One of China’s great inventions on display

THE movable-type printing, invented by Bi Sheng in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), is one of the four great inventions of ancient China, along with papermaking, gunpowder and the compass.

An exhibition featuring this historic culture opens today at Shanghai Zhonghua Printing Museum in suburban Qingpu District.

From carving to adjusting, choosing, arranging and printing movable type, the whole process will be presented to let visitors appreciate ancient, modern and contemporary movable types.

The exhibition will allow people to explore the four popular Chinese typefaces, including the regular Script font which can be traced back more than 1,000 years, the 500-year-old Song font and Fangsong (imitation Song) and Hei (bold) fonts designed in the last century.

A combination of movable type with music played on the guqin (a plucked sevenstringed instrument) and Chinese surnames is one of the highlights.

To have a better understanding of the technology, visitors will be provided with various activities, such as printing documents under the guidance of experts.

Soaps, USB flash disks, pens, ice cube trays, tattoo stickers and mobile phone holders are some of the creative products designed with movable-type elements that are available at the exhibition.

“The exhibition that will last two years nationwide will also visit Yangzhou (Jiangsu Province), Tianjin and Beijing. We try to show the charm of Chinese characters and promoting handwriting among the general public,” said Zhou Dong, deputy general manager of Shanghai Printing Group Co Ltd.

Organized by Shanghai Institute of Printing Technology, the birthplace of the modern Chinese fonts, a competition to design traditional as well as innovative typefaces also begins today.

Date: July 24-August 24, Tuesdays-Saturdays, 9am-4pm Ticket: Free

Venue: Shanghai Zhonghua Printing Museum

Address: 889 Huijin Rd, Qingpu District

How to get there: Take Mtro Line 17 to Huijin Road Station.