The Art of Calligraphy in Modern China (review)

Gordon S. Barrass' The Art of Calligraphy in Modern Chinais a most welcomed and valuable contribution to our understanding of twentieth-century Chinese calligraphy. It complements recent research on the subject in Brushes with Powerby Richard Kraus (1991), and Brushed Voices: Calligraphy in Contemporary Chinaby Yiguo Zhang (1998).

The Art of Calligraphy in Modern Chinawas published to accompany an exhibition at the British Museum of calligraphy covering the period from the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 through the present. It is comprised of calligraphy from the museum's collection and the author's collection recently donated to the museum. In it, we are offered a vivid historical and biographical account of the vicissitudes encountered by the practitioners of this ancient art form during one of the most tumultuous periods in Chinese history. Barrass was in a unique position to undertake this task. Having served in the British Embassy from 1970 to 1972, he has made more than fifty visits to China since leaving his diplomatic post in 1993 and assuming the responsibilities of International Advisor to Coopers and Lybrand (later Price WaterhouseCoopers).

In chapter 1, following a cursory and somewhat reductive overview of the history of Chinese calligraphy, and a brief but useful introduction to the "four treasures" of the Chinese scholar's studio, Barrass lays out the basic lines of the "great debate" raging in China for the past fifty years concerning the "definition" and "purpose" of calligraphic practice. These lines of argument demarcate four distinct, although not mutually exclusive, points of view that Barrass classifies into four categories of Chinese calligraphers: the Classicists, the Modernists, the Neo Classicalists, and the Avant-Garde. Acknowledging their Western origins, the author, nevertheless, deems these categories "helpful tools in trying to understand the issues and appreciate the different voices involved in the debate" (p. 15).

To comprehend the issues surrounding this "great debate" concerning calligraphy as the quintessential aesthetic expression of traditional wenren, or literati culture, one really must take it back to period of the late Qing and early Republic and the critical devaluation of the literati tradition as a viable means of addressing the social ills and the need for modernization and regeneration of China. Such critiques appear in writings of the influential historian and reformer Liang Qi-chao (1873-1929) and of the writer and prominent figure in the New Cultural Movement Lu Xun (1881-1936). The defeat of Chinese troops by Japan and the subsequent humiliation of the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki provided the detractors of traditional literati culture with all the evidence they needed to make their case. The Chinese commanding officer, Wu Dacheng (1835-1902), a scholar-official, calligrapher, and seal carver, was vilified in a poem, "Song of the General Who Regulates Liao," composed by the diplomat and poet Huang Zunxian (1848- 1905), which was published in 1902 by Liang Qichao in Xinmin congbao. As Qian-shen Bai notes, "Huang portrays Wu as a scholar immersed in antiquarian studies whose ignorance of the outside world caused a national tragedy.".

Significantly, Barrass recognizes that the current debate is concerned not simply with matters of calligraphy but rather with "a wide range of other issues, including the legacy of Chinese history and society, the extent to which Chinese culture should be cross-fertilized with that of other countries, and how people should express their feelings" (p. 16). This is an important point, for it enables the author to situate his subsequent accounts of calligraphers and their art within the wider, ongoing cultural discussions concerning (1) the status of the traditional arts and the desire for modernism, (2) the question of maintaining a national cultural style and the absorption of influences resulting from the transnational forces of cultural and economic globalization during the Period of Reform in the post-Mao era, and, finally, (3...