Chinese and Japanese symbols are much more popular in the West than any other non-Latin script. People want tattoo them on to their body, hang them on the wall in their living room, set them up as screensavers on their computer etc. Why are these symbols so popular among people who cannot even read them? Why aren’t the Arabic or Ethiopian script treated with equal amount of attention?
The first and foremost reason is that Chinese characters possess a strong esthetic appeal. In other words, they are beautiful. Calligraphy, the practice of writing Chinese characters as a form of fine art, has a history of at least two thousand years. The handwriting of ancient masters had been copied over and over for centuries. The few surviving original scrolls are sold for astronomical prices.
For those of us who cannot read Chinese, the symbols carry an aura of exoticism, as if each one of them contained some unsolvable mystery. Although these symbols are elements of an existing writing system, nevertheless, we see them as symbols with magical meaning. We feel that they have power, they are potent.
Then again, the symbols are cool. They are cool because they are associated with cool things like martial arts, samurai movies, ninjas, ghost stories, video games etc. In fact, these are the primary channels through which we get acquainted with Chinese writing. Not many people have gone to the Asian Arts Museum to see the exhibits of medieval Chinese calligraphy but everybody has seen the movies of Bruce Lee.
