The Role of the HIM Manager Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

The Role of the HIM Manager - Essay Example The health care industry was the largest industry in 2006 which provided 14 million jobs in addition to 438,000 jobs for the self employed (BLS, 2008). The health care industry delivers care round the clock to millions of people. This requires combining the medical technology with the human touch. The health care industry consists of nine different segments – hospitals, nursing and residential care facilities, office of physicians, office of dentists, home health care services, offices of other health care practitioners, outpatient care centers, other ambulatory health care services and medical and diagnostic laboratories. The hospitals constitute only 1 percent of all healthcare establishments but they employ 35% of all workers. Workers in health care tend to be older than workers in other industries. Health occupations require high level of education and training due to which the health care workers are more likely to remain employed in the same occupation. Health Informatio n Management (HIM) Professionals are vital to any health care organization. This paper will discuss their job description and responsibilities, the challenges they face in discharging their duties and their responsibility towards handling legal and regulatory issues. The HIM professionals are also known by other designations such as Administrative Support Personnel, Health Care Technologist, Health Record Technician, Information Clerk, Information Specialist, Medical Technologist, Office Personnel (Alberta, 2007). The health records in any health care centre contain records about the patients’ history and courses of treatment. These may also include the physicians’ note, forms for prescribed medication, input from other members of the treatment team. While the health records departments are open for longer hours the HIM professionals work in shifts and generally work a standard work week. Their work profile entails spending the better part of the day at the

Letter to the Editor Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

Letter to the Editor - Assignment Example ting from graffiti are that the value of the property declines and retail sales decreases as persistent cleanups and re-painting ruin the structure and erodes material from the walls, beside, graffiti triggers the impression of menace and reinforce the trepidation of gang ventures. Furthermore, this activity grant to lost earnings linked with minimized ridership. These obstacles were directly associated with graffiti, the indirect hurdles that arises as a result of this activity includes shoplifting for graffiti materials; here the acquisition of product is on the expense of the shop owner, secondly graffiti done by gangs are parallel to speaking volumes about their activities and intention and creates fear among the settlers in the vicinity, for usually texts such as ‘you’re next’ or ‘I am back’ convey threats. Likewise, terror is kindled in the people by painting pictures of destruction such as fire flames, broken house, dead bodies and destroyed cars or other vehicles. In order to maintain some peace and harmony in the society, solutions needed to be presented for such activity. As far as my opinion matters, I think that there are few solution that if applied can be productive. For a start, create awareness among the locales and students about the negative impacts of graffiti and how it is related to high cost through and educating them through a campaign. Furthermore, applying eradication where paintings or marks are removed quickly and efficiently so that the vandals does not repeat the act and get the message that the people care about their society and their irrational act will not be tolerated. Moreover, residents should keep record of occurrence of graffiti and should inform authorities about this activity so that the vandals are caught sooner. Similarly, make shop owners to not sell graffiti materials to students or doubtful people in order to restrain these marking and etching. Likewise, install bright light, especially in those areas wher e

Comparison Of Persistence Framework Computer Science Essay

Comparison Of Persistence Framework Computer Science Essay Compare and contrast the following persistence frameworks: Java Persistence API (JPA), Hibernate and Java Database Connectivity. What improvements were made in EJB3.1 and JPA2? Include topics of scalability, security, connection pools, connection factories, entity management, transactional context, query languages, ORM, JCA, JNDI, the DAO-VO design pattern and specifically persistence layer(s) on a distributed n-tier enterprise platform in your discussion. Java Persistence API (JPA) JPA is an abstraction above JDBC that makes it possible to be independent of SQL. The main components of JPA are: ORM: Object relational mapping is a means to map objects to data stored in relational database [1]. JPA uses annotations and/or XML descriptor files to map POJO based java objects to relational database tables. CRUD: An entity manager manages lifecycle of JPA entities. It performs database related operations like create, retrieve, update and delete. JPQL: Java persistence query language allows writing CRUD queries using an object oriented query language. JTA: Java Transaction API provides transactions and locking mechanisms while accessing data concurrently. Callbacks and listeners: They hook business logic into the life cycle of a persistent object. Hibernate Hibernate is an Object relationship mapping framework. Hibernate helps in mapping POJO Java classes to SQL database tables. It has the power of significantly reducing development time. Hibernate uses annotations and/or XML (mapping) descriptor files to map the POJO Java objects in the application domain to relational database tables. Hibernate implements polymorphism and inheritance. Hibernate generated SQL maintains the portability of the application to all SQL databases. This HQL (SQL) allows create, retrieve, update and delete operations on POJO. This framework allows development of persistent Java classes which includes object oriented features like encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism, and collections frameworks. Hibernate Query Language (HQL): This is an extremely powerful query language similar to SQL. HQL is an object oriented SQL. Like SQL using tables and columns, HQL uses classes and properties. This means HQL uses object models for relational operations. Hence, it is less verbose as compared to SQL. JDBC JDBC is a standard java API for accessing relational database used for persisting state. It connects to database executes SQL statements and gets result. JDBC can also be used in a distributed environment. JDBC makes connection with an underlying data source using Connection Interface. It uses following mechanisms for connections: DriverManager This class is the management layer of JDBC. DriverManager loads any JDBC 4.0 drivers when an application makes connection to a data source as a part of its initialization. Other JDBC drivers must be explicitly loaded. DataSource DataSource can be a legacy database, file system or some other source of data. It is preferred over DriveManager as it allows the underlying data source to be apparent to the application. The two important extensions of the DataSource interface are as follows: ConnectionPoolDataSource The connection pool names are configured in JNDI. They support caching and reusing of physical connections in a way improving application performance and scalability. XADataSource