Page 161 - China, 5000 years : innovation and transformation in the arts

Calligraphy

Calligraphy is often called the most Peter Sturman

Associate Professor, Department of the
History of Art and Architecture,
University of California, Santa Barbara

Chinese of arts. This is a label of praise,

perhaps, but one that is also problematic,

for it exoticizes calligraphy by prompting

associations of the "mysterious East" and

by reinforcing the natural tendency

anions those who do not read Chinese

to believe that this art of dynamic but

seemingly incomprehensible strokes

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