Q&A
1. How did you begin exploring the contemporary aspects of calligraphy? What was the starting point of this journey?
Yulong Peng: To put it simply, I didn’t want to create traditional calligraphy anymore. But even so, my love for the practice is profound—rooted in family heritage and an innate passion that has grown with me over the years. Beyond eating, sleeping, and smoking, I’ve never hesitated to invest in ink, brushes, and paper for my work. Writing has been my sole passion for decades, shaping me into someone who is both deeply solitary and abundantly fulfilled. It has become an indispensable and vital part of my life.
My approach to contemporary calligraphy stems from purely academic research in my own mind, prompted by my teaching career. I’ve studied everything from oracle bone script to modern calligraphy, and through this extensive exploration, I gradually formed my own conceptual framework: the structure of calligraphy is essentially the sum of various brushstroke forms, balanced between "substance" (strokes) and "void" (the empty spaces, or the surrounding space).
The transformation between "substance" and "void" is at the heart of my philosophy. My aim is to turn "void" into "substance," making the intangible tangible. Once this idea crystallized, the rest became a matter of aesthetics—purely personal aesthetics, devoid of any so-called traditional elements from calligraphy history.
I coined the term “conceptual aesthetics” to describe this approach. Later, I added the word “thought” to form “conceptual aesthetic thought” because every aesthetic concept must first be rooted in thought. For instance, before creating my next work, I must first develop my own personal thought process—analyzing its origin, formation, and how to implement it in practice. This involves convincing myself of the validity of my artistic thought through rigorous documentation (I’ve written hundreds of thousands of notes on this). Only after this self-convincing process do I proceed to the next stage of practice.
If I cannot convince myself, I won’t move forward. Once I’ve established a foundation through practice, I revisit my thoughts to see if the results validate them. This cyclical process of thought and practice drives my creative exploration, with each iteration pushing me toward new “conceptual aesthetic thoughts” and practical innovations.
Interestingly, as my work evolved, I discovered numerous parallels between my ideas and ancient writings on calligraphy, as well as aesthetics and philosophy, despite not having read these texts before forming my thoughts. The overlaps were often strikingly similar, and when I encountered such moments, I’d note them in my books with a playful “hahaha.” Later, I came across Liang Qichao’s writings and found that he, too, had a unique way of annotating with “hahaha.” Though I’ve yet to read that specific book, it inspired me to write a short essay titled “Hahaha” in my notes, capturing this shared sense of delight. Hahaha.
2. You mentioned that structure is the core of contemporaneity in calligraphy. Could you elaborate on the meaning of structure and how it influences an entire work?
Yulong Peng:
I believe that the contemporaneity of calligraphy is not unique to our era. Throughout the history of calligraphy, all the works that have been preserved were undoubtedly contemporary in their own time. If you examine any era's calligraphy or written works, you’ll find that the masterpieces were preserved because their structures stood out. I once said, “Every work from history that has been passed down and studied owes its survival to its distinctive structure. Works with ordinary structures usually ended up as historical records.” This is a notion that can be verified. Each era has its own contemporaneity, which is why Shitao’s famous saying, “Brush and ink should follow the times,” emerged.
From this, I have consistently concluded that structure is the foundational source of contemporaneity in calligraphy. However, how long a work’s structural contemporaneity can endure depends on the artist's concepts, aesthetic vision, and ideas. Every object in the world has a structure (this applies to scientific research as well), which reflects a macro-structural perspective. For any art form, structure is fundamental. Without a structural perspective, it is difficult to achieve artistic formal beauty, and calligraphy is no exception.
I have summarized the structure of my calligraphy works into three major series:
- Innovating Tradition: This series, created over several decades, explores new structural forms based on traditional calligraphy. (The works currently available on the platform belong to this series.)
- “Blank Space” Center: An upgraded version of the first series, emphasizing the role of blank space as the central visual element.
- The “Cang Ji” Series: This series features entirely new characters that I have created. At first glance, they may resemble calligraphy, but they are actually new scripts that do not exist in the history of calligraphy and are unreadable in the conventional sense. (The first batch of works has already been completed and is currently being mounted. High-resolution images will be available by late December, and they will be showcased on the platform first.)
What do “Blank Space” Center and “Horizontal Tension and Vertical Control” mean? When I create, I no longer focus on the “solid” strokes and structures as visual elements. Instead, I start from the concept of “blank space” as the visual core. This means creating an organic connection between horizontal and vertical blank spaces.
Why is blank space so important? Traditionally, our visual habit is to read characters vertically, not horizontally (although modern printed materials are often horizontally aligned). Vertical viewing often neglects the horizontal, and vice versa. However, in my view, a truly excellent calligraphic work should break free from the dichotomy of either vertical or horizontal focus. Both directions should be equally emphasized.
In both theory and practice, this requires breaking the limitations of horizontal perception. The key is establishing a “blank space” center. The idea is not to construct the structure around stroke shapes but rather to use blank space to guide the arrangement. To create a complete and aesthetically pleasing blank space, the strokes are written in service of the blank space. The more integrated the blank space, the more cohesive and beautiful the structure becomes.
By designing works around blank space, countless new and diverse blank spaces can emerge. Consequently, this approach also generates novel structures and stroke shapes. When viewing such works, the first impression is of the changes in blank space, followed by variations in structure and character form. The more aesthetically refined the blank space, the newer the structure, and the more avant-garde the aesthetics.
As for my newly created “Cang Ji” series, I will not elaborate too much here. Once the works are complete, I plan to create a dedicated topic to explain them in detail.
3. In your creative process, how do you use seal carving techniques to construct character forms, and what impact does this have on the overall structure of a work?
