Modern twist

The evolution of calligraphy continues even now.

For example, the timeless beauty of shiguwen continued through to the 20th century among artists and scholars who kept copying the script.

Wu Changshuo, a leading reformer of the ink tradition, is famed for integrating the calligraphic brushwork of shiguwen into painting.

Today, some endeavors are done in an avant-garde gesture and shown at art galleries like INKstudio which has spaces in Beijing and New York.

The decade-old gallery introduces to both domestic and global audiences experimental approaches to add new perspectives to ink art and calligraphy, as a rich, complex art language and also as the distinctive worldview of China and East Asia, according to Craig Yee, who co-founded INKstudio alongside two Stanford University alumni.

Artists who have been shown at the gallery include the likes of Wang Dongling and Wei Ligang. Their works have aroused discussions and debates, which from Yee's point of view, are "very important to expand the possibilities" and degrees of freedom in the realm of calligraphy and ink art, the same way as their predecessors did.

Just as Liang Qichao once put it: "There is no better way (for one) to best express the personality of a person than calligraphy."