Expats discover beauty of Chinese calligraphy in Shandong

A cultural activity – Exploring Shandong-Foreign Friends' Perception of Shanxian County – was recently held at the Xie Peizhe Art Museum, in Shanxian county in Heze city, in East China's Shandong province.

Many expats working and living in the county were invited to participate, to have a firsthand experience of the appeal and allure of traditional Chinese calligraphy.

Xie Peizhe, a member of the Chinese Calligraphers Association and an art advisor to the Institute of Chinese Studies at Peking University, is a leading calligrapher in the country.

The museum named after him cost over 10 million yuan ($1.37 million) and covers a floorspace of about 700 square meters.

The reception room on the first floor features antique-style tea sets with the Four Treasures of the Study used in calligraphy – brush, ink, paper and inkstone – making it the ideal location for tea tasting and artistic creation.

The second floor displays art treasures collected by Xie over the years, including ancient ceramics, bronze wares, porcelain and rare stones dating from the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC) to modern times.

The third floor is full of calligraphy works created by Xie and calligraphy greetings presented to him by well-known individuals, famous calligraphers and friends from the calligraphy and painting community.

Xie demonstrated traditional Chinese calligraphy by grinding ink and writing the four characters Zou Du Shandong – meaning exploring Shandong in English – in one go during the activity.

A German visitor was deeply impressed by the beauty of the characters and considered having his kids learn Chinese calligraphy after seeing Xie's work. (Edited by Zhou Yunlai)

Expats observe Xie Peizhe create Chinese calligraphy. [Photo by Wang Xiaolan for chinadaily.com.cn]