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Woodblock was the dominant and preferred method of printing in East Asia up until the nineteenth century. By contrast, East Asia’s home-grown typographic traditions often seem like an afterthought, an eccentricity, or an abandoned experiment that failed to match the Gutenberg revolution. Yet, typography was never entirely discontinued and diverse actors utilized movable type at specific times, in certain places, or for certain objectives in face of xylographic competition. This conference, to be held on March 6, 2026 at the University of Southern California, investigates the autochthonous traditions of movable type in East Asia before the arrival of Western letterpress and lithography in the late nineteenth century.
The Conference on Traditions of East Asian Typography seeks to investigate the autochthonous traditions of movable type in East Asia before the arrival of Western letterpress and lithography in the late nineteenth century. Woodblock was the dominant and preferred method of printing in East Asia up until the nineteenth century. By contrast, East Asia’s home-grown typographic traditions often seem like an afterthought, an eccentricity, or an abandoned experiment that failed to match the Gutenberg revolution. Yet, typography was never entirely discontinued, and diverse actors utilized movable type at particular times, in specific places, or for certain objectives, often in direct competition with xylography. The Ming and Qing states occasionally sponsored typographic fonts for selected projects, and commercial printers utilized movable type to produce genealogies. In Korea, the Chosŏn government, inspired by earlier metal fonts from the Koryŏ, cast and printed with an impressive array of state-produced fonts. In Japan, typography sparked a secular and commercial printing boom at the dawn of the Edo period, before being supplanted by woodblock. Extant examples of movable type fonts show that the Uyghurs utilized movable type made of wood, and the Tangut likewise availed themselves of wooden and clay type. Further, extant Vietnamese imprints hint at the employment of movable type. The list could go on. The aim of this conference is to interrogate these traditions as distinct technological systems, explore their possible mutual interactions, and to push the English language scholarship on East Asian typography, and East Asian book history more broadly, in new directions.
We welcome proposals from scholars of any academic rank or geographical location. All proposals must engage substantially with East Asian contexts and typography prior to the twentieth century, although comparative chronological or geographic investigations are welcome. Potential thematic areas include, but are not limited to, the following:
Submissions should include the following:
Please send your abstract to eastasiantypography@usc.edu by November 15, 2025. Notification of acceptance will be sent by December 10, 2025. Accepted presenters are required to submit a 15-minute presentation paper by February 6, 2026.
The in-person conference will take place at the University of Southern California (USC) on March 6, 2026. It is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography at the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia and the USC Korean Studies Institute.
The USC Korean Studies Institute will provide accommodations for all presenters during the conference period. At this time, no additional travel subsidies are available.
For additional questions, please contact the organizing committee at eastasiantypography@usc.edu or at graemere@usc.edu
