Zheng Xuankun, name Zheng Lin, character Xuan Kun, number Wen Zhongxuan Lord, contemporary famous calligrapher. Grandson of national hero Lin Zexu VII; vice president of Lin Zexu Research Committee; domestic director of China Association for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification; international registered artist; member of Beijing Municipal Ge Zhongshan Calligraphy and Painting Society; deputy secretary-general of calligraphy and art research society of China Yuelian Society.
Majored in calligraphy at Tsinghua University, a postgraduate course in calligraphy.
In 2005, Mr. Cheng Xuankun was personally awarded the "Honorary Adviser" of the "Macao Lin Zexu Memorial Hall" by Chief Executive Ho Hau Wah, Chief Executive of the Macao SAR Government.
In 2017, Mr. Zheng Xuankun's calligraphy works participated in the Panama World World Exhibition of Nations and won the World Chinese Elite Meritorious Service Award in the art industry.
In 2018, Mr. Zheng Xuankun's calligraphy works were selected by the American Postal Group, and the artistic masters on the stamps were printed into the "National Ceremony World Precious Mail" stamp album, which was issued worldwide.
In 2022, Mr. Zheng Xuankun inscribed the name of the new red network website.
Wen Zhongxuan Lord Zheng Xuankun Calligraphy, a pen sonorous and powerful, such as the flow of clouds and water, the pen like a cloud of smoke; Wen Zhongxuan Lord Zheng Xuankun calligraphy, like petals, the aroma spreads far and wide, more and more Clear; Wen Zhongxuan Lord Zheng Xuankun calligraphy, more like a dragon and snake racing, grinding through the iron stone; Wen Zhongxuan Lord Zheng Xuankun calligraphy, the pen posture is majestic, the posture is full of indifference, his palms are forgotten; Wen Zhongxuan's main Zheng Xuankun calligraphy, ancient ink is lightly polished with a few incense, the new bath of The Yanchi is full of light, or the key or the gentle turn, or the beauty of the graceful Na Jiao, or the brave and brave warrior, Or as the spring breeze blows a piece of flowers, or as the north wind enters the pass deep and cold; Wen Zhongxuan lord Zheng Xuankun calligraphy, such as a strong man drawing a sword, the divine color is moving like Man Qing's pen, Yan Jian Liu bone god shape is excellent; Wen Zhongxuan lord Zheng Xuankun calligraphy, its color, its shape, its thickness and wetness, its broken tossing, thick and fine hidden dew are infinitely variable, meteorological innumerable.
Under the situation of globalization, how to deal with calligraphy is related to the future development of calligraphy, and this article puts forward its own views on this. He has made a recognition of the role and responsibility that calligraphy should play between tradition and modernity, as well as the future status of calligraphy disciplines in various universities, and hopes to make a modest contribution to the construction of calligraphy.
Chinese culture and artistic imagery have long been demonized in the West: "The Yellow Peril", "China Threat Theory", "China Collapse Theory" one after another. In the cultural Cold War model, some Western countries have curbed China's rise. More seriously, the situation in the South China Sea and the East China Sea shows that the "Chinese character cultural circle" that has lasted for more than a thousand years has been dissolved in the process of "de-Sinicization" for more than half a century, and the "Chinese character cultural circle" has been replaced by the "American cultural circle", resulting in China's current repeated constraints on cultural soft power. Therefore, we should adopt a more positive cultural attitude and carry out the overseas dissemination of Chinese culture. Furthermore, while we are developing and upgrading our culture, we should strive to export Chinese calligraphy culture overseas, so that the world can understand China, understand China, and appreciate China, so that Chinese culture and calligraphy can gradually become possible.
Over the years, after theoretically elucidating cultural power and artistic innovation, I have adhered to the overseas practice of cultural export. It can be said that in recent years, it should be my "cultural export year": in addition to frequently going to Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia to spread Chinese calligraphy culture, I went to major cities in the UK for a month in 2006 for cultural visits and calligraphy art exchanges; in 2010, I gave academic lectures and calligraphy exhibitions on "Chinese Culture and the Spirit of Calligraphy" at more than 20 universities and Confucius Institutes in the United States; in February 2011, I went to Germany, France, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic for cultural exchanges; in March 2011, I accepted three Latin American countries - Cuba, Jamaica, Universities in Costa Rica and other countries have invited them to give lectures on "The Beautiful Spirit of Chinese Culture", "Chinese Culture and Chinese Calligraphy", and held the "Zheng Xuankun Calligraphy Art Exhibition" in the three Latin American countries; in October 2011, he went to Indonesia to attend the "Calligraphy and Seal Engraving Exhibition" and gave a lecture on "Chinese Culture and the Spirit of Calligraphy", and at the same time taught Indonesian students to write Chinese calligraphy; in November 2011, he went to the University of London in the United Kingdom to attend the International Art and Culture Conference and discussed the specific plan for the 2012 Chinese Calligraphy landscape exhibition at the British Museum.
