Chinese characters are reportedly becoming increasingly unfamiliar to today's
Chinese population, especially the younger generation.
With the widespread use of computer-based pinyin, graphic design software and
the messaging system on mobile phones, many Chinese are finding it hard to write
the proper Chinese characters they began to learn in kindergarten.
The occasions for hand writing Chinese characters are becoming fewer and
fewer. This is despite the fact that Chinese handwriting has, over the
centuries, developed into an independent art form that enthralled feudal
emperors, lords, intellectuals and average Chinese.
Many people are saying that Chinese characters and Chinese calligraphic art
is in a life-or-death crisis.
In an academic seminar held last week at the National Art Museum of China in
Beijing, many Chinese experts and artists expressed their concerns about the
future of the millennia-old Chinese characters and Chinese calligraphic art.
"About two decades ago, Chinese arts, including Chinese calligraphic art,
enjoyed an unprecedented boom after China left behind the chaotic "cultural
revolution" (1966-76) and entered a new era. But today, Chinese calligraphic art
has encountered some new problems," said Shen Peng, chairman of the Chinese
Calligraphers Association.
Shen urges professional Chinese calligraphers to try even harder "to find
their own voices" for the continued prosperity of the art form in the new
century.
He said that greater efforts, too, should be made to promote awareness and
genuine love of Chinese characters and Chinese calligraphy among the general
public, particularly among the younger generation.
Shen's view was echoed by many attending the two-day seminar on Chinese
calligraphy.
As China gets more and more commercialized, people do not have the patience
and mood needed to practise calligraphy or to delve deeper into the theoretical
realm of the ancient art form.
Fading art form
Wu Zhenfeng, a researcher with the Shaanxi Provincial Art Museum, said that
many Chinese calligraphers today are not as knowledgeable in the arts as
previous generations of calligraphers, for instance in classical Chinese
literature.
Nor are they as diligent as older Chinese calligraphers, said Wu. Many
contemporary Chinese calligraphers who are more interested in quick fame and
money are busy churning out works for various exhibitions and putting their
works in galleries and auctions.
It is true that the practical functions of calligraphy are decreasing and
calligraphy is getting far away from the daily lives of ordinary people.
However, "calligraphy, as a vital part of art education, should be strengthened
rather than weakened in China's primary education and at the university level,"
said Li Yi, a researcher with the National Research Institute of Chinese Arts.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, compulsive calligraphy courses were popular
among primary and even middle school students.
About 100 magazines and newspapers about Chinese calligraphic art mushroomed
as millions of Chinese calligraphy enthusiasts across the nation took up the ink
brushes as their ancestors did. They experienced the mysterious and
philosophical interplay between brushes, ink, rice paper and classic Chinese
literature.
But today, the number of calligraphic publications has dwindled sharply as
fewer people care about the art form.
Calligraphy education has been maintained in some universities such as
Beijing Capital Normal University, where a doctoral programme on Chinese
calligraphy was opened in 1993. However most students are unable to make a
living as professional calligraphers as older generations did about 20 years
ago, said Ye Peigui, a Beijing-based art researcher and one of the first
doctoral degree holders from the programme.
"Chinese calligraphic art is but a narrow topic among the few professional
Chinese painters and calligraphers," said Chu Mo, a researcher and calligrapher
from Jiangsu Province.
Even worse, "only a limited number of Chinese primary and high schools still
keep the calligraphy course in a curriculum crowded with courses that are
considered more useful, such as math and English, said Yang Ming, a
Beijing-based calligrapher.
The lack of proper calligraphy education has led to the phenomenal growth of
copycats among calligraphy learners and the rampant spread of fake calligraphic
work on the art market, pointed out Zhang Rongqing from the Chinese
Calligraphers Association.
Chen Lusheng, a researcher with the National Art Museum of China, said that
Chinese calligraphy is the very essence of Chinese culture and philosophy.
"The question of the sustainability of Chinese calligraphy is actually the
question of the sustainability of Chinese culture," he said.
He criticized the excessive use of Chinese calligraphy art as a resource in
recent years by some "vanguard" Chinese artists. This practice caused
misunderstanding and distorted perceptions among average viewers about Chinese
calligraphy.
Wang Yuechuan, a professor with Peking University, said that in an era of
modernization and globalisation, Chinese calligraphers should pay more attention
to academic researches of the art form.
Educational and promotional efforts should be made with young Chinese and
also with people all over the world, he said.
"Calligraphy is a unique cultural resource that China can export and
contribute to the cultural diversity of today's world.
"In Japan and South Korea, promoting the healthy development of calligraphy
has been viewed not only as an artistic matter but a State policy," he said.
"We, as the cradle of the art form, should not be lagging
behind."