Calligraphy and Power in Contemporary Chinese Society

Drawing on both written material and on enthrography of popular conceptions, Calligraphy and power in contemporary Chinese society aims to show that calligraphy and writing in China is a highly empowered cultural form through which power is articulated, Social relations lubricated, deep knowledge extracted and one's relationship with the world is interperted, ultimately indicating and formulating Chinese personhood. However, have popular conceptualizations of Chinese calligraphy and writing been transformed as a response to technological, commercial and political changes? Im imperial times calligraphy's power was inseparable from the fact that handwriting was seen to be embroiled with the notion of personhood, but has the relationship between calligraphy and power been changed in the modern era? Yen argues that, being essential to the definition of "Chineseness", Chinese writting continues to be a focus of indigenous cultural critique, and far from being banished as technologically obsolete it has been, in effect, recharged for the new millennium.