3

Following on from one of Catja's comments here: Congratulations, you're no longer in Beta!

It's the same story as the other design elements... that said, if you have a unicode symbol, we could use that instead of the "Cn". For example, before it got a site design, the Anime site's logo was the Kanji for anime. We could do something like that here. If that's interesting to y'all, open a meta discussion about it and decide which character you'd want.

Let's talk about providing a unicode symbol (or maybe we can have multiple symbols?) for a temporary logo.

3
  • FYI @Catja: Anime does not have a kanji in Japanese :) It's written with the three katakana 「アニメ」.
    – dROOOze
    Commented Aug 7, 2019 at 7:57
  • I've made this featured now, doesn't seem like it was getting much attention before.
    – Mou某 Mod
    Commented Aug 9, 2019 at 5:56
  • @droooze Ah, it wasn't "anime" but it was a kanji: anime.meta.stackexchange.com/a/651/11437
    – Catija Staff
    Commented Aug 21, 2019 at 3:16

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
7

i would suggest 永 (u+6c38). the rationale is:

both traditional and simplified text of it is the same, that, unlike 漢 or 華, which was represented by two distinguish characters.

secondly, it's simple enough, that most, if not all, operation systems, browsers would display it correctly; and easy to recognise it with a glance.

thirdly, it's inline with the world’s writing systems poster:

enter image description here

the second choice is 夏 (u+590f), this was what han chinese describe themselves in the past. also traditional-simplified safe

to be fair, i must point out that, in the past, the "written chinese language" was described as "漢字", "華言". "夏" is used to describe the ethnicity or nation.

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  • I would interpret 永 as a Chinese calligraphy StackExchange ^^ great idea though.
    – dROOOze
    Commented Aug 10, 2019 at 5:04
  • Also we can use the other suggestions on the poster (first character second row: oracle bone script = 元, fourth character second row: bronze script = 亟). The top right corner "Old Hanzi" I don't recognise the character unfortunately :(
    – dROOOze
    Commented Aug 10, 2019 at 5:09
  • having a symbol that both traditional and simplified script are the same is, well, imo, very important. i guess, sooner or later, some "idiots" would argue the political correctness of using 漢 or 汉, 華 or 华.
    – 水巷孑蠻
    Commented Aug 10, 2019 at 5:09
  • I've already argued against using 中 for the same reason, using 汉 and 华 are inappropriate as it gives the mistaken idea that we only answer Modern Mandarin Chinese (and in that case, PRC-standard Chinese). I would downvote such ideas :)
    – dROOOze
    Commented Aug 10, 2019 at 5:12
  • 1
    oh la la, how dare you are :) saying "x" & "x" are inappropriate ( ^o^ )
    – 水巷孑蠻
    Commented Aug 10, 2019 at 5:15
  • 1
    another suggestion is 夏 (u+590f), this was what han chinese describe themselves in the past. also traditional-simplified safe.
    – 水巷孑蠻
    Commented Aug 10, 2019 at 5:19
  • You're too "neutral" :) I couldn't care less about neutrality, myself haha. You can edit your suggestions here into your answer I think.
    – dROOOze
    Commented Aug 10, 2019 at 5:22
  • btw, you may buy the poster here: typotheque.com/posters/the_worlds_writing_systems shop.designinmainz.de/produkt/the-worlds-writing-systems-poster
    – 水巷孑蠻
    Commented Aug 10, 2019 at 5:37
  • As someone who is more influenced by Japanese language, If I see 永 for the first time, I'd be confused what this SE is about... "eternity"? Also, 夏 commonly means "summer" in Japanese, which both 永 and 夏 don't remind me of Chinese language at all. Not trying to be ignorant, but this is only an input as someone who is not a Chinese speaker.
    – Andrew T.
    Commented Aug 19, 2019 at 8:37
  • never mind, your opinion is welcome :) that’s why we discuss the matter in this thread.
    – 水巷孑蠻
    Commented Aug 19, 2019 at 10:41
3

My personal preferences (in order of highest to lowest ranking):

