Drawn words: Pictographs in the Chinese language and visual culture

This essay considers the presence of pictograms – drawings of things functioning as words – within the Chinese written language and beyond that, Chinese visual culture. It argues that a simplified understanding of the Chinese language has generally existed in the West and attempts instead to present a more accurate picture of Chinese written characters as comprised of picto- and ideo-graphic elements alongside phonetic ones. The origins of Chinese pictographs in drawn images are noted, examples of pictographs in Chinese visual culture are discussed, and the challenge that pictography presents to western models of the arbitrary linguistic sign is considered.