Searching for the soul of the city
CityPoem 45 - Beijing
By Hans Karssenberg
14-04-2007 /views: 1948 in past 12 months.
Near the Old Summer Palace, poetry with a very short life: the new Bejing phenomenon of water-wrting, suddenly popular in the last ten years.
Photo: The Zen Master
Beijing CityPoem: Water-writing
This is water-writing. The characters fade into the thin air once the water evaporates.
In many parks in Beijing you can nowadays see people writing on the pavement with nothing but a brush and water. Mostly old men spend their time to write more or less philosophically passages on the pavement. They are observed silently by onlookers who have their own hidden thoughts about it.
Photo: Wendy
The giant calligraphy written by an elderly Chinese on the ground at the Temple of Heaven attracts the attention of foreign tourists. The elderly frequently dip their brushes into a water bucket. Then they carefully draw their characters in vertical symmetry on the concrete ground. Some write classic poetry, others compose their own works. The results are two-fold. Spectators witness stunning calligraphy and the dedicated artists keep fit and get a chance to socialize.
Ground calligraphy, using long brush pens soaked in water writing huge Chinese characters on the ground, is a creative branch of Chinese calligraphy, along with calligraphy with fingers. It gains popularity among Chinese.
Photo: Piero Sierra
Like many great inventions, no one knows exactly from whom or where it came, nor when. About ten years ago, it first started appearing. It has become so serious since then, that there is now an annual competition: the Joyful Cup Ground Calligraphy Invitational Competition. In 2006, it attracted 66 ground calligraphers from six major parks in Bejing.
A poem, a rhyme or sometimes just a character written by a young girl learning to write. The water writing stays on the paving for couple of moments, then it dries out and leaves the place for another thought, impression, verse...
Near the Old Summer Palace, Photo: The Zen Master
Ground calligraphy is praised by some as an innovative branch of Chinese calligraphy, others regard it as a cultural activity for the masses. Tourism driven, socialising of elderly, calligraphy art or poetry – which ever it is, it is spreading.
No translations, unfortunately.
Ground calligraphy or water-writing spreading to the city of Tianjin. Photo: Matthew J. Stinson
The giant calligraphy written by an elderly Chinese on the ground at the Temple of Heaven attracts the attention of foreign tourists. The elderly frequently dip their brushes into a water bucket. Then they carefully draw their characters in vertical symmetry on the concrete ground. Some write classic poetry, others compose their own works. The results are two-fold. Spectators witness stunning calligraphy and the dedicated artists keep fit and get a chance to socialize.
Ground calligraphy, using long brush pens soaked in water writing huge Chinese characters on the ground, is a creative branch of Chinese calligraphy, along with calligraphy with fingers. It gains popularity among Chinese.
Photo: Piero Sierra
Like many great inventions, no one knows exactly from whom or where it came, nor when. About ten years ago, it first started appearing. It has become so serious since then, that there is now an annual competition: the Joyful Cup Ground Calligraphy Invitational Competition. In 2006, it attracted 66 ground calligraphers from six major parks in Bejing.
A poem, a rhyme or sometimes just a character written by a young girl learning to write. The water writing stays on the paving for couple of moments, then it dries out and leaves the place for another thought, impression, verse...
Near the Old Summer Palace, Photo: The Zen Master
Ground calligraphy is praised by some as an innovative branch of Chinese calligraphy, others regard it as a cultural activity for the masses. Tourism driven, socialising of elderly, calligraphy art or poetry – which ever it is, it is spreading.
No translations, unfortunately.
Ground calligraphy or water-writing spreading to the city of Tianjin. Photo: Matthew J. Stinson
Inspiring Cities Museum of CityPoems
Inspiring Cities has collected many citypoems over the years, as well as organized salons with citypoets and cities doing special projects. We have two criteria for what a citypoem is: the intention must be poetic, and it must be in the public realm of cities. Shapes, form and locations can and do differ.
The Museum of CityPoems has citypoems from cities all over the world. From Alhambra to Zonnebeke, from Taipei to Lima.
Got one yourself? Mail us your pictures (free of rights) and description, and we will publish.
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