  1. 漢
    • Among users of non-Chinese-character languages,「漢」is near-globally identifiable as a Chinese-looking symbol
    • Among Chinese-character using languages,「漢」universally stands for the Chinese script「漢字」or Chinese language「漢語」
    • 「漢」is not identified with any particular time frame or usage, which is preferable because we do not restrict questions to Modern Chinese.
  2. 中
    • More widespread than (1)
    • 「中」is not as Chinese-looking as (1), because it is geometrically simple (it literally is a vertical line threading through a box), so not as identifiable among users of non-Chinese-character languages
    • Among non-Chinese but (historically) character-using languages,「中國語」(Japanese and Korean) and「㗂中國」(Vietnamese) refers more to the Modern Chinese language. Due to this, I think「中」is not as good, because it may discourage questions on things like Classical Chinese
  3. 華
    • Far less universal than (1) or (2)
    • Modern Chinese is called「華語」in Singapore and Malaysia
    • From my impression,「華」brings out more of the ethnicity and people rather than the language
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  • As someone who is more influenced by Japanese language, I prefer 漢 because it directly refers to the Kanji character (as the language). 中 reminds me of 中國 (the country itself), and it might be mistaken as a Q&A about China, not Chinese language. I wouldn't think 華 as Chinese language though (not being ignorant, but this is an opinion from outside of Chinese.SE community)
    – Andrew T.
    Commented Aug 19, 2019 at 8:21
  • @AndrewT. yes, non-Chinese SE input is valuable. After all, the purpose of the logo is not for the identification of this site for people who already participate in this SE, but for people who don't, so they know what they are clicking.
    – dROOOze
    Commented Aug 19, 2019 at 8:26
  • @droooze, well, if the logo is aimed at the masses; then, 漢 is the best choice. but, a "niche" logo would has subtle, deeper meaning, attracts educated people. a metaphor is: typesetting of a book. typeset in times would be suitable for most. then the same book in gothic, or uncial; one could conclude their readers must be more literate. that's why i suggest 永.
    – 水巷孑蠻
    Commented Aug 19, 2019 at 15:17
  • @水巷孑蠻 as I mentioned before, I think 永 would be great if we were running a Chinese calligraphy forum :)
    – dROOOze
    Commented Aug 20, 2019 at 15:26
  • The difficulty here is that this is the highest voted answer but I'm not sure which of the three options is the preferred one! :/ I'm hesitant to suggest splitting this up since it's already been voted on but (as a note) if we do this, I'm probably going to assume that your first choice is the actual answer.
    – Catija Staff
    Commented Aug 21, 2019 at 3:18
  • @Catija I'm biased (of course), but you should assume the first choice :) I don't think SE Meta has a polling system, and if anyone else objected to the first choice they would have left a comment.
    – dROOOze
    Commented Aug 23, 2019 at 7:08
  • 2
    As someone ignorant of Chinese--but not graphic design--from an iconographic point of view...1 and 3 have too much detail to look good scaled down. While they might fit in nicely on a large banner somewhere, if you're choosing a logo it should be a good "favicon" in a browser. So if 2 is not seen as out of left field, then stylizing it well at high resolutions and simplifying it at low ones would seem the best choice...otherwise, pick a stylized-but-simpler character that doesn't literally mean "Chinese" but is still iconic. Maybe "person"/"world"/"hello", if it suggests Chinese language.
    – HostileFork says dont trust SE
    Commented Aug 28, 2019 at 22:14
  • @HostileFork FWIW, Anime.SE was using a plain 画 as their logo & favicon (and now stylized in a circular shape). It's considerably simpler than 1 and 3 though.
    – Andrew T.
    Commented Sep 2, 2019 at 13:05
  • Doesn't 漢 suggest Chinese.SE is limited to 漢語/汉语? (Is e.g. Cantonese considered 汉语?) I think I would prefer 語 over 漢.
    – Becky 李蓓 Mod
    Commented Sep 22, 2019 at 0:09
  • @Becky李蓓 漢語 refers to "Chinese", not specifically Mandarin. All varieties of Chinese are considered varieties of 漢語. 語 doesn't work, as it often appears on logos for the Japanese language.
    – dROOOze
    Commented Sep 22, 2019 at 4:54
  • @Catija see chinese.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1603/… for a more explicit poll. Any ETA on when this might be implemented?
    – dROOOze
    Commented Nov 1, 2019 at 11:29
  • As someone who uses Simplified Chinese and occasionally reads about Japanese, 漢 makes me think Japanese kanji and then Japanese Stack Exchange and only secondarily Chinese han. The difference between how 漢 is written in Japanese versus Chinese is quite subtle and I wouldn't count on it.
    – mic
    Commented Dec 9, 2019 at 6:16
  • Thus, I think 漢 fails to "distinguish Chinese vs. Japanese (e.g. 文, 中, and 語 are also Japanese)"
    – mic
    Commented Dec 9, 2019 at 6:23
  • @mic 漢 refers exclusively to Chinese vocabulary and Chinese characters in Japanese. This site is also for asking about Chinese characters and Chinese vocabulary. Simplified Chinese is...not a suitable writing system for the Chinese languages, and was only started to be used 70 years ago, so anything from that is inappropriate.
    – dROOOze
    Commented Dec 9, 2019 at 6:50
  • @mic You can still vote your preference at the other question.
    – dROOOze
    Commented Dec 9, 2019 at 6:51
0

