New show honors calligraphy master

After contributing about 6,700 handwritten characters of clerical script, or lishu, to Microsoft Office and other software packages, Buddhist and a respected scholar Liu Bingsen (1937-2005) succeeded in etching out his place in the history of modern Chinese calligraphy.

To honor his achievements in lishu and other styles of Chinese calligraphy, an exhibition marking the 80th anniversary of Liu's birth kicked off last week in the Palace Museum in Beijing, also known as the Forbidden City, his former place of work.

The exhibition, Bountiful Grasses on Red Walls, To the Ink-Soaked Memories, which shows about 70 of his iconic artworks and related historical documents, will run until February.