- Gordon Dumoulin
Calligraphy evaporating in crispy autumn air...
๐๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด ๐ค๐บ๐ค๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ค๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ช๐จ๐ณ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ข๐ถ๐ต๐ช๐ง๐ถ๐ญ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฅ๐ด, ๐ฆ๐ท๐ข๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ค๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ฑ๐บ ๐ข๐ถ๐ต๐ถ๐ฎ๐ฏ ๐ข๐ช๐ณ...
An elderly man on a small square next to our residence building earlier this week practicing ๅฐๆธ dรฌ shลซ (literally โa book from the groundโ), in English usually called ๐๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น๐น๐ถ๐ด๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ต๐.
Water calligraphy took off in the 1980โs when mostly elderly started calligraphy with water and large brushes on stone squares or paths in Beijingโs neigborhoods and parks. Gradually this practice spread to all over China, adding to the already rich and diverse park and neighborhood cultures.




There are water calligraphy clubs in a few places and even a magazine about water calligraphy. Water calligrapher Huang Songbai wrote a poem in the Taoran water calligraphy newspaper (Taorandishubao ้ถ็ถ ๅฐไนฆๆฅ , January 2017) :
๐๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ข๐ค๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ด โ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ข๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ข๐ค๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ค๐ณ๐ช๐ฑ๐ต
๐๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฎ๐ข๐จ๐ฏ๐ช๐ง๐ช๐ค๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ฃ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ป๐ฆ๐ด
๐๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐จ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ช๐ฐ๐ถ๐ด ๐ฑ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ
๐๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ฃ๐ณ๐ถ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ค๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ ๐ธ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ช๐ด๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ต๐ช๐ค ๐ฆ๐น๐ถ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ฉ




Read more about water calligraphy in below links :
Evaporating Ennui - Water Calligraphy in Beijing
Water Calligraphy: The Ephemeral Everyday
#china #china2022 #chineseculture #chinesesociety #beijing #calligraphy
Picture sources : wikimedia commons, dokument press