Hong Kong Design Story:
The Development of Typography In Hong Kong

Abstract

Hong Kong is characterised by a unique culture thanks to the interactions between East and West and its city lifestyle. In 1842, Hong Kong was ceded to Britain as a colony; English had been the official language of Hong Kong in the old days and could be easily found in official government documents. Until 1974, after the anti-colonial movement, Chinese was elevated to the status of co-official language along with English. Hong Kong culture met its peak of influence among other Asian countries, such as South Korea, Japan, China, etc. during the 1970s-80s. In the same period, Japanese comics, music and drama alternatively brought the Japanese typographic design to Hong Kong. Japanese design firms, even design foundries such as Monotype facilitated the modification of Hong Kong’s typographic design. It spread its influence through mass media platforms, such as movies, TV dramas and songs. The Hong Kong design followed the mass media platforms to be explored. After the handover of Hong Kong’s sovereignty to the People’s Republic of China in 1997, Chinese has gained increasing importance in official as well as informational domains. Would this development influence the changes of Hong Kong’s design and typography as the city expands further? It is expected that the significance of the development of Hong Kong design and typography would provide some insights into how a unique culture is being created and expanded. Hence, there is a need to explore how the historical development of Hong Kong affects the Hong Kong typography.

In recent years, there have been more Japanese and Korean nationals coming to Hong Kong. They work in Hong Kong. They learn the Cantonese dialect. They adopt the lifestyle of Hong Kong. There were some studies exploring how the Cantonese dialect developed in Hong Kong, however, the typographic design, which worked closely with the Cantonese dialect has not received much attention from scholars.

Aims

This study will explore how Hong Kong’s design history developed, with a particular focus on the typographic design aspect. The relationships of Hong Kong typographic design with the design concepts from Japan, Southern Korea and China will be investigated. It seeks to compile a historical archive of Hong Kong typographic design for Asian academics to understand the design history of Hong Kong from another perspective. It is expected that the research result of this study would also examine the value of Hong Kong typographic design and language as a response to the resolution to adopt simplified Chinese.

Objectives

The objective of this research project is to give an overview of the development of typography in Hong Kong which is generated initiatively, by reviewing the literature, documenting and comparing approaches in various applications of typography in the past. This provides a good opportunity to let designers, design students and the public understand that Hong Kong has developed and been influenced by local living and foreign cultures such as British and Japan in its long typographic history. This research will provide the theoretical background and analysis of the historical development of Hong Kong Typography of different designers; design students understand the relationships between typography and the changes in Hong Kong culture all around the world. It is also an opportunity to let the world understand how Hong Kong’s history influences its unique typography. Her unique typography style is the strongest evidence to present how culture was infinitely created and grown. The research results also provide an indicator to local designers to consider how they could strengthen the design outcomes and promote the values and culture of Hong Kong style.