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May Wang & The Chinese Calligraphist
My name is May Wang, I was born and raised in Chongqing in 1949. Being part of a family which has always been enthusiastic about all forms of traditional Chinese art, my passion for calligraphy started in my early childhood. When I was a little girl I used to watch my grandfather paint calligraphy. Often I spend hours in his little studio which became an intriguing playground for me. When I was about six years old, he started to teach me how to draw my first calligraphy character. The harmonic interplay of brush, ink and paper quickly captured my interest and do so until today.
When my parents discovered my talent they sent me to Shifu Bai Tianqin (白天勤) at the age of 10. I spent most of my free time with him – even on weekends – and the old man taught me a lot more than just calligraphy. He was one of the last artists that know a lot about all traditional Chinese art forms – Qin Qi Shu Hua (lyre-playing, chess, calligraphy and painting), and he was a great source of knowledge and inspiration which I will always be thankful for.
These intensive lessons where the reason that I decided to study Chinese Calligraphy and Chinese Art at the Sichuan Fine Art Institute (Sichuan Meishu Xueyuan / 四川美术学院). However, when I had just taken up classes, the Cultural Revolution started and I was sent on a farm in Guangxi province and lost touch with my parents who were sent on “re-education” programs in Nei Mengu province. Suddenly, the passion and joys of our family had become something illegal poisoning the foundations of society.
After these troublesome times were over, I finally found myself in Beijing where I found a job in Beijing and resumed my calligraphy, working with Shifu Tang Xiaoguang (唐晓光) in the evenings which helped me refresh and further improve my calligraphy skills.
When Tang Xiaoguang Shifu grew older, he assigned some of his younger students to me and one day I found myself having become a full time calligraphy teacher also teaching the first foreigners in Beijing.
Over the recent years China has changed a lot. Life constantly became more hectic and fast. A lot of our cultural heritage has been neglected and forgotten. Still, the smooth and graceful movements when writing and painting always calm my mind in a fast-paced world. The sheer beauty and elegance of characters, perfect in form, has always been a way for me to enjoy myself.
It is an American friend of mine who inspired me to start this blog and shop. Marie-Ann and I met on an excursion to Guilin, painting the amazing river and rock landscapes – once more I found myself in Guangxi province, luckily in a more auspicious setting this time.
She told me about the difficulty of finding information and original tools for Chinese calligraphy when not living in China. In the beginning I just sent paper and brushes to her, later to her friends and students. Soon, this developed into regular mailings across the ocean which gave me the idea that more people abroad might be interested in this fascinating part of Chinese culture. Therefore, I decided to open this blog together with my family and share my passion with people from all over the world. It was my daughter Lulu who came up with the wonderful name for our site.
If you are passionate or you want to learn more about calligraphy and Chinese art, it would be great if you could help us by contributing to the blog or by mailing us recommendations and suggestions how we can make this site more interesting and a valuable resource for you. If you are looking for information related to Chinese calligraphy or find there are products you miss in our shop, please contact us or leave a comment and we will do our best to make it available for you.
Sincerely,
May Wang & Family
