages clustering at the head, and increasingly obscure puns and allusions steaming...
Guardado en:
| Publicado en: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/extremeorient, |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Lenguaje: | Anglais |
| Publicado: |
Extrême-Orient Extrême-Occident
2011
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| Acceso en línea: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Sumario: | This essay examines the relationship between clearly visible and deliberately concealed visual symbols. Sharing a linguistic basis, the range of visual code may be thought of as comet shaped, with freely broadcast messages clustering at the head, and increasingly obscure puns and allusions steaming along, with the most difficult to comprehend sprinkled at the tail end, or even invisible. In situations where political consequences were serious, ambiguity was purposeful and intentional. The contrast of reading clear and obscure imagery is considered via thirteen categories: audience, purpose, visuality, mood, temporality, seasonality, consequences, display, sources and origins, orality, decorum, quantity, and stability. |
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