When in Rome…
For the free New Year’s calligraphies at the Taipei Confucius Temple, the organizers supplied a total of 3000 calligraphic papers sized to fit seven- or four-character couplet lines, as well as diamond-shaped papers for single-character calligraphies. Apart from the standard red paper, there is also paper sprinkled with gold dust, as well as paper printed with an eave tile pattern.
After the calligraphies are hung to dry in the open air, they are handed over to members of the public. Huang Suzhen, director-general of the ROC Calligraphy Education Society, explains that some people don’t have time to wait. Consequently, in addition to brushing calligraphies that day at the temple, calligraphers also prepare some at home, so that those in a rush can pick them up quickly.
For the many people that want to see the calligraphies brushed for themselves, the calligraphers bring along a list of suitable couplets to choose from. For instance, Huang provides a notebook full of brushed examples, such as “With perseverance nothing is impossible; peace at home rises from tolerance.”
“The public is diverse, and everyone likes to be different,” Huang notes. “Consequently, when preparing potential couplets you’ve got to appeal to as many tastes as possible.”
What’s more, due to popular demand, Huang also provides a notebook full of the most common combinatorial single characters. For instance, the combinatorial character for “Study Confucius and Mencius well” is well suited to hanging in a study in anticipation of exam success. The combinatorial for “seeing money day after day” is used in the same kind of places as “ushering in wealth and prosperity.” Both symbolize uninterrupted prosperity.
On the day of the event, numerous foreign tourists show up to collect some couplets. One woman from an English-speaking country asks if it would be possible to add an English annotation. Consequently, when brushing in Chinese, “Spring arrives among the people; Happy New Year,” Huang also leaves some space to write in English: “Happy New Year.”
“At New Year’s having a lot of fun and making people happy is most important,” says Huang. “There’s no need to be a stickler about tradition.”
New Year’s gets younger and hipper
One of the calligraphers is retired Taiwanese-language singing star Lin Xiuzhu, age 71, who already has more than ten years of experience at the event. She modestly says that she isn’t a true calligrapher, merely a lover of art who began to practice calligraphy after she turned 50. In recent years she has been enraptured with oil painting, and in her own estimation, “My painting is better than my calligraphy.” Consequently, she humbly asks those taking her calligraphies if they’d like her to give them a livelier feel by embellishing them with additional designs.
Indeed, unlike printed New Year’s couplets, hand-brushed works demonstrate all kinds of delightful variations that provide interest beyond the calligraphy. Most commonly, one can see the year’s Chinese zodiac animal painted somewhere on the calligraphic paper.
For instance, since the coming year is the Year of the Horse, when brushing, “Success comes with the arrival of the horse,” one can use a pictogram for a horse in place of the standard Chinese character, thereby giving the four-character couplet a more contemporary feel.
Lin’s grandson Luo Shaoqi, now a fifth-grader, first attended the New Year’s calligraphy event at the Confucius Temple with his grandmother back when he was three. The media immediately dubbed him a “calligraphic prodigy.” Requests for regular, semi-cursive or cursive script don’t faze him this year. The public is particularly curious about him, and he always has crowds gathered around his table. Every time he finishes a calligraphy, the onlookers ooh and ah, but he always maintains his cool.
It takes courage to write New Year’s couplets on a plaza crowded with onlookers. Even if you’re well practiced writing them in your study at home, you may not be comfortable the first time you try to write them outdoors. Huang Suzhen says that the ROC Society of Calligraphy Education doesn’t expect the calligraphers who come to the event at the Taipei Confucius Temple to produce perfect work amid all the give and take with the public. The key thing is to ramp up the holiday spirit and festive atmosphere.
Says Huang: “Watching so many people line up to obtain New Year’s couplets and seeing so many mainland Chinese tourists purchase and collect calligraphies using traditional Chinese characters, I can’t help but think that the tradition of writing spring couplets has a bright future.”