ABSTRACT
Graphocentrism is a widely influential but rarely noticed tendency affecting the Chinese way of life and thought. It would be difficult to identify a specific factor or factors that determine the direction of culture or history. The priority of writing over speech, or of the written word over the spoken word, has imbued Chinese thought with an interesting characteristic: the graphocentric worldview. Favouritism for the visual/mimetic model of thought is implied in Chinese graphocentrism, wherein an image of the object directs one to conceive the object itself and to project it, as it is, through the eyes to the mind. Graphocentrism, which is oriented by vision and the written word, dominates the Chinese epistemic thinking. In the Chinese mindset, the legitimacy of writing is in the antiquity. With respect to graphocentrism, the notion of appellation points towards the reified and normalised standards embodied in names.
