Public Talk “Wooden Matrix – Viewfinder of the Past”

Public Talk “Wooden Matrix – Viewfinder of the Past”

Posted on
0

logo_Goethe

Wed 20 Dec 2017, 7 pm
Goethe Institut

From Goethe Institut:

As part of the exhibition “Vestige of a Land”, a public talk with the Sino-Nom researcher Nguyễn Đình Hưng will provide a general perspective regarding the remaining wooden matrixes that still exists in Vietnam i.e. their crafting processes, cultural and historical values.

Long before the introduction of advanced printing techniques from Europe, woodblock printing was a popular method in Vietnam and East Asia at large. The process usually involved one or multiple wooden matrixes that carried inverted texts as well as images.

During the 20th century, wooden matrixes in Vietnam were widely produced and usually available in Sino-Nom or Vietnamese Romanized Script. After the initiation of other printing techniques from Europe as well as the disappearance of Sino-Nom, these wooden matrixes soon lose their establishments within society as the sole way of producing manuscripts. Once objectified as a cultural representative, the matrixes cocooned themselves into the forms of historical entities. Under harsh conditions such as climates and termites, these relics slowly dematerialized through the passage of time resulting in the substantial loss of knowledge.

NGUYỄN ĐÌNH HƯNG

Graduated from University of Social Sciences and Humanities with a degree in Sino-Nom, Nguyễn Đình Hưng works at Institute of Sino-Nom, Hanoi, Vietnam. His researches focus on Sino-Nom text in Buddhism and other traditional Vietnamese religions. Hưng has done field trips to collect documents and relic, vestige research in Red River delta.

logo_Goethe
Goethe-Institut Hanoi
56-58 Nguyen Thai Hoc, Ba Dinh, Hanoi
Tel.: +84 24 3734 2251
Fax: +84 24 3734 2254
[email protected]
website

NO COMMENTS

Leave a Reply