Yue Chen The Yi script, the writing system of China’s sixth-largest ethnic minority with over 9.8 million people, represents one of the most vital yet understudied non-Han scripts. Unlike extinct ancient scripts, Yi remains in active use within communities across Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi. However, the script has historically lacked cross-regional standardization due to geographic dispersion, dialectal fragmentation, and transmission through localized bimo (ritual specialists). This resulted in tens of thousands of character variants, obstructing literacy, publishing, and cultural transmission.
Since the 1950s, regional efforts in Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou have undertaken systematic standardization, producing distinct but incompatible systems. Sichuan developed a syllabic system of 819 characters (1980); Yunnan established an ideographic set of 2,536 characters (1987, revised 2024); Guizhou compiled dictionaries recognizing 2,599 characters and over 4,000 variants (1991, 2018). These initiatives improved local communication but reinforced provincial divergence.
A turning point came in 1991 with the adoption of a national standard, leading to the encoding of Yi in Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646 (1999–2000). This achievement integrated Yi into the global digital environment but did not resolve internal variation. More recently, collaborative discussions among the four provinces have sought to consolidate outcomes into a unified “common Yi script,” balancing historical authenticity, regional diversity, and the needs of modern education, publishing, and digital media.
This presentation examines the development and standardization of the Yi script across provinces, the linguistic and orthographic challenges of unification, and the implications of its digital implementation. It argues that the Yi case exemplifies the complexities of designing inclusive typography for minority scripts: navigating between tradition and innovation, local diversity and global standards, cultural identity and digital belonging.