For a long time, Western countries have been quite isolated from Chinese calligraphy, resulting in inconsistencies in each other's cultures. At the invitation of more than a dozen universities in the United States, I went to the United States to give a one-month academic lecture on "Chinese Culture and the Spirit of Calligraphy", which will be in Washington, New York, Columbia, Atlanta, St. Louis, Karamazu, Minnesota, Chicago, Denver, San Francisco and other places in the United States to give lectures on "Chinese Cultural Innovation and Chinese Artistic Spirit", "Contemporary Enlightenment of Chinese Calligraphy Culture", "Chinese Cultural Calligraphy Art" and so on. Universities that have lectured in the United States include: George Mason University, University of Maryland, South Carolina State University, SouthCaplesby University, Kennesaw State University, Georgia Calligraphy Association, Confucius Institute at Atlanta, Emery University of Atlanta, Webster University, West Michigan University, and visited Princeton University and Columbia University. More than two dozen cultural and calligraphy lectures have aroused cultural attention and enthusiastic response from American universities, and the American media have also followed and reported on them.
In my lectures at american universities, I stressed that culture is an endless process of spiritual ecological creation. Chinese way of thinking has the pluralistic characteristics of moderation and peace, dialectical tolerance, contentment and humor. Chinese culture is a three-sum civilization: family harmony, social harmony, and the marginalization of Eastern culture of international peace.
After the lecture, I began tutoring American college students to write calligraphy. I found that American college students are very interested in Chinese calligraphy, but there is a shortage of teachers and few teaching materials. I try my best to explain to the students the relationship between the development of Chinese characters and calligraphy, Chinese calligraphy from oracle bone, gold script, seal script to cursive, xingshu, calligraphy, has gone through a long stage of development, the body of the book is enriched with the development of fonts. It also explains the basic techniques of Chinese calligraphy and writing, the different realms of Chinese calligraphy, etc., attracting a group of college students and even doctoral students to join the calligraphy practice. At the University of Denver in the United States, I saw the exhibition of calligraphy of American students held by the university, and I was very pleased with its level. At the same time, in my exchanges with American calligraphers, I feel the advantages of the overseas export of Chinese calligraphy culture.
The significance of the overseas dissemination of Chinese calligraphy lies in: First, calligraphy is the embodiment of the aesthetic writing of the historical and deep cultural significance of Chinese characters, this visual art can cross national borders, and there are aesthetic characteristics that are popular with foreign students, and spread very quickly; second, calligraphy is the bearer of the meaning of the subset of the history of Chinese thought, which will promote the revival and gradual co-ization of Chinese calligraphy culture, and reduce cultural misreading and confrontation; third, calligraphy is an important messenger of Cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, and it spreads throughout the world in Confucius Institutes. With as many as 70 million people learning Chinese in the world, the international spread of calligraphy has important significance for Chinese cultural diplomacy.
I propose that Chinese calligraphy in the new century should adhere to the spirit of the sixteen characters: return to the classics, enter the Wei and Jin Dynasties, keep the right innovation, and the chia atmosphere. The image of a great power consists of a fourfold image, an economic image, a political image, a military image, and a cultural image. The economic image in China's image is brilliant, the political image is winning the trust of more and more countries, and the military image is also rising and gaining recognition, but the cultural image is at a disadvantage. It can be said that it is imperative to greatly enhance the soft power of Chinese culture and establish a Chinese cultural strategy and national discourse.
After visiting the United States, I flew to Germany, France, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic in Europe for cultural visits and book fairs, and then from Spain to three Latin American countries - Cuba, Jamaica, costa Rica - visits, academic lectures and held the "Zheng Xuankun Calligraphy Exhibition".
At the University of Havana in Cuba, I gave a lecture on "The Beautiful Spirit of Chinese Culture and Calligraphy," and believed that "the orientalization of Western culture" and "the cosmopolitanization of Chinese culture" are the two most important grand projects of Chinese scholars and even outstanding human scholars in the 21st century. It teaches a new concept of Chinese cultural calligraphy and allows young eyes in the West to look back on the footprints of Chinese culture. Compared with other ancient civilizations, Chinese civilization is the most complete preservation in the whole world, and calligraphy is the most complete preserved Wonder of Chinese Civilization. At the "Zheng Xuankun Calligraphy Exhibition" held in the lobby of the Central Library of the University of Havana, some of my new theoretical concepts and the aesthetic spirit of calligraphy aroused great concern among college students about Chinese culture.