XAdataSource uses XAConnection objects internally. It establishes physical connection with the database using the given user name and password. The connection thus obtained can be used in distributed transaction. Session bean and JDBC: Java architecture implementing session beans along with JDBC, any persistence request is delegated to the JDBC tier by the session bean. Upon request, the session bean calls JDBC layer to obtain a reference to object of type javax.sql.DataSource  interface. The DataSource type object serves acts as a resource manager factory for  java.sql.Connection  objects (as outlined by JDBC specification) that implement connections to a database. Once a  Connection  object is retrieved, the following business logic and persistence code (reads, updates, looping resultset, transaction commit/rollback etc.) are JDBC code. JDBC drawbacks Java applications initially used the JDBC API to create/read/update/delete/ data into relational databases. The JDBC API makes direct use of SQL statements to perform data persistence activities (create, read, update, and delete). When JDBC code is implemented in Java classes, the business logic gets tightly coupled to the Java class. The JDBC embeddable java code relies on SQL, which is not uniform across databases. Thus the code is tightly coupled to one type of database and hence difficult to migrate. Transactional Support: By default, JDBC drivers work in auto-commit mode, where each database SQL (read, update) is an atomic transaction. It is very easy to disable auto-commit, execute SQL in batch mode (multiple queries/updates) and then commit or rollback the transaction. DAO-VO A typical DAO (Data Access object) provides an interface that describes its contract with external interfaces. This outlines a series of methods for data persistence (CRUD operations). Generally a DAO is defined with a base interface and its methods are implemented by entity classes. A VO (Value object) is a simple POJO to transfer the data across various tiers of Java architecture. JDO For every method Persistence Manager is obtained, a transaction is fetched, and operations are executed. By availing attach/detach and fetch-groups, persisted objects are made available outside the DAO layer in a seamless way. Hibernate and JPA JPA acts as an adapter over Hibernate. JPA provides the entire API to interact with Hibernate. In a way JPA acts as an abstraction between the java code and Hibernate. In such a architecture it is easy to replace Hibernate if need be. JCA Java EE Connector Architecture (JCA) is a Java-based technology solution for connecting application servers and enterprise information systems (EIS) as part of enterprise application integration (EAI) solutions. While JDBC is specifically used to connect Java EE applications to databases, JCA is a more generic architecture for connection to legacy systems. What improvements were made in EJB3.1 and JPA2 Improvements in EJB 3.1 With EJB 3.1, there is no need to define home/local interfaces. Now EJB can be defined simple with an annotation. Singleton beans were introduced with EJB 3.1. Singleton beans can be used for shared data at application level. Asynchronous EJB calls are now supported with @Asynchronous method-level annotation. Packaging and deployment can be directly done in a war file. Session beans with a local view can be accessed without a separate local business interface. EJB Timer Service enhancements are also included to support scheduling jobs; Stateful Session Bean timed objects and deployment-time timer creation. Embedded container: A new embeddable API is available for executing EJB components within a Java SE environment (for unit testing, batch processing, etc.). EJB Lite: This definition of a lightweight subset of functionalities can be provided within Java EE Profiles (such as the Java EE Web Profile). Portable JNDI name: The syntax for looking up EJB components is now specified. Example: A Stateless EJB @Stateless public class CustomerEJB { @PersistenceContext(unitName = customerPU) private EntityManager em; public Customer findCustById(Long id) { return em.find(Customer.class, id); } public Customer createCust( Customer cust) { em.persist(cust); return cust; } } Improvements in JPA 2.0 Collections of basic types. Collections of embeddable. A persistent ordering is now maintained using the @OrderColumn annotation. Orphan removal that allows removal of child object when parent object is removed. Pessimistic locking has also been introduced along with optimistic locking. Foreign key mapping were introduced with JPA 2.0 for unidirectional one-to-many relationships. Improved support for maps (java HashMaps). Criteria query API which allows queries to be constructed in an object-oriented manner. Improvements in JPQL syntax. JPA 2.0 allows nesting of embeddable objects into other embeddable objects and has entity relationships. JPA 2.0 Example: @Entity @NamedQuery(name = findAllCust, query= select c from Customer c) public class Customer implements Serializable { @Id @GeneratedValue private Long id; @Column(name = cust_name) private String custName; public Customer() { } //à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.Get and set methods @Override public String toString(){ StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(100); sb.append(id : );sb.append(id);sb.append( ; ); sb.append(custName : );sb.append(custName);sb.append( ; ); return sb.toString(); }

Do Computers Think? :: essays research papers

Can or will computers ever think? Well this has been a subject of much debate between even the greatest minds, and yet there is still no answer. First of all I have would like you to answer a question. What is 4x13? Did you have to think to answer that? Yes? Well does that mean that a computer can think because it can answer that question. Well that is what we are going to set to answer and I think yes, depending on your definition of thinking. First off let’s get something straight. When I refer to computers in this essay I am not referring only to the microprocessor sitting on your desk but to microprocessors that control robots of various structure. Well as I said we first must define ‘to think’. What does that mean? Webster’s New Compact Dictionary defines ‘think’ as "1. Have a mind. 2. Believe. 3. Employ the mind.". It defines mind as ‘to think’. So does this mean that if you can think does this mean you have a mind? My opinion is that, according to this definition, computers can think. A computer can give you an answer to the question ‘What is 4x13?’, so it can think. What’s that? You say it’s just programmed to do that, if no one programmed it wouldn’t be able to do that. Well how did you know how to answer the question? Your teacher or parent’s or someone taught it to you. So you were programmed, same as the computer was. So you think that programing is different than learning. You might think the same as my grandma that programing is something where things are just drilled into you like people who are members of cults. Well when your teacher stood over you desk in elementary and do drilled you on the multiplication tables was that not programming? Would you know that 1x5 does not equal 10 if everyone you ever met said that it did. Another argument my grandma used was my little cousin and how when he runs into a wall he learns that it hurts so he doesn’t do it again. (Well actually he does it because he has a hard head). Yet a professor in Calgary builds robots that do not even contain a microprocessor yet it can learn. He builds them out of spare part from broken electronics such as walkman’s.

