Shoo-Fah Masta

My first step in becoming a world-renown calligrapher. Booyah.

I started learning Chinese calligraphy (書法, shu1 fa3) a week ago and WOW... it's so much harder than it looks. It's just like when I took oil painting and photography back in college, over-confident little me always thinking that these sort of artsy stuff is a piece of cake... that is until I get pwned back into the Stone Age.

Anyway, I was a little taken aback at how difficult it was to control the brush at first, but after awhile I think I'm starting to understand it a little better. Calligraphy is surprisingly meditative, and there's a clear and immediate satisfaction when you get it right. Of course, that only happens *maybe* once per practice page, but each time you finish a character you can take a step back and examine your results to figure out what to tweak, making it better in your next attempt. Unfortunately, you can't just wave your brush around and expect some to arrive to some Jackson Pollock... I've discovered it's 100% necessary to ground yourself before starting. My characters always looked disgusting when I tried to rush through a certain stroke. They looked fantastic when I knew that I was in control.

My grandfather is a famous Chinese calligrapher in the States and I always wanted to understand what all the hype was all about. He tried to get me into calligraphy back when I was very young, but the characters staring back at me meant absolutely nothing to me. I couldn't read it, so what's the point? Or was I supposed to write 我，你，and 王大中 all day? :p

Now that I can read and appreciate the characters that I'm inking onto paper, I think that I'm going to try to make this into a full-time hobby. It takes me 3-4 hours to get through 6 sheets of paper right now, but it feels so good to know that I've gotten this far already. I wouldn't be able to practice calligraphy if I didn't go to Taiwan to learn Chinese, of if I weren't here in Nanjing right now. And I probably wouldn't be interested in it in the first place if it weren't for my grandfather.

Now it's all coming together. :)

* My next post will be a Silk Road travelogue, promise!