Wonton font is a term used for a family of font

Font

In typography, a font is traditionally defined as a quantity of sorts composing a complete character set of a single size and style of a particular typeface...

s that are associated with "Asianness" or "Chineseness".

Description

Styled to mimic the brush strokes used in Chinese characters, Wonton fonts are often used to convey a sense of Orientalism.

Controversy

Many Asian-Americans find the use of these fonts offensive or racist, particularly when paired with caricatures which hark back to the Yellow Peril

Yellow Peril

Yellow Peril was a colour metaphor for race that originated in the late nineteenth century with immigration of Chinese laborers to various Western countries, notably the United States, and later associated with the Japanese during the mid 20th century, due to Japanese military expansion.The term...

 images of the late 19th century and 20th century. In 2002, the clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch

Abercrombie & Fitch

Abercrombie & Fitch is an American retailer that focuses on casual wear for consumers aged 18 to 22. It has over 300 locations in the United States, and is expanding internationally....

 suffered a public relations disaster when it produced a series of t-shirts with buck-toothed images and Wonton font slogans. The Chicago Cubs were hit with backlash from the Asian community after a similarly offensive t-shirt was produced by an independent vendor in 2008.

External links

• Some examples of Wonton fonts used in modern graphic design can be seen at http://new.myfonts.com/search/charset%3Abas+-charset%3Ahan+tag%3AChinese/fonts/.
• Print Magazine article