Expressionism in Death of Salesman Essay

From the opening flute notes to their final reprise, Miller’s musical themes express the competing influences in Willy Loman’s mind. Once established, the themes need only be sounded to evoke certain time frames, emotions, and values. The first sounds of the drama, the flute notes â€Å"small and fine,† represent the grass, trees, and horizon – objects of Willy’s (and Biff’s) longing that are tellingly absent from the overshadowed home on which the curtain rises. This melody plays on as Willy makes his first appearance, although, as Miller tells us, â€Å"[h]e hears but is not aware of it† (12). Through this music we are thus given our first sense of Willy’s estrangement not only from nature itself but from his own deepest nature. As Act I unfolds, the flute is linked to Willy’s father, who, we are told, made flutes and sold them during the family’s early wanderings. The father’s theme, â€Å"a high, rollic king tune,† is differentiated from the small and fine melody of the natural landscape (49). This distinction is fitting, for the father is a salesman as well as an explorer; he embodies the conflicting values that are destroying his son’s life. The father’s tune shares a family likeness with Ben’s â€Å"idyllic† (133) music. This false theme, like Ben himself, is associated finally with death. Ben’s theme is first sounded, after all, only after Willy expresses his exhaustion (44). It is heard again after Willy is fired in Act II. This time the music precedes Ben’s entrance. It is heard in the distance, then closer, just as Willy’s thoughts of suicide, once repressed, now come closer at the loss of his job. And Willy’s first words to Ben when he finally appears are the ambiguous â€Å"how did you do it?† (84). When Ben’s idyllic melody plays for the third and final time it is in â€Å"accents of dread† (133), for Ben reinforces Willy’s wrongheaded thought of suicide to bankroll Biff. The father’s and Ben’s themes, representing selling (out) and abandonment, are thus in opposition to the small and fine theme of nature that begins and ends the play. A whistling motif elaborates this essential conflict. Whistling is often done by those contentedly at work. It frequently also accompanies outdoor activities. A whistler in an office would be a distraction. Biff Loman likes to whistle, thus reinforcing his ties to nature rather than to the business environment. But Happy seeks to stifle Biff’s true voice: HAPPY . . . Bob Harrison said you were tops, and then you go and do some damn fool thing like whistling whole songs in the elevator like a comedian. BIFF, against Happy. So what? I like to whistle sometimes. HAPPY. You don t raise a guy to a responsible job who whistles in elevator! (60) This conversation reverberates ironically when Howard Wagner plays Willy a recording of his daughter whistling Roll out the Barrel† just before Willy asks for an advance and a New York job (77). Whistling, presumably, is all right if you are the boss or the boss’s daughter, but not if you are an employee. The barrel will not be rolled out for Willy or Biff Loman. Willy’s conflicting desires to work in sales and to do outdoor, independent work are complicated by another longing, that of sexual desire, which is expressed through the â€Å"raw, sensuous music† that accompanies The Woman’s appearances on stage (116, 37). It is this music of sexual desire, I suggest, that â€Å"insinuates itself† as the first leaves cover the house in Act 1.5 It is heard just before Willy – reliving a past conversation – offers this ironic warning to Biff: â€Å"Just wan na be careful with those girls, Biff, that’s all. Don’t make any promises. No promises of any kind† (27). This raw theme of sexual desire contrasts with Linda Loman’s theme: the maternal hum of a soft lullaby that becomes a â€Å"desperate but monotonous† hum at the end of Act I (69). Linda’s monotonous drone, in turn, contrasts with the â€Å"gay and bright† music, the boys’ theme, which opens Act II. This theme is associated with the â€Å"great times† (127) Willy remembers with his sons – before his adultery is discovered. Like the high, rollicking theme of Willy’s father and like Ben’s idyllic melody, this gay and bright music is ultimately associated with the false dream of materialistic success. The boys theme is first heard when Willy tells Ben that he and the boys will get rich in Brooklyn (87). It sounds again when Willy implores Ben, â€Å"[H]ow do we get back to all the great times?† (127). In his final moments of life, Willy Loman is shown struggling with his furies: â€Å"sounds, faces, voices, seem to be swarming in upon him† (136). Suddenly, however, the â€Å"faint and high† music enters, representing the false dreams of all the â€Å"low† men. This false tune ends Willy’s struggle with his competing voices. It drowns out the other voices, rising in intensity â€Å"almost to an unbearable scream† as Willy rushes off in pursuit. And just as the travail of Moby Dick ends with the ongoing flow of the waves, nature, in the form of the flute’s small and fine refrain, persists – despite the tragedy we have witnessed. Sets In the introduction to his Collected Plays, Miller acknowledges that the first image of Salesman that occurred to him was of an enormous face the height of the proscenium arch; the face would appear and then open up. â€Å"We would see the inside of a man’s head,† he explains. â€Å"In fact, The Inside of His Head was the first title. It was conceived half in laughter, (60) for the inside of his head was a mass of contradictions† (23). By the time Miller had completed Salesman, however, he had found a more subtle plays correlative for the giant head; a transparent setting. â€Å"The entire setting is wholly, or, in some places, partially transparent,† Miller insists in his set description (11). By substituting a transparent setting for a bisected head, Miller invited the audience to examine the social context as well as the individual organism. Productions that eschew transparent scenery eschew the nuances of this invitation. The transparent lines of the L oman home allow the audience physically to sense the city pressures that are destroying Willy. â€Å"We are aware of towering, angular shapes behind [Willy’s house], surrounding it on all sides. The roofline of the house is one-dimensional; under and over it we see the apartment buildings† (11-12). Wherever Willy Loman looks are these encroaching buildings, and wherever we look as well. Willy’s subjective vision is expressed also in the home’s furnishings, which are deliberately partial. The furnishings indicated are only those of importance to Willy Loman. That Willy’s kitchen has a table with three chairs instead of four reveals both Linda Loman’s unequal status in the family and Willy’s obsession with his boys. At the end of Act I, Willy goes to his small refrigerator for life-sustaining milk (cf. Brecht’s parallel use of milk in Galileo). Later, however, we learn that this repository of nourishment, like Willy himself, has broken down. That Willy Loman’s bedroom contains only a bed, a straight chair, and a shelf holding Biff’s silver athletic trophy also telegraphs much about the man and his family. Linda Loman has no object of her own in her bedroom. Willy Loman also travels light. He has nothing of substance to sustain him. His vanity is devoted to adolescent competition. Chairs ultimately become surrogates for people in Death of a Salesman as first a kitchen chair becomes Biff in Willy’s conflicted mind (28) and then an office chair becomes Willy’s deceased boss, Frank Wagner (82). In, perhaps, a subtle bow to Georg Kaiser’s Gas I and Gas II, Miller’s gas heater glows when Willy thinks of death. The scrim that veils the primping Woman and the screen hiding the restaurant where two women will be seduced suggest Willy Loman’s repression of sexuality. Lighting Expressionism has done more than any other movement to develop the expressive powers of stage lighting. The German expressionists used light to create a strong sense of mood and to isolate characters in a void. By contrasting light and shadow, and by employing extreme side, overhead, and rear lighting angles, they established the nightmarish atmosphere in which many of their plays took place. The original Kazan Salesman made use of more lights than were used even in Broadway musicals (Timebends 190). At the end of act 1, Biff comes downstage â€Å"into a golden pool of light† as Willy recalls the day of the city baseball championship when Biff was â€Å"[l]ike a young God. Hercules – something like that. And the sun, the sun all around him.