The Role of Dongba Pictographic Script as a Visual Language in Visual Communication
Liu Mengyu argues that although Dongba script's use as a living religious script is frozen and shrinking (fewer than 60 literate priests remain, 95% over 70), it has strong untapped potential as a visual-communication design resource, since it combines image-based directness with grammatical structure (nouns, verbs, etc.), unlike simpler pictograms such as emoticons. Citing Fang Guoyu's ten methods of Dongba character formation, she highlights three that most directly translate objects into visual form: direct depiction, feature emphasis, and transformation of a base form to depict action or state. She also candidly demonstrates Dongba script's limits -- it has no vocabulary for abstract concepts like "belief" or "doctrine" -- but argues this very image-based ambiguity is an asset for visual-communication design, which thrives on multiple viewer interpretations rather than a single fixed meaning.
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