In Jamaica, the University of the West Indies Mona and the Jamaica College held the "Zheng Xuankun Calligraphy Exhibition" respectively. After that, I flew to Costa Rica to meet with the president of the University of Costa Rica, held a lecture on "Chinese and Western Listening to Each Other in Cultural and Artistic Exchanges" at the Confucius Institute in Costa Rica and held the "Zheng Xuankun Calligraphy Exhibition". In the face of a very warm scene, in the face of the enthusiastic response of the masters and students to the Art of Chinese Calligraphy, and in the face of many questions of interest in Chinese culture and Chinese calligraphy, I tried to interpret the cultural spirit of Chinese calligraphy from the level of culture science and technology, system level, ideology level and value level. Emphasize that in a pluralistic global context, Chinese culture and calligraphy should have their own voice.
In the past two months of european and American visits, I have deeply felt and found that the West's interest in differentiated Chinese culture and calligraphy art is increasing day by day, and people in Western countries are also keen to talk about China and Chinese culture, pay attention to China's development process, eager to understand the basic values of Chinese culture, and discover the mystery of China's rapid development. Chinese calligraphers should also embark on the cultural journey of international dialogue on calligraphy when the cultural journey of dialogue and listening between China and the West has arrived!
The "Chinese Seal Engraving Calligraphy Art Exhibition" opened on the evening of October 6, 2011 at the National Museum of Indonesia. I was invited to accompany me to this exhibition. At the invitation of the Cultural Department of the Chinese Embassy in Indonesia, the Hanban/Confucius Institute Headquarters and the University of Araza in Indonesia, I carried out the "Calligraphy Art Training and Lecture", which attracted students and calligraphy enthusiasts from Confucius Institutes in Jakarta, Bandung and other places. In the experience session, I showed and introduced the four treasures of the study room to everyone through the physical object, starting from teaching everyone the correct writing method and sitting posture, and then taking the "yong" character as an example, teaching students how to use the brush to write the basic strokes of "point, horizontal, vertical, hook, lift, apostrophe and pinch". Finally, college students began to practice carefully one by one, drawing red, posting, or simply writing a few words they liked, some writing "China and India are good", some writing "love peace", and some choosing to practice their Chinese names, hundreds of Indonesian university students and doctoral students are immersed in the joy of experiencing Chinese calligraphy.
This event demonstrated the charm of traditional Chinese calligraphy culture, helped Indonesian friends to appreciate Chinese culture and art, provided a platform for people from all countries to learn Chinese and understand Chinese culture, and strengthened the bridge of friendship and cooperation between Chinese people and Indonesian people. In today's global pluralism and multipolarity, in the turmoil of history and contemporary, Eastern and Western cultures, Chinese calligraphy can certainly not save the world, but as an important part of the Chinese cultural spirit, it can be "turned into jade" through the soft power of cultural dialogue. Literati with big hearts and scholars with forward-looking wisdom have a long way to go. Chinese culture should be actively exported overseas, so that Chinese culture can regain its cultural charm and cultural soft power in the "Chinese character cultural circle" in the world.
On 4-5 November 2011, a dialogue on the relationship between Chinese landscapes, calligraphy and other arts in the world was held at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. The event was hosted by the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, the National Art Museum of China and Asia Week London. Art historians, critics, curators and artists from China, Europe and the United States gave seminars and presentations.
I made a keynote speech at the forum, expounding on the direction of contemporary Chinese art: the world significance of Chinese painting and calligraphy culture, and how can we perfectly express the art of calligraphy in such a modern form of Chinese style. A few of them sparked a heated discussion at the conference: Why does calligraphy seek the West? But the West is divided into two types, and the dividing line is relatively clear – modern Europe and postmodern America. For example, The oil painting on the shelf in Europe has only been 500 years, which has marginalized China's paper media of more than 2,000 years, Chinese painting and calligraphy. But the second biggest problem now, performance art, installation calligraphy, collage art, Dada art, some from Europe to the United States, with the integration of consumerism and vulgar culture, the European shelf oil painting, that kind of aristocratic, classical culture and art marginalized.
The dilemma of Chinese calligraphy is that, first, it is impossible for Chinese calligraphy to return to ancient times, second, the words that enter the West have been marginalized by the West, and third, entering the postmodern era, it has been ridiculed by cold humor and performance art. Chinese calligraphy can only be expanded in the Chinese center of dancing in the "shackles" of words. In a strict sense, calligraphy is the graceful and elegant writing of books that express deep cultural meaning through words.
During the conference, the University of London arranged for me to write more than ten Chinese calligraphy paintings in front of many Western experts and professors, which aroused their great interest, and the heated discussion of Chinese calligraphy was brought into the discussion of the venue. Afterwards, a group of experts visited the British Museum at the invitation of the University of London. I found that the British Museum's display of Chinese calligraphy is extremely narrow, and the only few calligraphies are shoddy and copied by photocopiers, and I think this snub phenomenon should attract the attention of the Chinese calligraphy community. I believe that the trend of the cosmopolitanization of Chinese culture is irreversible, and Western culture should learn to listen to and respect Eastern culture and art.
