Born and growing up in China, I came to study in America. The United State is known as a “melting pot”; the typical language is English. Also with the experiences of traveling to different countries, my life is surrounded by various languages. I have seen scenes that involve people having trouble understanding each other on the streets of a foreign country, because they speak totally different languages. Also, the illiteracy in some countries plays a large role. People with different nationalities and cultures misunderstand each other.

However, people in our current society somehow experience similar lifestyle. We all have an understanding of icons or images in modern life. Using the Zen style table and chairs, with this project I hope the participants can observe and interpret the inter- workings of their minds; reflecting on how it affects the language of today, which is not all verbal. People can look at each other through the transparent window in the middle of the table and try to understand what they are saying to each other through their facial expressions.

In ancient China and Egypt, hieroglyphic was regarded as the common language. Times goes by, their languages become relatively simple and are not able to be distinguished by the first sight for foreigners. People really need to think back in time. Should human go back to the beginning of life? The icons in this piece are collected from people’s daily use such as Japanese emoji, pictogram and other signs in public spaces.

I would like to make people really know their feeling and emotion and rethink their days. Same as real language, people might misread these images. Thus, it makes individuals rethink technology is good or bad.