|
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 globalization, 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."
(China Daily November 10, 2005)
|
