Raven Mo 
Yu Li Chop suey fonts—a faux-Chinese typographic trope—embodies a paradox: It is both hypervisible in commercial contexts (such as restaurant signage, film posters and “ethnic” branding) and systematically marginalized in typographic discourse. Despite critiques of its hegemonic role in racializing “Chineseness”, its persistence reveals a deeper contradiction: a market-driven system where capital, more powerfully than cultural fidelity or typographic craftsmanship, shapes typographic identity.
To explain this phenomenon, this presentation synthesizes findings from both qualitative and quantitative research. Interviews with type historians and designers, on one hand, expose how chop suey’s longevity stems more from economic incentives than from aesthetic or functional merit. On the other hand, they highlight nuanced type design processes developed by Chinese type designers that challenge the “capital as author” model. Quantitative data on IP protection and licensing from major font licensing sites reveal how the absence of copyright and licensing standards for chop suey fonts contributes to their ubiquity and lack of design accountability. Overall, this presentation highlights how market-driven visibility is sustained for chop suey fonts, even as they are excluded from formal recognition and protection within the type design community.
By interrogating the economic, legal, and cultural factors that shape the visibility and marginality of chop suey fonts, this presentation reveals the mechanisms that both reinforce and undermine the representation of “Chineseness” in type design. Ultimately, it calls for resistance to capital-dominant value systems and advocates for social responsibility among designers and design consumers.