One of the fantasies I harbored in anticipation of moving to China was of my child and I writing calligraphy alongside each other in a pavilion amid a zen-inspiring garden with a pretty little stream babbling beside us. If I’m being totally honest about this fantasy, my American husband is also serving us tea in dainty Chinese teacups and playing the erhu in the background.
Anyhoo, the point of sharing that fantasy was to introduce you to my fascination with Chinese calligraphy. My very first contact was when my parents paid a street artist in Tian Jin to write my name in “Chinese calligraphy”.
My Chinese name written in “Chinese calligraphy”
Yes, obviously that isn’t quite your traditional Chinese calligraphy. The artist took some liberties there. But to my young impressionable mind, it was unlike anything I had ever seen and absolutely stunning!
The next time Chinese calligraphy stirred my soul was its appearance in the award-winning film Hero by Yimou Zhang, where the swordmaster Broken Sword – played by the enigmatic Tony Chiu-Wai Leung – writes the character for 劍 jiàn sword, likening the art of swordplay to calligraphy.
The brush is equally as mighty as the sword
That made such sense to me: The discipline of the training, the power behind the deliberate strokes of the brush and sword, the fluidity in the movements… all of it drew me into the fantasy of Ancient Chinese culture, where Chinese calligraphy is purported to have origins way back in the Shang dynasty (1600-1046 B.C.) when it was inscribed on animal bones.
Today, calligraphy is more akin to Latin, lost and dying, if not already dead to most. But there remains a niche group of calligraphy enthusiasts who wish to keep this art form alive. In downtown Beijing, I came across two calligraphy centers that teach this ancient art to kids as young as 3 years old. Eager to witness the magic of calligraphy firsthand, I brought my kid and a friend’s daughter for a trial class.
Watch expat kids try Chinese calligraphy in the video below!
It would appear that my fantasy of writing Chinese calligraphy with my son will not be coming true any time soon, but I’m still happy to see that the next generation gets a chance to learn and uphold this magnificent tradition. Perhaps your child might wish to try their hand at this ancient Chinese art form? After all, you can always tell them it’s just practice for holding a sword.
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Images: Vivienne Tseng-Rush, screengrab from 2002 “Hero” film
