A post on a gibberish song made to sound like Chinese reminded me of this art installation. The artist created 4000 Chinese characters that don't exist, yet could: Chinese hanjis are made from a list of radicals (elementary components), which were used and combined in novel ways.
The whole point is to play with expectations and familiarity: there's a huge text, it looks like you'd understand it (if you speak Chinese) and you want to read it, but you can't. These long scrolls are covered in writing but devoid of meaning. It has something trippy to it.
The artist hasn't dwelled any further on this. Some critics speculate this is a criticism of propaganda, especially under Mao Zedong's government, as in these times texts lose their meaning.
The whole point is to play with expectations and familiarity: there's a huge text, it looks like you'd understand it (if you speak Chinese) and you want to read it, but you can't. These long scrolls are covered in writing but devoid of meaning. It has something trippy to it.
The artist hasn't dwelled any further on this. Some critics speculate this is a criticism of propaganda, especially under Mao Zedong's government, as in these times texts lose their meaning.