Chinese Writing in Teochew（字由字在——书写中的潮州）
Special Exhibition · Vernacular Writing, Urban Typography & Public ParticipationProject Type
Museum Exhibition / Vernacular Writing Research & Public EngagementTime & Location
July 6 – August 27, 2024
Chaozhou Art Museum
Chaozhou, Guangdong, China
Organised by
Chaozhou Art Museum
(Chaozhou Academy of Painting · Chaozhou Institute of Literature)
Co-organisers
Including Escape Art Club / 跑路艺术小组
Role
Collaboration Initiator · Local Research Coordinator
Cai Boxuan (Boosen Tsai)
Background
Chinese Writing in Teochew is a museum exhibition that re-examines Chinese writing from a regional and everyday perspective, moving beyond canonical calligraphy history to focus on how writing operates within daily life, commerce, ritual, education, and public space in Chaozhou.
Responding to the tendency to interpret Chinese writing primarily as an abstract or elite art form, the exhibition positions writing as a living cultural system—one that reflects social structure, collective memory, and local aesthetics. By grounding its inquiry in Teochew culture, the project uses a “local” lens to rethink broader questions of Chinese cultural identity and continuity.
Description
As a co-organising partner, Escape Art Club participated in the exhibition through field-based research and public engagement. Cai Boxuan played a key role in initiating and facilitating collaboration between the grassroots collective and Chaozhou Art Museum, helping translate non-institutional cultural practices into a museum framework.
A central contribution to the exhibition was the organisation of a street signage typography City Walk, which invited participants to walk through urban neighbourhoods and document everyday writing forms such as shop signs, handwritten notices, commercial lettering, menus, banners, and public announcements.
This research treated the city itself as an open archive. By collecting and observing vernacular writing in situ, the project highlighted forms of Chinese writing often excluded from formal art historical narratives, yet deeply embedded in social life. The collected materials supported the exhibition’s focus on “daily writing” and contributed to its broader investigation into how writing functions socially, economically, and culturally within Teochew society.
Through this process, Chinese Writing in Teochew bridged institutional exhibition-making with grassroots research methods, expanding the museum’s engagement with living urban culture.
Outcomes
-
Facilitated collaboration between Chaozhou Art Museum and Escape Art Club
-
Organised and led a street typography City Walk as a research method
-
Contributed vernacular writing materials and field documentation to a major museum exhibition
-
Enabled public participation in cultural documentation through walking and observation
-
Extended the exhibition’s scope beyond traditional calligraphy frameworks
Significance
-
Demonstrated effective collaboration between a public museum and a grassroots art collective
-
Introduced participatory, field-based research methods into institutional curatorial practice
-
Reframed urban signage and everyday writing as legitimate cultural and research material
-
Strengthened Escape Art Club’s role as a connector between institutions and local cultural practices
-
Positioned Cai Boxuan as a facilitator translating local methodologies into museum contexts
Keywords
Chinese Writing · Teochew Culture · Vernacular Typography · Urban Signage · City Walk · Museum Collaboration · Public Participation · Cultural Research