This project is an attempt to break through the Chinese avoidance of the word 死.

The word 死 is a neutral word and has many meanings. One of the meanings is death, the end of life. In traditional Chinese education, talking about death is often avoided, and so is the use of the word. At the same time, the character for word death is often combined with an adjective or an adverb, and as such it is frequently used in everyday life. In this cultural context, the word 死 has evolved into a sensitive word. To make it appear on social media one needs to adapt it and combine it with other words. Although there is no legal requirement that the word cannot be used, it has become a convention in everyday life.

The emergence of this phenomena has led to a situation where it has become politically correct not to feature the word death, not only in the online communication, but in real life as well. The society has created a false boundary around this word. The avoidance of 死 does not make people any less sensitive to death. By making a booklet I intend to make people aware that this practice of avoidance is artificial.

The strokes are the basic condition for the formation of Chinese characters. I hypothesise what will happen to the script in the future when the character is completely obscured, when 死 is removed and banned, and the strokes that make up the character disappear.

I made a booklet by dismantling 死 and removing each of the 死 strokes from the text and hiding them through changes in light. The text forms a new pattern, reflecting the changes in the text brought about by this trend. In the course of Chinese history, the literary inquisition was a common feature of the times, but it would often come to an end with the appearance of a unique text or poetic account that would make the society realise that its actions were moving it in a wrong direction. I have recorded some of the important texts in this booklet to alert people to the idea of stepping into the wrong territory.