† The pool of light both establishes the moment as one of Willy’s memories and suggests how he has inflated the past, given it mythic dimension. The lighting also functions to instill a sense of irony in the audience, fo r the golden light glows on undiminished as Willy exclaims, â€Å"A star like that, magnificent, can never really fade away!† We know that Biff’s star faded, even before it had a chance to shine, and even as Willy speaks these words, the light on him begins to fade (68). That Willy’s thoughts turn immediately from this golden vision of his son to his own suicide is indicated by the â€Å"blue flame† of the gas heater that begins immediately to glow through the wall – a foreshadowing of Willy’s desire to gild his son through his own demise. Productions that omit either the golden pool of light or the glowing gas heater withhold this foreshadowing of Willy’s final deed. Similarly, productions that omit the lights on the empty chairs miss the chance to reveal the potency of Willy’s fantasies. Perhaps even more important, the gas heater’s flame at the end of Act I recalls the â€Å"angry glow of orange† surrounding Willy’s house at the play’s beginning (11). Both join with the â€Å"red glow† rising from the hotel room and the restaurant to give a felt sense of Willy’s twice articulated cry: â€Å"The woods are burning!†¦There’s a big blaze going on all around† (41, 107). Without these sensory clues, audiences may fail to appreciate the desperation of Willy’s state. Characters and Costumes Miller employs expressionistic technique when he allows his characters to split into younger versions of themselves to represent Willy’s memories. Young Biff’s letter sweater and football signal his age reversion, yet they also move in the direction of social type. The Woman also is an expressionistic type, the play’s only generic character other than the marvelously individualized salesman. Miller’s greatest expressionistic creations, however, are Ben and Willy Loman. In his Paris Review interview, Miller acknowledged that he purposely refused to give Ben any character, â€Å"because for Willy he has no character – which is, psychologically, expressionist because so many memories come back with a simple tag on them: somebody represents a threat to you, or a promise† (Theater Essays 272). Clearly Ben represents a promise to Willy Loman. It is the promise of material success, but it is also the promise of death.6 We might consider Uncle Ben to be the ghost of Ben, for we learn that Ben has recently died in Africa. Since Miller never discloses the cause of Ben’s death, he may be a suicide himself. His idyllic melody, as I have noted, becomes finally a death march. In Willy’s last moments, the contrapuntal voices of Linda and Ben vie with each other, but Willy moves inexorably toward Ben. Alluding to Africa, and perhaps also to the River Styx, Ben looks at his watch and says, â€Å"The boat. We’ll be late† as he moves slowly into the darkness (135). Willy Loman, needless to say, is Miller’s brilliant demonstration that expressionistic techniques can express inner as well as outer forces, that expressionism can be used to create â€Å"felt,† humane character. The music, setting, and lighting of Salesman all function to express the world inside Willy Loman’s head, a world in which social and personal values meet and merge and struggle for integration. As Miller writes in the introduction to his Collected Plays: [The play’s] expressionistic elements were consciously used as such, but since the approach to Willy Loman’s characterization was consistently and rigorously subjective, the audience would not ever be aware – if I could help it – that they were witnessing the use of a technique which had until then created only coldness, objectivity, and a highly styled sort of play. (39) In 1983, when Miller arrived in Beijing to direct the first Chinese production of Death of a Salesman, he was pleased to find that the Chinese had created a mirror image of the original transparent set. Seeing this set, and observing that the kitchen was furnished with only a refrigerator, table, and two (not even three) chairs, Miller felt â€Å"a wonderful boost† to his morale (Salesman in Beijing 3-4). Teachers and directors might offer a similar boost by giving full weight to the expressionistic moments in Death of a Salesman. For directors, achieving such moments may be technically demanding, but they should not be abandoned simply because they are challenging.7 Similarly, the expressionistic devices should not be considered too obvious for postmodern taste. In truth, the expressionism in Salesman is not intrusive. Its very refinement of German expressionism lies in its subtlety, in its delicate balance with the realistic moments in the drama. This ever-shifting tension between realism and expressionism allows us to feel the interpenetration of outer and inner forces within the human psyche. The expressionistic devices also elevate Willy’s suffering, for they place it in the context of the natural order. To excise the expressionism is to diminish the rich chord that is Miller’s drama

Chinese Typography Study

Typography in Publication Design Chinese Typography Study Training for cultural awareness and sustainability Choi Chi Kit Jackson, Hong Kong Design Institute, Hong Kong, [email  protected] edu. uk Monica Chiu, Hong Kong Design Institute, Hong Kong, [email  protected] edu. hk Sylvia To, Hong Kong Design Institute, Hong Kong, [email  protected] edu. hk Abstract: This paper aims to present the unique quality of Chinese letterforms & characters, and to discuss our approach of teaching Chinese typography as a tool of nurturing cultural awareness and sustainability.Through in-depth research of traditional literature, study the philosophy from past, examine the visual symbols and tangible artifacts in the surrounding at present-day to enable students’ to translate and transform the materials into experimental typographic designs for modern communication. We believed that this is a good method for our future creative talents to engage with traditional value and essence sustainab ility through typography design practice. Key words: cultural awareness, Chinese aesthetics, letterform appreciation, iconic architectural elements, pictogram, philosophy, cultural identity . Introduction Movable types have contributed a major way of communication since the invention of printing. Today, the existence of digital media has drove typography design to a formulaic nature. For Chinese typography, the unique human philosophy contained in writing system enriched our life and soul since it’s developed by ancestors and scholars. However, the reliance of digital media made this distinctive philosophy being disregarded by many design students in Hong