Calligrapher advises finding one's own style

Updated: 2015-12-19
By Zhang Zhao ( China Daily )

Sixty-six-year-old calligrapher Feng Yongxian tells his pupils not to copy his style, but to develop their own after learning the basics.

Born in Linxia prefecture in Gansu province, Feng started learning calligraphy when he was a primary school student. Rather than look at it as an art, it was considered nothing more than "writing with a brush", he said.

He kept practicing the regular script until the late 1970s when he met an old master who gave him advice on how to hold his brush and suggested he practice the Weibei script.

He couldn't find a Weibei copybook in bookshops but then remembered he had acquired an old copybook about 10 years earlier, not knowing what style it was because the book was broken and its cover was missing.

He took the book to the master and learned it was a Weibei copybook that the master told him to use as a reference work.

In 1984, his Weibei work won the first award in a nationwide calligraphy contest for the Hui ethnic regions.

Feng said that a calligrapher combines different scripts to develop his own style. He has tried to combine the Weibei script with Xingshu, or semi-cursive script.

"Some people said the two styles could not be integrated, but my character is that the more challenging it is, the more I want to try it," Feng said.

Inspiration came one day after he had been drunk and slept for a long time. When he woke, he decided to write in a relaxed mood. He was not satisfied with the work at first, but found it "increasingly interesting" in the following days.

"The work was done smoothly, without even the slightest trace of deliberately artificial manner," he said.

However, he doesn't recommend drunkenness as an artistic tool. "Rationality is more important so you can control your own brush," he said. "Sometimes alcohol leads to surprise, but long practice is the decisive factor."

Feng said his style was amateurish before he was 40, and has become seasoned since he turned 60.

"When I was young, I wanted to be famous overnight, but now, fame and wealth is no longer that important to me," he said. "Calligraphy is now part of my life."

zhangzhao@chinadaily.com.cn

Calligrapher Feng Yongxian combines different scripts to create his own style. Photos provided to China Daily

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