Apart from the Chinese characters we could also try emjois - they're prone to look more like we've been made over but it might be easily construed as being too stereotypical.

Here's a few we could opt for:

  • 🧧 (Red Envelope)

  • 🥡 (Chinese Take-out)

  • 🧨 (Firecracker)

  • 🥮 (Moon Cake)

  • 🥠 (Fortune Cookie)

  • 🏮 (Paper Lantern)

I'm not really fond of either of these, but 抛砖引玉-ing.

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  • Are emojis are a bit font-dependent? I'm using a Win7 computer and I only see boxes
    – dROOOze
    Commented Aug 7, 2019 at 8:02
  • Maybe browser dependent?
    – Mou某 Mod
    Commented Aug 7, 2019 at 8:03
  • According to appuals.com/how-to-get-windows-10-emojis-on-windows-7-8 it looks like it's OS dependent, people will have to take extra steps to view emojis correctly, and they appear monochrome in Win7. I'd fully support the idea if this wasn't a problem, though, we'd bypass a standard unicode symbol with something way more colourful.
    – dROOOze
    Commented Aug 7, 2019 at 8:04
  • 1
    Well, who cares? Isn't the logo going to be an image anyway?
    – Alenanno Mod
    Commented Aug 8, 2019 at 3:20
  • @Alenanno We're just discussing the options of a temporary logo which is dictated as being a Unicode symbol. I'm not sure what you're aiming at with your question.
    – Mou某 Mod
    Commented Aug 8, 2019 at 4:40
  • @user3306356 I was under the impression that the logo would be an image of some sort, not pure text, so even an emoji would be fair game, since it's not dependent on the OS you're using, or am I mistaken? That's what I was aiming at.
    – Alenanno Mod
    Commented Aug 8, 2019 at 18:10
  • @Alenanno the logo will be made from unicode-viable characters as a temporary solution. Full site design will be implemented later ("Phase 2"). Please have a look at the meta post: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/263905/…
    – dROOOze
    Commented Aug 9, 2019 at 2:10
  • @droooze thanks for the link. :)
    – Alenanno Mod
    Commented Aug 9, 2019 at 4:17
  • 5
    I'd offer that none of these really suggest language. And while I can't speak for any Chinese people whether if a takeout box is intrinsically a cue for "Chinese", I would certainly be annoyed if I went to another country and saw "Hamburger and Fries" as the "English" language or even "American" culture icon. (Even if the website were specifically about food, I imagine people making a website about American or Chinese cuisine would be even more annoyed at such a representation, being foodies.)
    – HostileFork says dont trust SE
    Commented Aug 28, 2019 at 22:47
  • I asked about a similar topic on meta.SE where Catija clarifies Emoji are special and not included.
    – Becky 李蓓 Mod
    Commented Dec 9, 2019 at 5:59
0

口 Since language comes from the mouth. It scales and is recognizable to anyone interested in Chinese language. There may even be an emoji for it. And of course it's a radical that appears in 漢語 or 汉语, and 中文.

I doubt there's anything simpler.

2
  • 2
    I'm afraid this is too simple, and most people won't recognize that as a hanzi character, instead of "a square with an unaligned bottom line"...
    – Andrew T.
    Commented Sep 2, 2019 at 13:05
  • The aim was simplicity. And it's not a square but a trapezoid
    – Graham Chiu
    Commented Sep 7, 2019 at 5:12

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