Title Sequence / 2023
Tongues of China
In everyday conversation, people often see Chinese as a monolithic language. In fact, there is so much linguistic variation within Chinese that some almost sound like distinct languages.
Justin and I are proud to design and animate the title sequence for the first ever Chinese language documentary, Tongues of China (中国话). This documentary series explores the rich history and culture behind hundreds of Chinese languages and thousands of dialects.
The greatest challenge that sprung was this: Language is such an abstract concept, how can we express it without being too symbolic or literal? How do we interpret the correlation between languages and people?
Eventually, we landed on a fundamental concept that it is people’s never-ending communication and migration that keeps languages evolving for thousands of years.
The documentary series begins with the tones and origins of Chinese languages and varieties. Chinese is a tonal language. For example, there are four tones in Mandarin: ā, á, ǎ and à.
We also starts with a playful treatment of the tones: What if tones are the eaves of the traditional Chinese architectures? How abstract can we be to show enough of this concept?
The early stage (sketches shown below) was more abstract and geometric. Continuous reviews with the director’s team and tons of explorations eventually led us to a ground that feels both nostalgic and metaphorical.
The end result is a symbolic tribute to the correlation between Chinese languages and people, and their everlasting core of spirit.
Design
Yiting Nan
Justin Zhang
2D Animation
Yiting Nan
Justin Zhang
Music & Sound
Dudu Hou
Credits
Client
CCTV-9 Documentary
Client Executive Director
Hairuo Zeng
Yuhan Chen
Client Producer
Lixiang Qin