The format (i.e. characters written left to write) of modern Chinese writing in newspapers and on most of the web is different from the older format that saw characters written/read top to bottom beginning on the far right side. Older writing also lacked any punctuation like commas, semi-colons, or periods. At the afore-blogged restaurant, sliding silk screen dividers/doors separated dining rooms. On the screens were old Chinese poems printed in beautiful calligraphy. To my surprise, separating some of the characters were the weirdest things ever - punctuation marks. I felt so awkward looking at the poems. It was ugly (难看, literally difficult to look at). It threw everything off and made me feel like whoever printed it thought their audience wasn’t going to be sophisticated enough to understand the nuance in the poem. Why?

mei banfa