Breaking Barriers for Classical Chinese: Tang Poetry in Virtual Reality

In this study, five barriers are identified for comprehension of Classical Chinese poems in modern times, namely linguistics, literacy, culture, time and geography. Chinese languages are considered hard to learn for foreign communities due to their completely different scripting systems, sound systems and culture. Classical Chinese, as an ancient language with the grammar aiming for extreme conciseness, is even harder to comprehend. Currently, it is no longer as actively in use as in the old days by the Chinese communities although a huge number of important original texts have been passed on. Poems alone are also generally regarded as difficult to consume due to their abstractness. Meanwhile, reading poems in virtual reality (VR) was underexplored although there is a potential in improving comprehension through embodied reading experience [1]. VR experience for a Tang poem was created to formulate a methodology that can reduce the quintuple complexities in comprehending and resonating with Classical Chinese poems through reading in VR. As it is research through design and design decisions vary with designers, considerations in the VR design process are elucidated in this paper with a semi-autoethnographical approach. After pilot test of the design, a VR design methodology is derived for enabling reader to grasp the poem’s essence, thus enhancing their comprehension of the text and the language. The methodology is deducibly applicable for any forms of poems in any languages. Fostered understanding of Classical Chinese poems may in return revitalize the ancient language.