Kong.Since ancient time, human civilization reflected and recorded cognition towards their living environment by direct imitation to produce imagery or drawings, for example cave paintings, monumental carving and primitive written symbols. However the direct copying of objects and forms had its limitation when it came to abs tract association of ideologies. During civilization development, languages were formulated and gradually migrated into two different streams: one headed to the direction replacing pictographs with phonetic system all together.Pictographs were soon replaced by alphabets; which the meaning of words were constructed by combinations of different sound, later developed into language system with enormous amount of words. Another different direction was extension from pictograph with phonetic component and the additional association from pictographs. The former was well adopted by western world to become roman alphabets whereas the latter was Chinese characters for Chinese culture. AaBbCcDdEeFfGg Chinese typography constituted a major way of communication for literature and culture sustain.Unlike roman alphabets, the meaning of Chinese characters comes with the unique combination of ancestor’s artifacts, activities, space and sounds in daily life. Even though the representation of Chinese letterforms changed according to human civilization, this unique way of writing system ( Kanzi) still transmit in today’s Chinese characters since oracle bone script been found. Horse ? Herd ? Despite the changes and amendment made along the rise and fall of dynasties, Chinese written language is basically retained with the same ancient artifacts and literature and still in used today.In some sense, we are communicating with our ancestors. ? In this paper we discuss the nature and characteristics of Chinese writing system with the approach of training aims to revitalize this cultural philosophy on contemporary Chinese typography. 2. Design Principles of Chinese Character 2. 1 Traditional Chinese culture in modern design context Chinese arts and crafts development reached its peak as early as Han Dynasty (206 B. C. – 8 A. D. ). Lots of documents have been found such as the Kaogong ji (1) that llustrated and stated rules and dimensions for architecture and deco rative ornaments. These information was however more inclined to the technical aspects of construction and production rather than the design principles and thinking in a modern context. Pages extract from Kaogong ji The closest attempt to design theory and thinking seems to be embedded in the deepest roots of Chinese culture when our ancestors tried to create the primitive form of communication, the Chinese letterforms. This can be trace in the six categories of Chinese Characters, the ‘liushu ’. 2. Generation of Chinese characters Chinese characters evolved basically from pictographs that represent objects, actions, events and sounds since 5000BC. This is distinctive from roman alphabets which the meaning of words comes from a combination of alphabets but not from one single alphabet. Every Chinese character has its own meaning, or even more than one. Various types of character were first classified systematically in Han Dynasty, around 100 AD by the Chinese linguist Xu Shen , whose etymological dictionary ‘Explaining Simple and Analyzing Compound Characters, Shuowen Jiezi, divides the script into six categories, the ‘liushu’. 1. Pictographs ( xiangxingzi) 2. Pictophonetic compounds ( , Xingshengzi) 3. Indicative Characters / Ideograph ( , zh shizi) 4. Associative Characters / Logical aggregates ( , Huiyizi) 5. Associate Transformation ( , Zhu nzhuzi) 6. Borrowing ( , Ji jiezi) We have approximately over 60,000 Chinese characters. Although some strokes were simplified or lost occasionally in the past, Chinese characters are basically is in its stable structure since Qin Dynasty. (2)The 6 categories of Chinese Character (‘liushu’) mention here is an extreme important knowledge for Chinese for maximizing our communication possibility, to serve as guideline for new letterform creation in coherent logic; this can be discussed as similar as western design principles. 3. Chinese Typography Training Today, we are const antly bombarded by excessive visual excitement and information. In the process of coding and decoding visual message, if the origin of Chinese letterform can be well preserved, one can reveal the purest form of visual dialogue for our next generation. Communication depends on common principles -assumptions and meanings, purpose and values – but common meanings can be established only by communication and agreement† (Richard McKeon, 1998). 3. 1 The consequence of traditional and modern Chinese characters Although the unique combination of symbolic marks still exists in modern Chinese letterform, a major problem is modern fonts design concentrate very much on modification of geometrical shapes to relatively simple structure for the needs of digital media.Hence, we see the large gap between the combination of symbolic marks and cultural meanings obtained within. In order to sustain the unique literate and cultural traditions, we believe the co-existing of symbolic marks an d geometrical structure should not be overlooked. Pictogram Oracle Bone script Bronze script Seal script Clerical script Regular script Cursive script Movable type Digital font ? ? Same as many western typography design, our practical guide to Chinese typography training is a combination of origin and new, involved literature review and experimental workshops.Along with our four years coaching experience gone through with the application and interpretation of philosophical notion of Chinese calligraphy emerged with theoretical, aesthetic and contextual approaches. Time Space Social Artefacts ? Literature Cultural People 3. 2 Cultural sustainability Chinese letterform composed of symbolic marks for linguistic and visual communication. It is a significant medium to connect Chinese culture and social ideologies. In this regard, we obtain Chinese typography as perfect channel to facilitate student's creativity as well as literature and cultural knowledge.Literature Review Exper imental Workshops Design for cultural awareness and sustainability. 3. 3 Teaching and learning strategy Our training method consist two main stages: 3. 3. 1 Literature review It is our essential stage to buildup theoretical and methodological brought from ancient Chinese intellects, a practical based training leading students to translate and transform the Chinese calligraphy philosophy into new visual dimensions. 3. 3. 2 Experimental workshops Another approach to learn typography is to forget about typography.By employing experimental graphic treatments, materials and imagery, we hope to further enhanced audience’s emotional and spiritual responds in reading. Through serious of experimental workshops, we facilitate students to explore and experiment new visual codes. Through our practice-based research project fused with theory and medium in all kinds, we established new aesthetic perspective and approach that manifests the fusion of cultural and functional qualities for con temporary Chinese typography design.Eventually, increase the awareness of cultural sustainability. Literature review Experimental workshops Learning process Origin ? Translate ? Transform + Learning process Explore ? Experiment To demonstrate the idea how we embrace literature and cultural knowledge as well as facilitating students’ Chinese typography creativity, our learning contents and work examples will be further discussed. Student’s examples will be show to demonstrate our academic achievements including the awarded projects in national competition. 