Yang Xiuhe: I am very pleased that Mr. Zheng Lin will give a lecture at the Peking University Institute of Calligraphy and have a dialogue on some issues of concern to Chinese and Western artists. Today we explore the significance of the spread of Chinese calligraphy in Western countries.
Zheng Lin: Given that the West accepts very little Chinese calligraphy, the reason is related to the fact that China itself introduces Chinese calligraphy to the West as a whole, such as books, CDs, and large-scale exhibition activities. In the future, the Institute of Calligraphy at Peking University may do some work to strengthen the promotion of China at all levels to foreign countries. You may also go out and do some exhibitions. Of course, I know that because Chinese calligraphy uses Chinese characters as a carrier, it is more difficult for Western artists to pay attention to and accept them after recognizing the characters in order to better appreciate the lines. Then I think that after 2008, when Chinese may be accepted by more young people in the West, I think calligraphy is likely to form a way of sino-Western exchange between China and the West in the future. After 2008, Chinese will become more popular, including online working languages, including Chinese courses taken by various Western college students. I have taught in universities abroad for two years, and college students have taken Chinese more than other languages, so in this case, calligraphy may gradually change the fact that it is almost not accepted by the West.
Yang Xiuhe: I hope so.
Zheng Lin: In addition, there is Jiang Yi's "Chinese Calligraphy" in the Uk, and after so many years, in addition to Jiang Yi's calligraphy, are there any similar works?
A lot?
Yang Xiuhe: More, wrote a lot.
Zheng Lin: Xiong Bingming has also published some calligraphy books in the West.
Yang Xiuhe: There are not many people in foreign countries who know Chinese calligraphy, but are there many people who know modern Chinese calligraphy in China?
Zheng Lin: In the circle of calligraphy and criticism, there are still many, and it has also caused great repercussions among the public. Some flags clearly express their dislikes, or some show that they can look at development and experiments.
Yang Xiuhe: There are many special exhibitions of modern calligraphy, are there many in big cities? Less in the suburbs? Is it confined to the metropolis?
Zheng Lin: There are more academic schools.
Yang Xiuhe: In traditional Chinese art, calligraphy has always occupied the highest position.
Zheng Lin: It is a representative of traditional Chinese culture.
Yang Xiuhe: Westerners don't understand Chinese characters, so it's hard to delve deeply into this kind of complex art.
Zheng Lin: The West finds modern Chinese calligraphy more receptive, which has two prerequisites: it is influenced by Western art theories and is based on them, so it is called modern; the second is that Chinese are also eager to change their traditions in order to introduce them to the West. But this implies a crisis, that is, it is possible to make traditional calligraphy, those classic calligraphy, because it is not more systematically and comprehensively recognized by Westerners, and become a veiled culture.
Yang Xiuhe: Modern calligraphy is influenced by the West and integrated into Western theories, which is not the way out. The idea that integrating Western theories into calligraphy makes it easier for Westerners to appreciate is unrealistic, because many Westerners themselves do not understand and do not want to understand these Western theories such as Derrida, so it may not have much impact on the vast audience in the West.
Zheng Lin: But these deconstructivist theories have been amplified in China, and some calligraphers have made these theories more extreme, more exaggerated avant-garde experiments.
Yang Xiuhe: I personally feel that these theories have been amplified not only in China but also in the United States. Derrida is famous in the United States, but he is not so famous in Europe. After 1979, Western theories still spread to China, and many things came to China for a while. Mr. Zheng, do any of the theoreticalists in China who are engaged in theory now pay attention to Theoreticians in China and can talk with Western theorists?
Zheng Lin: This is a difficult question to answer. First of all, most of the contemporary Chinese cultural scholars and literary theorists are absorbing the latest theoretical materials from the West, and their main job is to translate and introduce Western studies. Now there are several theories, one is that the traditional Chinese discourse has lost its own language, and the traditional Chinese discourse has become a weak and unappreciated part of the discourse of modernity; the second is that calligraphy is a problem of globalization and localization, and the era of globalization must absorb Western things and maintain localization, but the understanding of the local is no longer only Chinese. There are also some people who are ideologically emancipated, thinking that taking a part of the West in and dissolving our traditions will become a new tradition.
