A street calligrapher in Hà Nội writes greeting missives in Chinese characters - these are as strange to the person paying him, as they are to you or me. Chinese characters have not been used in Vietnam since the nineteenth century, but they convey tradition and opulence
This page moves on from a previous one of
displays of Japanese
calligraphy in Edinburgh, half way round the world, to calligraphy in Vietnam. Here the photographs come from three sources: a class for learning contemporary calligraphy (comparable to the
class in the Lakes)
and two calligraphers selling their works of art on the street. In the Far East calligraphy is
on a par
with painting as an art form. One of the featured street artists is an elderly man presenting himself as a scholar artist, and writing traditional greetings and wishes in Chinese characters, while the other is a student offering modern Vietnamese calligraphy. First some photographs from calligraphy classes in Hà Nội.
Mr. Khánh's
calligraphy classes
were held twice a week in the shady grounds of his family home near
Văn Miếu
- The Temple of Literature
Students at the classes practicing brush work using pre-lined sheets - each stroke is contained within a printed rectangle
Khánh working on the scroll seen lower down the page
The teacher demonstrates the way the tip of the brush must move...
...and here points out a strength (or weakness) of one of the strokes the student has made
A demonstration with students attending
Khánh shows two students a stroke with a fine brush
To the left is the scroll Khánh is seen working on in the photographs and in the film clip below. At first glance it appears to be in an unintelligible script. But it is only the stylisation that makes it seem so. The top three letters are: a wrap around 'T', enclosing an 'r', and a rather open topped 'a'. Tra that is 'Tea' - Khánh's family's business. Below the heading is a paean to the social pleasure of tea. All using Roman script for the Vietnamese language. This means it could equally well be used for English, but such use I have never seen.
Here Khánh is working with a fine brush on the lower part of the scroll
Contrasting calligraphers. Above Khánh works on a presentation scroll in Vietnamese Roman letters...
...while here an older man, adopting a scholar's mien, writes Chinese characters expressing aphorisms
And from that era of scholar artists, here, probably mid-nineteenth century, is a Vietnamese hand written book in Chinese characters
The artist waits, brush poised, for a customer to choose - people passing on motorbikes stop off to give their orders. The whole process is a bit of street theatre in itself
The man decides which characters he wants...
...the artist sets to work. They choose from lists like the one the man above is holding (and can be seen in the photo above the book)
And the third set of photographs are of another street calligrapher. This time he, like Khánh, is writing in Roman script, but doing so for a passing trade. This is Huy (well his seal says so and my memory is no match for time) a student who makes money selling poems and messages that he writes in front of an audience near
Hoàn Kiếm Lake.
One rapt attendee also hunkers down to see more clearly
Huy, hunkered, shoes off, dipping his brush. To his left...
...the sheet shown at the bottom of this page
Writing, and on completion...
...applying his seal - socks of a poor student!
The page is then passed to his friend to mount.
The completed page: Trailers...
The next Picture Posting page
continues with ground level artistry: the games of chess that are played everywhere in Vietnam.
The next page
of the Mosaic Section is headed 'Subjugated'.
Or go to the contents Go to the contents of the Mosaic Section. of the Mosaic Section.
A page of photographs of goods being sold on the streets of Vietnam
To one of a number of pages about Hoàn Kiếm Lake
...guide to this site