On February 21, 2020, Prof. Chen Nan of Tsinghua University Academy of Arts and Design created for the global edition People's Daily an original work of art, Yi Yu Ke Wei Tong, or literally "Though in Different Lands, Connected by a Bond", based on oracle bone inscriptions, with the purpose to convey the concept "All under Heaven are of one family" and, via this pictographic work based on oracle bone inscriptions, to highlight the kindness and humanity with the characters as the medium.

The design is inspired by the famous eight-character poem line printed by Japanese friends on the package of the goods they denoted to China, which goes, "Shan-chuan Yi-yu, Feng-yue Tong-tian", literally meaning, "Mountains and rivers, different lands bear; Wind and moon, the same sky we share". The pictographic versions of the eight characters can be found on oracle bone. The character chuan ("river"), resembles a flowering river, divides the pictographic character shan ("mountain") to symbolize "different lands". Above them are the wind and moon shared by the different lands, mountains and rivers. In oracle bone inscriptions, feng for "wind" and its homophone for "phoenix" are of the origin. The phoenix is an auspicious bird symbolizing world peace in traditional Chinese culture. The flying phoenix is combined with the pictographic characters yue, feng and qi ("air") to give an impression of fluidity and good fortune.

Source: Prof. Chen Nan,

People's Daily

Editor: Zhao Ruohan