Calligraphy for contemporary times

By Zhang Dongya

“The era of traditional Chinese calligraphy has passed. I am trying to explore ways to revive it,” said Feng Mingqiu during the opening of his solo exhibition at Yishu 8 Gallery last Saturday.

Script is Feng’s first exhibition in Beijing. It presents 15 pieces that feature Feng’s signature “aerial calligraphy,” creating new scripts based on ancient styles of calligraphy such as li shu in Han Dynasty (220 BC – 202 AD).

Feng, born in Guangdong Province in 1951, immigrated as a boy to what was then British-colony Hong Kong. He began doing odd jobs after finishing primary school and has experienced more than 30 types of jobs, including truck driver and delivery man. He encountered calligraphy when he was 25 and began practicing his strokes after work.

In his mid-’30s, Feng relocated to New York City. A few years later he began holding exhibitions in the US, UK, Japan and Switzerland. He chose to work under the pseudonym Fung Ming Chip, the Cantonese name for his hometown.

In the past decade, Feng has created some 100 types of script, each given a descriptive name such as “straight line scatter script,” “round script,” “plum blossom script” and “willow script.” Each piece on show in Beijing represents a different type of script.

“His precise, ordered strokes are a manifestation of a long tradition, one that is redefined in time and space. And we are also witness to an immersion in poetry,” Christine Cayol, the curator of Yishu 8, said.

Besides being a visual artist, Feng is also a literary artist. The indiscernible script in some of his works is poetry. “Traditional calligraphy has a strong expressiveness that comes from the strokes rather than the contents,” Feng said, “so I am not only writing characters, I am also painting and writing poetry.”

Feng works from his studio in New York, but also has one in Hong Kong, Taiwan and a new office in Shenzhen.

Fung Ming Chip - Script
Where: Yishu 8 Gallery, Cable 8 Factory, 8 Langjiayuan, Jianguo Lu, Chaoyang District
When: Until September 18, daily except Sunday, 10 am – 6:30 pm
Admission: Free
Tel: 6581 9058