Is calligraphy a common activity with Chinese, or part of Chinese education?
It depends on how you understand “calligraphy.” Scholars like Hsiung Ping-Ming regarded calligraphy as the core of Chinese culture and as of utmost significance in the life of Chinese. But today, calligraphy as a skill of communication has gradually lost its importance in the daily life of Chinese, as more and more people are now turning to computer keyboards. Good handwriting is no longer seen as a basic requirement of well-educated citizens today. Do you know how and when water calligraphy performed in public spaces came about? I first saw [the phenomenon] in the spring of 2003, when I was living in Beijing’s Asian Games Village. It was around the time when Beijing was suffering from SARS. At that time, people in the city had not many places to go. They could stay home, or they could do physical exercises in parks with sunshine and better airflow. I chatted with some of the calligraphers and few of them could clearly explain their intentionality. How does waterborne calligraphy diffe