3. Learning Contents 3. 4. 1 Fundamental Principles of Chinese Letterform Chinese calligraphy is an expression of innermost spirit of one’s well-being. Calligraphy appreciation enriches viewers experience through acknowledge of one's expressive strokes, shapes and structure. In the past, painter and calligraphers has a common practice to developed skills begun by imitating works from great masters. The exercise shown here was intended to revisit, rethink and embrace the very fundamental principles of Chinese writing system.By respecting the origin to establish new forms, and be free to give personality to that form. Exercise: Calligraphy in practice Knowledge: principles of writing order, 8 strokes theory, 34 grid systems, origin of Chinese calligraphy, personality, express, control. Technique: structure, strokes, form, shapes, and grid. Learning process: Origin 3. 4. 2 Letterform and Chinese Philosophy Chinese Yin-yang philosophy used to describe how polar opposites or seemingly contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other in turn.The Yin-yang concept is not opposing force, but complementary opposites that interact within a greater whole, as part of a dynamic system of equilibrium. Chinese typography consists of Yin-yang philosophy within. Elements of each letterform are in placed within a grid system of 34 different for mats. Everything is organized in a right position of perfect balance. Yin-yan Examples of Chinese letterform ? ? ? ? ? Symmetrical Balance Asymmetrical balance Stability Visible & invisible Spacing Fullness and emptiness Balance and sense of space Balance and hierarchyIn this content, students were asked to learn historical knowledge of Chinese calligraphy and principles of Chinese letterform design. Through extensive exploration and experiments to develop, translate and transform the principles into modern typography design. The training is to nurture the appreciation of aesthetic quality of Chinese letterform. 3. 4. 3 Simplified type strokes and forms Although there are straight structure and format for standard characters, designers still have flexibility during actually implementation of Chinese characters (Junior school teachers may disagree with this).Since Chinese characters are the graphic representation of what we see in real world, there is no absolute right or wrong compo sition of letterform. In fact the development of script has reflect this flexibility: pictographs > metal script>seal script >clerical script >regular script, not to mention the drastic change from Traditional Chinese to Simplified. Letter strokes and composition are continuously morphing and altering over time. Historically, it is a visual game which artists play around with the forms and strokes for visual interest such as , , . Today, these hrases are still in use in our ordinary life such as paper cut, red banners for blessing; embroidery, furniture and architecture for decoration†¦ So, almost every character has its own meaning or a story to tell. The following examples demonstrated how Chinese characters can be read as graphic forms with an intentional to remove strokes and emerge two or more forms together to become new composition. Viewers are amused by the tricks, and enjoy the process of reading and decoding the design. And we believed that this can be a good appeti zer for students to start off the feast of Chinese Typography.For this content, students were asked to play with their own Chinese names by simplifying strokes and forms. They may find it confusing in the beginning but soon discover the fun of â€Å"being wrong†. Strokes were removed deliberately but the principle is that the characters could still be read and be understood. The process includes reduce strokes ? add weight ? use counter space ? align grid ? create style. The experimental exercises show below demonstrated how students examine the equilibrium philosophy with strokes from Chinese name.Through practicing the principles as first step, several techniques were employed (Diagram 1-5). Next, students were asked to come up with a suitable idiom or phase that can well express the visual quality from previous design, finally translate and transform the visual approach and ordinary letterform to new image structure (Diagram 6). Exercise: Type structure Knowledge: structur e, strokes, grid, form, shapes, space, yin-yang philosophy. Technique: eliminate elements, graphic treatment, Visible & invisible space, positive & negative association, counter space, form and deform, distortion, grouping, illusion, positive and negative space, fullness and emptiness, visual balance in strokes, counter-space, the subtle interchangeable black and white marks Learning process: Origin > Translate > Transform 3. 4. 4 Characteristics from materials Chinese characters are pictogram compose with symbolic marks of artifacts to become the foundation of our culture, however people today are often ignore the beauty and stories behind. The beauty of such simple geometrical form revealed the culture, activities, space, sound or motion of daily life at the time.Each letterform build within a grid contained a story, a connotation or more. If Chinese characters are originally invented by our ancestor with an instinct to be survive, why can’t we create typography from ignor ing everything about typography? Psychologists suggested that human being is capable of internally organizing and representing aspects of his environment, and this representation or map is subject to continuous change and revision. Each time this cognitive map is changed or reinforced that can be said to have ‘learned’. (Kerry J.McGarry, 1981). Our following exercise requires students to examine the properties of various materials and explore the possibility to create Chinese characters which convey message in both visual and language. Through the assignments, students were asked to keep repeat testing by manipulating materials. Our workshop for this particular topic consists of two stages: 1. 2. By playing with physical materials to examine and explore the possible appearances or performance Observe to discover the human physiological reaction against the experimental workSoftness within hardness explores the physical property of bamboo stick Cloth ? , surround ? , pe netrate ? , stand ? , Rise ? , transparent ? , roll ? The above works demonstrated our process to obtain human physiological reaction through materials. The collected information and experiments such as textual elements or visual appearance will be transformed and developed into typography that can convey a message with physiological response. Exercise: Play with materials Experiments: materials, texture, objects, etc.Techniques: flat laying, top-up, layering, reduce/destroy, add on or attach, transparent, marks or scare, positive & negative space, lighting & shadow, 2D or 3D, physical & chemical reaction, interaction, alternation, etc. Learning process: Explore > Experiment 3. 4. 5 Artefacts This is another experimental workshop attempted to challenge the functional aspect of letterforms. If Chinese characters concealed imagery of artefacts for functional communication for humane society, we doubted if this communication still serve effectively? Would this be a communication gap be tween ancient time and modern world?Can this problem be fixed by rediscovering the elements consisted in our present time? In this exercise, students were asked to discover their own letterform story through image capture. Students were asked to capture the expressive cultural artefacts or physical environment, with those elements found from existing place and time, a contemporary letterform is possibly formulated. Exercise: Type finding Exploration: cultural artifacts, icon, architecture, humanity, society. Technique: photography, discover, observation. Learning process: Explore > Experiment 4. Type design inspired by ‘liushu’ 4. 