The revival of calligraphy in Zhang Qiang and Tong Yang-Tze
22nd June, 2020
Chinese calligraphy has been a prestigious and significant aspect of Chinese art and culture for much of China’s vast history. Historically, calligraphy demonstrated a level of learning, and often power, to its beholders (Kraus 2). Calligraphy was an embodiment of power and the elite, with imperial leaders since the 900s requesting personal calligraphers and practicing calligraphy themselves. In recent years, avant-garde artists have been playing with the traditional conventions and connotations of calligraphy. In this essay I will pay particular attention to artist and scribe Zhang Qiang, including material from his lectures in Chongqing and Kaili (June 2019), and Taiwanese calligrapher and artist Tong Yang-Tze, to look at how modern calligraphers have changed the face of contemporary calligraphy, and how artists such as these compare with each other. In doing so, I will take a look at how they produce and display their artwork differently, through collaboration with different forms of art and assistants in production. I will also discuss the use of abstraction and frantic technique, used by both artists, and how it differs from the traditional forms. Finally, I will discuss the artists’ intentions; looking at the results of creating calligraphic work in the twenty-first century and how this allows for more freedom for the artists to experiment, but also requires a change of style and purpose as demographics (both the creator and beholder) change dramatically.
Calligraphy has historically been a very strict and controlled experience, as artists take great care in every stroke, often with physical disciplinary action to prompt learning. Many significant figures in China’s history have great involvement in the practice of calligraphy. For centuries, emperors had personal calligraphers, and practiced calligraphy themselves. Writings of this form were very important. Before the formation of The People’s Republic of China, it was a requirement that any civil servants were to sit an examination to assess their poetry skills. Calligraphy was traditionally very practical, for cultural and religious expression, including rock calligraphy with writing on mountain faces and stone tablets. One notable leader with a keen interest in calligraphy was Chairman Mao Zedong, who was an avid calligrapher and poet. Naturally, his works are held in high regard in China (Mao). Yan Zhenqing, a governor of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), was also one of the leading calligraphers of his day. Following the death of his nephew, he drafted A Requiem to My Nephew, a piece notable by academics for its contradiction to the usual calligraphic techniques. In a state of strong emotion, Yan lets go of any patience or control seen in his other works, frantically writing from pure distress (Yan). Zhang Qiang pays attention to this example in his lectures as this is the style of work that allows for a more accurate expression of the soul (Zhang 2017, 55).
Mao Zedong practicing calligraphy, c1955.
Zhang has come to work on a range of styles of calligraphy, applying his techniques to varying mediums, contexts and meanings. He has worked for decades attempting to reach results in his art that he was happy with. It seems the medium and use of space in his work is critical to his satisfaction, finally finding fulfilment in creating calligraphy via abstract performance pieces he calls ‘Traceology’ (Zhang 2019a). This allowed him to place his work in different spaces and materials to ‘create different relationships’ between the ‘architecture’ and the ‘object’ and ultimately upgrading calligraphy into a three dimensional form (Zhang 2019b). Thus far, he has worked with many women, wherein they may be assisting in the movement of the painting material, but many where works are made directly onto the female body. In Zhang’s writings and talks, it is clear he is not unfamiliar with the criticism facing his persistent use of the female body to create and display his artwork. In one lecture, he discusses, with clarity, that the focus is not on the body, and that the women have great contribution through various movements and poses that shape the work. He rightfully expresses that art ‘allows for a freedom to express, and can escape any cultural concept, opinion, theories, including political correctness’ (Zhang 2019a). Despite the controversy, Zhang certainly produces dynamic and captivating works with engaging technique that is unlike anything the great calligraphers of the past would have seen.
Traceology Report of Zhang Quang A-C Model, Paris, 2007, from Zhang Quang, Traceology, self-published manifesto, 2017.
Similarly, Tong Yang-Tze creates what is widely considered to be contemporary calligraphy, however many question its place in calligraphy, placing it simply in the category ‘art’. She too produces abstract pieces, inspired by her family history of calligraphy, and incorporates different mediums into the presentation, including dancers, jazz musicians and creating fashion items (Pao-The). She especially seeks to inspire and ‘re-introduce’ calligraphy to the modern day audience with her large scale and dynamic pieces (Tong).
Tong Yang-Tze, Sao, 2016.
