Before I came to China, my only experiences with calligraphy involved looking at the couplets hanging on the walls in Chinese restaurants back home and wondering what they meant. At that time I never thought I would find myself in a basement in Chongqing, smoking Zhong Nanhai cigarettes with a calligraphy master and haggling over the price of one of his works. I later found that anyone who spends time in China will inevitably wind up having an experience with calligraphy, even though everyone’s experience is different. Some of us are looking for a decoration for our bedrooms, while others are seriously interested in learning how to write calligraphy.
Even though China is rapidly modernizing, calligraphy still has an important place in Chinese society. Many members of China’s emerging middle class try to collect calligraphy works to decorate their homes, either by finding it in stores or going to auctions where some of the best works are sold, and shops and bathhouses trying to attract customers feature signs written in a vibrant and lively style. Though not everyone is an artist, Chinese people believe that handwriting is a reflection of a person’s character, so many Chinese take great care in learning how to write properly, even if they are not always writing down characters on scrolls with a brush.
Those who ultimately do become calligraphy masters begin studying at a very early age. The master I met in Chongqing, Guo Zhongtang, started when he was still a toddler, and actually has a biographical DVD that details the tremendous amount of effort he put in to learning calligraphy over the years. I happened to wander into his shop when I was walking through a shopping mall, and started asking about the pieces he had on display. Before I knew it we were sitting down chatting and he asked me what my name was. He then picked up his brush and wrote my name for me in the "casual style" of calligraphy, seemingly with great ease, considering he was holding his cell phone in one hand, but he later told me that it still required tremendous concentration. It was interesting to see the manner in which he wrote my name. The three characters were characters I had seen and used every day, but they looked very different when written artistically. I could still tell what they were, but it looked nothing like my name when I wrote it myself.
After he was done we sat around and talked for a while longer, and when I left he asked me if I wanted to buy the piece. At first I told him he should keep it in his shop in order to advertise, but eventually I decided that I should take it along as a souvenir and bought it from him. There is a Chinese saying "making friend through art and literature (????yi wén huì you)" and I guess on this occasion I managed to do exactly that.
Though masters like Guo Zhongtang study calligraphy from a very early age, a lot of people I know do it just for fun or to relax in their spare time, both in China and overseas. A lot of my friends are Chinese-American, and I have found that a lot of them study calligraphy, along with other traditional Chinese arts such as wu shu, Chinese painting and traditional dance as a way of learning more about their cultural heritage. One of my friends even told me that he started taking calligraphy at our university just so he had a chance to relax amid all the hustle of attending classes and doing homework.
Even though we might not all become masters, calligraphy is something that anyone can study. The calligraphy class taught at my university is taught entirely in English, so even though some of the students do not know Chinese they are still able to learn how to write the characters and experience the culture. Calligraphy is also great for anyone looking for a challenge, because it takes great patience to learn the proper brush strokes and techniques, but once you have mastered it people will be impressed. I had a professor of history who was also a level-9 (calligraphy is so important in China that there is a standardized system to test individuals’ calligraphy abilities) Chinese calligraphy master, and even the notes he wrote out for us for class looked like works of art.
Even the materials used when doing calligraphy have special importance. Often called the "four treasures of calligraphy" they include ink, paper, a brush, and an ink stick. For calligraphy artists, choosing the right materials is essential to the quality of their work, but many people collect the four treasures just for their intrinsic value or for decorative purposes. In one shop I even saw a brush that was made with peacock feathers just for decoration and not to be used.
I have found that calligraphy offers something for everyone, whether you enjoy it as an artist, a collector, or like me, just happen to have a random experience with a calligraphy master and "make friends through art". Particularly for those spending time in China, calligraphy will probably find its way into your life in one way or another, whether or not you expect it. Therefore, it would be a good idea to learn a little bit about it. The Linese website offers a lot of information about calligraphy, from a simple introduction, to the history of the art, and even information for those looking to start studying calligraphy and some interesting stories about how calligraphy has played a role in Chinese history. If you have not had a chance to look at any of that yet, I highly recommend it. It’s a great way to start learning about calligraphy, and who knows, maybe you will someday have a chance to "yi3 wen2 hui4 you3".
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