Yang Xiuhe: It seems that in the international movement, many Chinese artists have also participated in this movement. Has Chinese art lost its original spiritual outlook and basic form?
Zheng Lin: This is also our concern. There is a group of people in China who want to join the ranks of globalization as soon as possible and rewrite their identity in a way that loses their traditional identity. Joining globalization seems to be as western as possible, and after losing its identity, this theory considers itself a new tradition.
Yang Xiuhe: Seeing it as a new tradition?
Zheng Lin: It is to bring in Western things and turn them into a new tradition in China. There is a rationality in this idea, but there is a problem, if he cannot digest this part, then he just happens not to become a new tradition, but to lose and cut off the Chinese tradition. For example, the Han and Tang Dynasties were able to absorb because the momentum of the Han and Tang Dynasties was large enough that it could absorb many things from foreign Buddhism. Today's modernity is not the same as the West and China, and its interruption of Chinese tradition is relatively severe. So I'm also more worried. I think We should keep China's characteristics.
Yang Xiuhe: In other cases, some Chinese artists have specially put factors rich in Chinese characteristics and taste into their own art, but they may not have any special emotion and understanding of those arts, and they have made "oriental elements" and done them very "exotic" to attract the attention of some Westerners. This, in my opinion, is very bad.
Zheng Lin: This is the reason why Zhang Yimou's culture failed.
Yang Xiuhe: Do you think he is a failure? The content of Zhang Yimou's works is relatively reluctant, and he has no personal feelings of his own, resulting in the accumulation of some oriental symbols, which is not too good. But he was a very successful man.
Zheng Lin: It was very successful in commercial hype.
Yang Xiuhe: From the perspective of Westerners, it seems to have a very Chinese flavor.
Zheng Lin: It has "Chinese character". He provided a model for the calligraphy community, to make Chinese things into symbols and elements as much as possible, to extract Chinese emotions and spirits, and to give an empty shell to Westerners. The result of this initially attracted a lot of applause and was welcomed by Westerners, including "Red Sorghum" and "Big Red Lantern Hanging High".
Yang Xiuhe: This kind of "Oriental image" facing the West seems to have been done in the early days of Zao Wou-Ki, who initially made some more abstract paintings, some ancient characters, and after a few years he felt that he was deliberately using his paintings to be more "Chinese", so he may give foreigners "Oriental imagination", but he later no longer just used Oriental symbolic things bluntly, but had his own unique understanding of the world.
Zheng Lin: I think that if an artist closely follows some Western theories and makes some new works that lack vitality, it is lifeless. If you just do some works that make the West familiar to the West to meet the interests of Western judges to get tickets to go abroad, it can only have a short-term effect, and in the end there is still no applause.
Yang Xiuhe: Therefore, Chinese calligraphers should be proud of their traditions, do not need to be excessively demeaning themselves, do not need to be interested in Westerners, but should show the charm of Chinese calligraphy art as a whole, so that Westerners gradually feel the beauty of calligraphy.
Zheng Lin: I think Sir said very well, the cultural consciousness and artistic heritage of Chinese artists have become the key to Chinese calligraphy going abroad, through globalization we can seriously think about the prospects of Chinese calligraphy, and at the same time adhere to the export of Chinese calligraphy in cultural dialogue, so that the world can better understand the spirit of Chinese calligraphy culture. Finally, we hope that the professor and we will be able to communicate more in the future. Peking University Calligraphy Institute has only been established for two years, Mr. 88 years old came to China to give classes to our graduate students, guide them, I am very touched, hereby express my deep gratitude, and hope that in the future, When Doing Cultural and Calligraphy Exchange Output, Mr. Peking University in China will get as much advice and guidance as possible.
Yang Xiuhe: I also learned a lot from today's conversation, thank you.
Zheng Lin: I am the same, thank you.
