A young girl looks at calligraphy in Jilin. [Global Times]

Wang said that Chinese calligraphy needs to be promoted and popularized at a public level, especially among Chinese youth, as a majority of calligraphy lovers are elderly and only a small number of young people interested in this form of art.

He explained that in many secondary schools across the country calligraphy classes have been eliminated, adding that the move was a loss in terms of fostering young people's abilities to appreci-ate calligraphy as well as educating calligraphers for the future.

"For any form of art, if it loses the young, it loses everything," Wang said. "The problem should be taken into serious consideration."

Many blame the convenience of the computer as one of the main reasons for calligraphy's dilemma, as few are willing to practice handwriting and modern technology is taking the place of pencils and brushes as the main writing tool.

"How would a high school student get interested in calligraphy when he can type very fast in Chinese characters of different fonts with a simple screen and a keyboard?" asked calligrapher Xiao.

Lack of funding for the development of the art for is another problem facing Chinese calligraphy at present, according to a report conducted by the Chinese Calligraphy Institute at the Chinese National Academy of Arts.

Released late last month, the 2009 Annual Report of Chinese Calligraphy revealed that almost all calligraphy associations around China are facing funding shortages when holding exhibitions or other related activities, which to a large extent is restricting calligraphy's development.

The report highlighted that many exhibitions originally scheduled to be large-scale shows were forced to downsize due to a lack of funds and their social influence lessened accordingly. The report also stated that several international projects failed to get off the ground.