At present, 99% of calligraphers are craftsmen copying books.
In the past hundred years, calligraphy has evolved from a popular life skill of literati to a niche professional art, while most calligraphers have degenerated from literati into craftsmen who copy books.
In the information age, people have more and more knowledge, higher and higher diplomas, but their cultural tastes are getting lower and lower. The poetic expression of "holding hands and looking into tearful eyes, speechless and swallowing" turned into a hysterical expression of "my love is naked". If there is still some emotion in calligraphy works today, it is mostly empty emotion that borrows the corpse to bring back the soul.
Most contemporary Chinese people know very little about traditional culture. Many people in the cultural world are accustomed to this loss of humanistic literacy and blame their own ignorance on the erudition of others. Regarding the rich traditional cultural elements in Jin Yong's novels, Ge Hongbing believed that "Jin Yong was an 'aristocratic' who showed off his status as an intellectual. He catered to the learning requirements of uneducated people and incorporated poems, lyrics, songs, and poems that were the delicacies of classical literati. The narrative language is half text and half white, which creates a stylistic defamiliarization effect for mainland readers and satisfies the curiosity of mainland readers."
Weird stories are also prevalent among calligraphers. Most of the so-called calligraphers lack the most basic humanistic qualities and know little about literature, history and philosophy. As for traditional poetry, lyrics, music, and poetry, I don't learn it myself. I ridicule others for learning it, and clamor for others not to learn it. Some people say that it is meaningless for people today to write poems and couplets if they are not well written. It is better not to write them and just copy the poems and essays of the ancients. They really thought that the literary and artistic works displayed to the public should reach a high artistic standard. But I don’t know if they have thought about it, don’t display poorly written poems, and why can poorly written calligraphy be shown off? There is probably only one reason. Calligraphers all believe that their calligraphy has reached a level comparable to that of Wang Xizhi, Yan Zhenqing, and Su Dongpo. They are "strict in treating others and lenient in self-discipline". They are strict with the quality of other people's poetry works, but are not strict with their own calligraphy works. In many calligraphy exhibitions, you will often see audience members filled with indignation and accusing the calligraphy works of filling the paper with inscriptions. The calligraphers are speechless. This is a collective shame for calligraphers!
Society is unfair to artists. When writers write works, even if they are just twenty five-character quatrains, each piece must be different, each time a new creation. Literary works are remunerated by the number of words, but calligraphers and painters are judged by their surface area. After many calligraphers have a little bit of style and fame, they can rest on their laurels and keep repeating themselves, writing the same content for Zhang, San, Li, Si, Wang, and Wu. As a result, everyone is very happy. The result must be to condone the imbecile who can only copy books. . Many calligraphers have one-sided knowledge structure and weak humanistic accomplishments. A dignified calligraphy professor writes white characters without realizing it, does not know how to read a sentence, and is at a loss; Gungun, an award-winning calligrapher, came from Weixian Elementary School, is not familiar with literature, and spends his life copying books, full of fallacies.
Many calligraphers can only inscribe one poem or one line of a certain poem. They can't even add a few words to inscribe a sentence, but it doesn't affect the steady flow of orders and profits. People in the calligraphy circle are keen on competing for fame and fortune to sell their works. Not many people calm down to read a few books and learn a little bit of traditional culture. The calligraphers are really spoiled.
When calligraphy is stripped away from the soil of traditional Chinese studies and measured and judged according to Western discipline systems and theoretical standards, its "locality" is cut off. On the surface, the current calligraphers who write Chinese characters all day long are actually a group of low-educated people. Their spiritual core has been taken away from them, which is a terrible "de-Sinicization". Calligraphy has become a walking zombie, which is very strange. Worthy of sorrow.
If this continues, calligraphers will basically collectively become the "Sister Furong" in the cultural world.
