THE VANISHING CANTONESE BOOK is one of the publication from the design project "here & there — now & then".
The book showing the reasons why Cantonese (a language spoken within the city of Canton and its vicinity in southeastern China) is vanishing by showing the news in the recent years. It introduces the recent situation of Cantonese in order to get young people attention to our own language culture.
On the other hand, the book also include introduction of basic Cantonese knowledge for young generation to learn. The design of the book is focusing on the arrangement of the information. Complicated information about Cantonese like the tone and pinyin (the official romanisation system for Standard Chinese) were reorganised and rearranged.
本書是「近未來」提案的其中一本出版物。此書記錄廣東話消失的原因,重新介紹廣東話的特色,希望令人重拾對這種語言的認知及興趣。書中透過集合近年有關廣東話受到威脅的新聞原因,帶出廣東話現時的情況 。另外,書包括介紹簡單的粵語知識,讓年輕一代學習。
本書的設計著重於信息的編排。於封面設計方面,設計師以絲網印刷印上一整頁的廣東話字詞,並以雷射切割刺穿以營造如被蟲蛀的效果,而蛀蝕的形狀正是粵東(以廣東話為主要語言)地圖的形狀,象徴廣東話語言文化被蠶蝕的現象。