A Long lost Art
I had the pleasure to work with Cartier for their 2022 Lunar New Year brand activation. I would love to share some of my point of view towards Chinese Calligraphy in this post.
I grew up in Asia and was raised in the Asian education system. Everyday there’s a whole pile of homework to take home – one of the requirements is to do copy books of English and Chinese words. We were required to write Chinese brush pen calligraphy and do numerous pages of new vocabulary. I would say I did not like calligraphy at all because of the mindset of “copy and paste” back then. As I grow, I started to appreciate more about calligraphy and over the past 5 years, I have been attending calligraphy workshops and lessons to improve.
At the end of last year, Cartier reached out and inquired about doing a red couplets activation on-site and they requested specifically traditional Chinese brush calligraphy. I have done a few brand activations before during Lunar New Year, but none required me to use the traditional Chinese calligraphy brush pen while I was on site. I have only used some modern brush pen which was more forgiving.
During my Christmas break, I took a course with a Chinese calligraphy instructor Jennifer Wing (you may see more of her beautiful work on her Instagram). In this course, I realized the term Chinese Calligraphy (書法) is not simply learning methods to write better looking words or characters, rather it is the essential spirit of the art and technique combined in one. I would spend the entire afternoon in my room writing rows and rows of character. I am thrilled with this art form.
I would like to thank you again for this opportunity as it allowed me to explore Chinese calligraphy again and rediscover in this long-lost art form.