1.Pictographic Characters ( xiangxingzi): Strokes and structure VS iconic elements and symbols Pictograph, also known as pictogram to conveys its meaning through pictorial illustration of a physical object. The forms of these Chinese characters can be linked and associated directly to the physical objects such as Horse, Fish, Sun and Moon ( ). As highly simplified graphic representation of objects, motion and stories, a scene of drama all frozen into a still frame, all these dialogue, props, lights and textures are condensed into graphic strokes. The beauty of culture is locked into the visual codes of each letterform.When we believe that Chinese characters are frozen images of drama/stories, the best way to unfreeze them is by placing them back to the physical/material world. There has no necessity to create additional visual elements if they are already out there in the real world. Perhaps all we have to do is to re-discover them again. In this exercise, students were asked to create their typeface through captured image of iconic structures and cultural artifacts of architecture, temples, street scenes, Chinese restaurant, local tea shops, road signs, ritual materials, and any thing relates to our heritage and culture.Students will then ask to identify the patterns and images until the basic visual elements can be rev ealed. A new letterform will be formulated and developed with those elements they found. Students were also encourage to study the pictorial origins and stories of Chinese characters, experiment to decode all underlining meanings, almost like an archaeologist interpreting the prehistoric world of life with unearthed fossils. (Left to Right) Light ? , Hole ? , Bamboo Scaffolding Light ? : It depicted the simplest form of light beam that created the strokes radiated from the center point.Hole ? : There had no stroke in the word. The form was generated with layers of corrugated boards that created the depth of a hole. Bamboo Scaffolding : The student studied thoroughly the materials and structure that construct the unique characteristics of the bamboo scaffolding. All elements were reduced to their basic forms such as the bamboo sticks, tiding strings, broken pieces, dirt and objects around the building site. Viewers could associate the visual structure of the typeface with the conte xt of the design immediately. Left) visual elements (Right) Temple Temple : The student took a lot of photos at an old temple to grasp the detail of the ancient architectural style of Chinese buildings such as censer, stone carving lion and pagodas that reflected not only the life style of ordinary people, but also their religious beliefs. With these unique visual elements, student was able to formulate the letterform of primitive, simplicity of rich textural quality typography. 4. 2 Indicative Characters / Ideograph ( zh shizi) The indicative characters are used to express things that are abstract in meaning. They may be purely abstract symbols that indicate directions, or symbols will be added to pictographic characters to indicate abstract nature of matters. Examples are Chinese words indicating above, beneath, concave and convex. ( ) In this content, students will have to experiment with different materials with textual properties, conditions and mood to see how they can be co nnected to represent the meaning of Chinese characters. In the history of Chinese ainting, there is a famous saying of â€Å"One will be enlightened in inner-self if one can learn from the greater nature in one’s surrounding. † (3) It is to get rid of the computer table and go out to discover the origin and beauty of nature. (Left to Right) Trapped ? , Diffuse ? , Concave ? , look ? 4. 3 Pictophonetic compounds ( , Xingshengzi): Another category of character is a pictophonetic compound, which is to have one component to indicate the type or meaning of word, named as radical, while the other component to indicate the pronunciation of the word. ( This increases largely the possible combination of words, and nearly 90% of Chinese words used nowadays are created as pictophonetic compounds. This category can sometimes indicate the relationship between words with the same radical, and makes classification of characters very efficient. Here is an interesting student’s experimental work for lyrics design of Chinese Opera (Cantonese Opera). Traditional Chinese music notes is embedded into the lyrics characters. Music notes become the strokes of the letterform, and the length and distance between characters indicate the rhythm of the song.The design integrates the sounds with the meaning of characters, and reveals the aesthetics of traditional Chinese calligraphy. 4. 4 Associative Characters / Logical aggregates ( , Huiyizi) Pictograph is a very effective medium of communication for indicating physical objects and visual materials, but it has its own limitation when comes to abstract concepts and ideologies. Instead of switching completely phonetic system, our ancestors created flexible manipulation of the formation of letterforms so as to enrich the complexity of Chinese and allow broad dimensions of communication.To express abstract concepts, they created the associative characters that put two or more pictographic characters together to describe an action, or something abstract. ( ) For example the character â€Å"illuminate† is the combination of two pictographs of sun and moon, which are obviously the biggest illuminating objects at that time. The character ‘? ’ is the pictographs of one man after another showing the meaning of follow / by. (Left to Right) Stack ? , Wrong ? , Sun-drying of Clothes The students’ works above show the creativity of making logical aggregates through objects and letterforms.Stack ? : by piling up a stack of corrugated boards, the form and appearance of the material associate the image with the meaning of the word ‘stack’. Wrong ? : The symmetric image of the character is created by a strong contrast of ‘black & white’ colour. This also depicts the meaning of ‘right & wrong’ carried by the Chinese character. ( ) Sun drying of clothes : The design captures very common street scenery in Hong Kong where people dry their laundry ou tside public estates. The clothes form the shape of Chinese characters.Viewers can understand the meaning of the words even they do not understand the Chinese words. 