KOPPELTEKEN, ROTTERDAM
http://www.instagram.com/koppel_teken/並行 / co-exist / bij-zijn
Can both cultures co-jointly exist in us?
"並行 / co-exist / bij-zijn" is a zine published in a Red Envelope. The purpose of this zine is to emphasise the similarities between the two cultures that the designers grew up in and symbolises as a truce in their everlasting identity conflicts. The Red Envelope contains 8 proverbs originated from the Dutch and Chinese language. These proverbs are visually intertwined and further explained with critical race theories. The selection of proverbs also reflect Koppelteken’s core values.
“Owing to the close interrelationship between language and culture, values (such as individualism and collectivism) are reflected in proverbs, gems of a language. Brief and colourful, proverbs offer an important set of values for members of a culture, representing and reinforcing what is most important to a particular society.”
(Xiangyang Zhang, 2016)
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Koppelteken is a multidisciplinary initiative. ‘Koppelteken’ or in English, the dash refers to how the members of this group culturally identify themselves. The initiative is co-founded by Faye Cheng, Mandy Cheng and Lok-Yin Lau, whose bodies are associated with specific stereotypes and thus dictate how the world engages with them. These external impositions led to internal conflicts. The dash is an indication of cultural identification, as a sign of truce in their ever-long conflict of who they are; Chinese/Dutch or Chinese-Dutch.
The goal of Koppelteken is to initiate projects about and with the people that live in the realm of the dash, in hope to make the public aware that one's cultural identity does not define them, but is a part of them as individuals.
01並行 / CO-EXIST / BIJ-ZIJN
Publication / Red Envelope / 17,3x9,1 cm / 2021
Price 10 €
並行 / co-exist / bij-zijn is a zine published in a Red Envelope. The purpose of this zine is to emphasise the similarities between the two cultures that the designers grew up in and symbolises as a truce in their everlasting identity conflicts. The Red Envelope contains 8 proverbs originated from the Dutch and Chinese language. These proverbs are visually intertwined and further explained with critical race theories. The selection of proverbs also reflect Koppelteken’s core values.
“Owing to the close interrelationship between language and culture, values (such as individualism and collectivism) are reflected in proverbs, gems of a language. Brief and colourful, proverbs offer an important set of values for members of a culture, representing and reinforcing what is most important to a particular society.”
(Xiangyang Zhang, 2016)