Nagisa Chen 
Willie Liu In this presentation, the editor and designer of the Chinese edition of Designing Type Revivals will share his process of conceptualizing, promoting, and realizing this non-standardized publishing project. He will explore how the practice and theoretical framework of Latin type revival can be translated into another script environment through publishing, and how editorial design methods can facilitate a dialogue between two writing systems. One of the contributing authors will discuss the conceptual context and practical cases of Chinese type revival, sharing insights into the reflection and discussions of the concept of “revival” within the Chinese type community during the writing process.
When we are working on reviving a Chinese font from a 16th-century Ming dynasty woodblock print, what exactly are we doing? Over the course of Chinese history, the production and application of characters (from woodblock printing to movable type), the ways of composition (from vertical to horizontal), and even the forms of the characters themselves (from traditional to simplified) have all undergone changes. The concept of “type revival” here is fundamentally different from that in Latin typography—a new design that aims to re-create the appearance of a historical source which is unavailable in the current technology, as Riccardo Olocco and Michele Patanè clearly explained in Designing Type Revivals.
Therefore, when we decided to introduce this insightful, practical manual to China， we faced a challenge. While Latin letters are commonly used in contemporary Chinese texts, and Latin type design is indeed a core subject for type designers here, we recognized that, to maximize the book’s value and reach, supplementary content written by native designers was essential.
The final Chinese edition of Designing Type Revivals consists of the original translation and four essays under the overarching title “A Discussion on Chinese Type Revival Design.” In this supplemental section we first clarify the general process of a Chinese type revival and its key characteristics. We then use three case studies to explore different levels of Chinese type revival activities, thus creating a cross-regional, cross-script dialogue with the original text. As Gerry Leonidas, the original book’s editor, stated, “I would love it if at some point we can translate back into English the Chinese contributions—then the process will be complete.”