Zhang’s work is clearly very spontaneous and experimental, with the performance art nature of his process. Rather than using the traditional two dimensional paper, or even rock and wood, his major works are in this performative style. He incorporates music and dance, even using three dimensional shapes as his canvas to create dynamic works. The end product is nothing like the greats of Chinese history; the characters are not legible, but highly abstract, he has manipulated the words to create, instead, a realisation of his unconscious. It is evident that his artworks are performed with reckless abandon, with very little legibility and much less precision of line compared to that of the traditional works. He believes that, in this form, the meaning of the words will be more ambiguous, and thus more adaptable and universal. In the process of discovering a method he was happy with, he tried experimenting with producing work in ‘altered states’, such as inebriation, hoping for the most natural form of expression. However, he found ‘his personality seemed stubbornly to persist in controlling his brush’ (Zhang 2019b).
Zhang Qiang calligraphy, Museum of Contemporary Art, Beijing, from Traceology Report A/B50, 1998.
Yan S Zhenqing, Inscriptionn of Stele of Duobao Pagoda of Qianfusu Temple, Tang Dynasty (752), Tokyo National Museum.
Tong’s approach is similar in the sense that she works to create an expressive work of art rather than a carefully mastered piece of writing. She has, however, more of a sense of creating a multisensory experience that will appeal to the youth. In her exhibition Silent Symphony, Musical Calligraphy (2011), pop singers performed, attracting the attention of a much younger audience than a calligraphic exhibition may have previously (Su). One exhibition entitled From Ink to Apparel: A Crossover between Calligraphy Art and Fashion Design (2016) even worked with young designers to create works inspired by Tong’s work, which allowed the influence of modern aesthetics on calligraphy to create diverse items of clothing. This idea is also in parallel with Zhang Qiang’s notion of unifying the object and material by placing calligraphy on a three dimensional space16. Whilst some argue that these avant-varge approaches are not close enough to calligraphy to be labelled so, the concept of experimental and abstract calligraphy is not unusual and appreciation for abstraction has been evident since the first century AD (Iezzi 164).
A major difference between this modern avant-garde take on calligraphy and that of ancient, or prior to the People’s Republi of, China is that of its use and purpose. Key uses of calligraphy seemed to be religious, holding some kind of purpose for everyday life, such as worship. Other major uses were for written arts, that of poetry and writings, which were used almost exclusively by those of a higher class, for a long time, due to illiteracy. Artists like Zhang are shifting this notion and blurring the lines between art and calligraphy. His art is purely for self expression, evident by his interest in Yan Zhenqing’s undisciplined work, and aesthetic exploration, rather than confining to the long established calligraphic conventions. His focus on the arts meaning in relation to its context (on certain materials, in galleries, etc.) brings a much greater depth to the meaning behind calligraphy and, in some cases, the words behind the abstraction.
Modern day artists have taken a new approach to calligraphy, manipulating and reinventing the traditional characteristics of the practice. Zhang Qiang and Tong Yang-Tze have demonstrated a manipulation of their methods and mediums by using other materials such as the female body or by musical or performative accompaniment. The quality of abstraction has also been embraced by these avant-garde calligraphers, forming complex shapes and characters, and producing what can look like abstract paintings. The intention of these artists compared to that of their traditional calligrapher predecessors is also drastically different, with much of the earlier calligraphy work being intended for the elite and often for poetry and religious iconography or scripture. Both artists have, thus, displayed levels of understanding of, and appreciation for, conventions, styles and values of the classical Chinese calligraphy, but have manipulated it to better suit the artistic and aesthetic needs of both themselves and their modern-day audience.
Bibliography
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Iezzi, Adriana (2013),’ Contemporary Chinese Calligraphy Between Tradition and Innovation,’.
Journal of Literature and Art Studies3 (3): 158 - 179.
Iezzi, Adriana (2015), ‘What is “Chinese Modern Calligraphy”? An Exploration of the Critical Debate on Modern Calligraphy in Contemporary China’, Journal of Literature and Art Studies5 (3):206-216
Kraus, Richard Curt (1991), Brushes with power: The Modern Politics and the Chinese Art of Calligraphy, University of California Press, Los Angeles.
Mao Zedong’s Calligraphic Art. Dartmouth College, Rauner Library. Available: sites.dartmouth.edu/library
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Zhang, Qiang (2019A), Lecture at Chongqing University, Chongqing, China. June 21, 2019.
Zhang, Qiang (2019B),. , Lecture at The University of Kaili, Kaili, China. June 23, 2019.