5. Pictogram with Chinese Aesthetics and Chinese Philosophy Traditional Chinese intellects enrich one’s literate spirit through practicing calligraphy and painting. It is an expression of innermost beauty of one's integral soul of balanced lifestyle. Calligraphy enriches the intellectual capacity of viewers through appreciation of expressive quality of strokes, shapes and structure that extends to acknowledgement of one's well being.Chinese painters spent their life to reveal their spirit and emotion through the use of ink, washes and impressionistic brushstrokes. Both components of black and white shared the same level of importance. Realism is never their aim, and sometimes the negative space is the message. Like landscape painting, masters drew their landscape freely with changeable perspectives, and white spa ce is used to suggest distance. â€Å"The nature is an entity as ONE, and then separated into wind, rain and four seasons. The brightness and darkness, high and low, close by and far away, the peak of imitation is between alike and unlike. (Shi Tao, 1642–1718) (4) The surrealistic and impressionistic nature of Chinese arts provides a perfect laboratory for student’s exploration of Chinese typography. Below example shows how Chinese calligraphy reflects Chinese philosophy of yin-yang positive & negative, fullness & emptiness to works hand in hand with another significant art form carried from Chinese painting. Through the necessary process from studying literature and ideologies of the ancient time, he attempted to extract and translate those beliefs and principles into graphic rules and visual principles.The exercise offered students a good opportunity to test extensively if the rules and principles are versatile and applicable. (Left) Typographic poster of a Chinese poem (Right) Traditional Chinese Landscape Painting It is human instinct to gain knowledge from the past for the needs of improvement. When we learn that iushu is the traditional ways of creating meaningful and comprehensive characters, we start to think that may be we can employ similar principles to create new characters for things that do not exist in the past.Or maybe we can take advantage of the constructional nature of Chinese character to create new letterforms through imagination. For words or objects with more than one meaning, or with ambiguous meaning, they will lead to subjective interpretation. (Paul Rand, 1985) Nowadays young generation is so used to the ‘Martian language’ online which is a new language based on traditional Chinese. The principle of creating that language is amazingly similar to those developed from liushu. A good example is the borrowing of a long-term unused character ? for a helpless facial expression.Seemingly, the principle of charact er creation developed over long period of time is already embedded in our DNA and influence every move we make. In the last session, we are going to present our student’s contributions on typography design with their enthusiasm on cultural phenomenon. The essential and efficiency for adapting typography principles into contemporary of representation were successfully demonstrated. Night Street: With highly developed and sophisticated transport network in Hong Kong, paved highways and roads were built to serve the needs of busy local economy 24 hours a day.No other place would witness this unique energetic transportation, bustling bridges and highway nightlife on earth. Street lamps and vehicle lights mark the night and become the energetic strokes that reveal the scenic impression of a cosmopolitan city. (Left) Joss paper . (Right) Awful Taoist incantation Joss paper : Paper offering is a common tradition in Hong Kong during funerals, festivals and special occasions to ensu re the well being of the deceased and ancestor.Joss paper, also known as ghost money, a traditional handmade paper product, which is decorated with seals, stamps, engraved designs or other motifs. The type was created by the rich texture and quality of the ritual paper products with visual elements interacting with original strokes to unfold this cultural distinctiveness in a contemporary approach. Awful Taoist incantation : The original meaning of the phrase means poor works of calligraphy that is difficult to read and understand. The design employs the traditional symbol of incantation and combines it with new online languages used by youngster nowadays.This is a good example showing the potential of bringing new life to our tradition especially when we know that we are sharing the common language with our ancestors. (Left) Chinese Input Method (Right) Rock’N roll against the organizational system Chinese Input Method : In modern digital world, unlike using roman alphab ets, Chinese have to type in characters with different input methods (Cangjie, Pinyin, Jianyi) They are dictated by the keyboard format and the graphic form of characters, both of which are unrelated to the original meaning of the characters.This design challenges the idea by creating the letterforms with keyboard radicals, and the results are semireadable, between alike and unlike. Rock’N roll against the organizational system : All Chinese characters are the results of different composition with 8 basic strokes. This provides the possibility to decompose and recompose the strokes to generate new letterforms. This design decomposes the strokes of the words ‘organizational system’ and recomposed into ‘Rock & Roll’ in Chinese, so as to demonstrate the conflicts between the two forces. (Left) Suppression in Childhood Right) Fourth of June Suppression in Childhood : The big rectangular shape in Chinese character always conveys the meaning of trap, s urround and block. The design employs this symbol as a metaphor of suppression in childhood where all letters written by the child is surrounded and blocked, no matter they are about study, games, toys, friends, examination, dreams, and etc. Fourth of June : The design makes good use of the characteristic of Chinese characters that the combination of strokes is quite flexible and sometimes could be quite ambiguous.The words of ‘Six’ and ‘Four’ are mixed with ‘Patriotism’ and ‘Riot’ intentionally to post a question â€Å"Is 4th of June an patriotic action or a riot? † 6. Conclusion If we see typography as a powerful tool of visual communication, the unique visual quality of Chinese typography could definitely empower the creativity of designers, and enrich the communicative value of text. Typography can do a lot more than just providing a comfortable and legible platform for message delivery.By creative manipulation of Chine se character, viewers can firstly look at the visuals at textual material, and then look through the visuals to discover the underlying concepts embedded inside with the clever correlation with culture and information. It can prepare readers by setting the right context and atmosphere, and enhance the meaning and impact of message. We have described our complete approach for Chinese typography training. Our philosophy of Chinese typography training has been proven effective to facilitate heritage concept and necessary information in typography design. Image and text are the two major lements in visual communication. For Chinese typography, letterform composes both elements in an entity. With this unique communication quality, Chinese typography is a perfect medium to bridge the traditional Chinese cultural to the modern world of communication. Although it is no easy task for young generation to understand the knowledge in full, with our enthusiastic to embrace heritage and creativit y into Chinese typography, students gradually develop and grow themselves from aesthetic appreciation and eventually sustain the cultural identity for Hong Kong. Footnotes: 1. Kaogong ji sometimes translated as Book of Diverse Crafts, is a classic work on science and technology in Ancient China, compiled towards the end of the Spring and Autumn Period. 2. Being pictographs, the graphic forms of characters are good for story telling and readers can â€Å"guess† the meaning of words by simply looking into the graphic forms. However Simplified Chinese Style drastically reduced total number of characters by combining words of similar pronunciation, and simplified the letterform by removing strokes, but the characters lost the quality of storytelling because they are not longer pictographs. . , ( ) 4. , , ( , 1642–1718) References Richard McKeon (1998) Selected Writings of Richard McKeon, Vol. 1, Philosophy, Science and Culture. McKeon, Zahava K. , and William G. Swen son, eds. University of Chicago Press. Kerry J. McGarry, (1981) The Changing Context of Information: An Introductory Analysis. Clive Bingley. Paul Rand (1985) A Designer’s Art, Yale University Press.