China News Service, Hong Kong, September 5th. Title: "Past and Present" in a set of Hong Kong-style signboard fonts
China News Agency reporter Han Xingtong
Before "writing guy" Li Han told the old man to close the file, he was worried that his old friend "signature guy" Li Wei would have no words to use in the future, so he swiftly swiped 5,000 words in one go.
When a thick pile of copybooks were passed to Li Wei’s son Li Jianming, “I don’t feel much to tell the truth.” It was Hong Kong in the early 1990s. There were so many “writing guys”, all kinds of signs criss-crossed and bright lights. The neon blooms below, and it is prosperous.
So unexpectedly, one day this scene will disappear quietly, and "Li Han Gang Kai" will become a cultural heritage that needs to be preserved.
People are often ignorant when they are in a torrent.
A few decades ago, when a signboard was made in Hong Kong, it was necessary to find a "writing man" to write an inscription on the manuscript paper, and then cut it into the signboard according to the font.
"The characters are better than Li Han. There are many people, but he is better than others." When talking about his old friends, Li Wei teased a little bit.
At that time, there were more than a dozen "writing guys" on Port Lan Street in Mong Kok, which can be described as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and sometimes customers had to rush to order signs, "I will order them that night, and they will need them the next day." Where can I find someone to write?
Li Wei was also anxious, and Li Han helped each time, and the two got acquainted as soon as they came and became a fixed "partner".
The Hong Kong-style signboard is bold and strong, trying to be eye-catching enough to be seen from a distance on the street where the signboards are lined.
Li Han fonts have this feature, and the more unique feature is the "drawing silk", that is, the end of one stroke.
"This way of writing facilitates the production of signs, saves materials, and no longer has the trouble of scattered and hard-to-find radical parts." Li Jianming explained.
The address of the "birth paper" is at the sign shop. He boasted that he had a destined relationship with the sign. Since elementary school, he "entered the business" with his father and was a veritable "teacher".
Li Jianming pulled out a black folder nearly 20 cm thick from the bookshelf. Inside it was a copybook left by Li Han before his death. The paper was yellowed and there were old traces of pages that had been turned repeatedly.
Each word about 4 feet in size was cut off one by one and pasted in accordance with the radical arrangement.
Before this set of characters was digitally entered into the computer, for a full twenty years, like a general in his twilight years, the lofty ambition Lingyun was helpless, and rarely came in handy.
Time has changed, and the local signboard industry is declining. On the one hand, computers are gradually becoming more popular, and computer fonts are cheap and easy to process. They replace various styles of handwriting. A century-old shop. Now the rent of the shop is rising, and it may take a year to relocate.” On the other hand, the signboard crossing the road was removed by the SAR government for safety reasons.
As a result, "writing guys" are no longer seen in the streets and alleys.
In 2016, Li Jianming learned from a radio program that there was a font company in Taiwan that could convert font manuscripts into computer characters. He went to Taiwan to study several times and started the "character creation" project.
After more than three years, a set of "Li Han Gang Kai" with up to 7,000 characters finally came out.
The difficulty is not the technique, but the cumbersomeness. Back then, Li Han wrote 5,000 words in a dictionary, but not every word could be used. "Some styles are inconsistent, and some are not well-written. In the end, only about 2,000 words were sorted out." The rest can only rely on "characters". For example, Chaga day is yesterday, and fire is exploded. Thousands of words are derived flexibly.
Many people have asked Li Jianming why he has to spend a lot of time to repair this set of fonts?
He asked back, old things contain wisdom, why don't I bring it to a new era?
"The best preservation and inheritance is not to put the manuscript in the museum display cabinet for people to appreciate, but to make this set of fonts continue to be used."
It is based on this concept that Li Jianming has developed a series of cultural and creative products with "Li Hangang Kai", including signature-shaped keychains, stamps, earrings, etc. printed with tidal language, which are quite popular among the younger generation.
On the keychain, Li Han's handwriting reads the voice of everyone nowadays: "See you soon after removing the cover."
This kind of fusion and dialogue between the old and the new is really amazing.
The integration of the old and the new also took place in the studios of the Li and his sons in the old industrial building in Xin Pogang. Li Wei, who was in his old age, walked slightly, and he eagerly launched the iron guys who had been with him for decades-the polishing machine. , Drilling presses, and wire saws are "clicking" in operation; the two high-tech giant UV flatbed printers and laser cutting machines next door belong to his son Li Jianming.
Here, the old and the new reunite in the passing of the years, and they also shine on each other.
(over)