Between strokes

• Main Author: Lek, Yi Xian
• Other Authors: Nanci Takeyama
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities::Philosophy::Chinese
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/63199
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Be it a medium for divination or the basis of Chinese philosophy and culture, I-Ching is indeed fascinating, especially in its cosmological representations through strokes. Yet, due to the fact that Taoism’s concept of balance (yin and yang) stemmed from that of I-Ching, many people have misconceptions that I-Ching is religious. Furthermore, with it being used for divination over the centuries since Zhou dynasty (1046–256 B.C.) as an abstract yet symbolic language (Schöter, 2005), the oldest Chinese text appear to be superstitious by people who do not understand the meaning of strokes. Findings from survey and interviews, conducted on a mixture of tertiary students and working adults that fall within the age range of 18–30 years old, further supported this point. With the perception that it has no relation with their modern lives, they tend to be oblivious to it and fail to understand the deep rationale and philosophy within, not to mention the traditional civil and moral values communicated through the hexagrams. On top of that, as technology improved with modernization and industrialization for economic growth, a functional transformation of traditional social structure occurred (Li, 2009). People no longer valued traditions and culture as much as practical issues such as happiness. This became a major complication, as younger generations would lose their roots and wisdom of the past. In order to address this misconception and allow cultural continuity, design intervention through motion graphics, information books and interactive touch board were implemented.