Yulong Peng:
Regarding the phrase “in a square inch lies a vast world” associated with seals, my personal aesthetic preference leans toward densely composed seals of various kinds. Dense compositions create a relatively complete red background, which produces strong visual stimulation by intensely engaging the eye. This relatively complete red background aligns perfectly with the “blank space” often found in calligraphy. In other words, seals are the art form best suited for constructing a complete “red background.”
In my first series of works, the red background of seals primarily integrates with individual characters and the overall vertical structure. However, in my second series, this approach is thoroughly applied to individual characters, groups of characters, and both the horizontal and vertical structures of the composition. Every work—regardless of size—is created as if it were a complete seal. This includes combinations of characters, whether grouped horizontally, vertically, or in clusters of several or even dozens of characters. The various forms of strokes are aesthetically arranged, ensuring the space becomes a unified whole.
When the space is unified, the structure naturally achieves cohesion. The more interconnected and intertwined the space, the more complete it becomes, resulting in a more cohesive structure. This significantly reduces the conventional recognition of calligraphy and blurs the initial question of “What character is this?” Instead, it amplifies the expressive forms of artistic language. When the “center of space” is beautiful, the character structure is undoubtedly beautiful as well. This beauty refers to the formal beauty of art.
By interweaving horizontal strokes in horizontal arrangements and vertical strokes in vertical arrangements, I incorporate the unexpressed or underexplored spaces of traditional calligraphy into the internal spaces of the characters. In doing so, the newly added “spaces” merge seamlessly with preexisting spaces, forming an entirely new space. This new space represents an innovation in “space.” Spatial innovation leads to innovation in stroke forms, which in turn leads to structural innovation. Structural innovation drives the overall innovation of the work.
When the “space” within a work is complete, the structure becomes complete, and when the structure is complete, the entire work becomes complete. This breaks through the limitations of traditional calligraphy, where internal space is complete but external space is not integrated into the internal space. It disrupts the fixed compositional principles inherent in traditional calligraphy.
(Note: Personally, I believe that what is referred to as “composition” is a concept added later by scholars and should not be deliberately preserved or emphasized. Instead, forms should be constructed or broken based on “space” as the central focus.)
4. Your works are often praised for their poetic and picturesque qualities, as well as the fusion of Eastern and Western aesthetics. How is this fusion achieved?
Yulong Peng:
The expression of lines (or strokes) in my works has been constantly evolving. Within a single stroke, I aim to convey various aesthetic qualities. This is closely related to the aesthetics of the line itself. In other words, the final form that the line takes is unpredictable and only becomes clear after the work is completed. Of course, this is deeply connected to my unique brushwork technique, which is filled with qualities such as the weathered, picturesque, distinctive, changing, and even naive beauty. As for the pictorial quality of my work: when creating, I do have drafts. My definition of a draft is the basic framework of a character’s form. What does this mean? For instance, on the surface, I might be using a draft from September, but in practice, I write based on the draft of November. What is the November style? It refers to the basic framework of characters in the November draft, which has undergone significant changes from the September version. There might even be newly formed character structures created as I write. Therefore, when creating, I often find myself in a state of constant change, like the “Morning Qin, Evening Chu” state, where I destroy the original draft structure at any time and create a new one based on the changes in the first stroke.
Because of this draft, I break many of the basic character structures that were already established. In other words, once I finish the first stroke, the second stroke no longer follows the draft but is instead generated by the form of the first stroke. This continues, with each stroke developing freely and organically, unconcerned with adhering strictly to the draft. This writing method is very much like painting. (Note: I majored in Calligraphy, Painting, and Seal Engraving in college), so when I create, I’m not just thinking of calligraphy; I also have painting and seal engraving ideas that unconsciously and consciously merge into the work.
From my own reflection, I’ve discovered that the fundamental essence of Eastern and Western art lies in the form of the line (or stroke). What do I mean by this? The starting point of any art form is the form of the line (or its appearance), and calligraphy is no exception. The most basic unit of a character's structure is the stroke. The key to constructing this structure lies in how these strokes are combined. Of course, I always emphasize that the combination should start from the space, not from the strokes themselves. My belief is that only when the “space” takes shape can the strokes take shape. Without the space, the strokes cannot form, and without the strokes, the structure cannot form. (Note: "Taking shape" means becoming a beautiful form, such as being straight, slanted, or curved.) When the space changes, the strokes change, and when the strokes change, the structure inevitably changes.
Therefore, the fusion of Eastern and Western art lies fundamentally in philosophy, aesthetics, and form, not in the distinction between calligraphy and painting. In the end, what is expressed is merely an art form, not the form itself. Thus, what I’m merging is the “space” of beauty, the “form” of beautiful lines, not the style. Because, when any art form is broken down, what remains is simply the fusion of line forms and space, not anything else.
4. Your works are often praised for their poetic and picturesque qualities, as well as the fusion of Eastern and Western aesthetics. How is this fusion achieved?
Yulong Peng:
The expression of lines (or strokes) in my works has been constantly evolving. Within a single stroke, I aim to convey various aesthetic qualities. This is closely related to the aesthetics of the line itself. In other words, the final form that the line takes is unpredictable and only becomes clear after the work is completed. Of course, this is deeply connected to my unique brushwork technique, which is filled with qualities such as the weathered, picturesque, distinctive, changing, and even naive beauty. As for the pictorial quality of my work: when creating, I do have drafts. My definition of a draft is the basic framework of a character’s form. What does this mean? For instance, on the surface, I might be using a draft from September, but in practice, I write based on the draft of November. What is the November style? It refers to the basic framework of characters in the November draft, which has undergone significant changes from the September version. There might even be newly formed character structures created as I write. Therefore, when creating, I often find myself in a state of constant change, like the “Morning Qin, Evening Chu” state, where I destroy the original draft structure at any time and create a new one based on the changes in the first stroke.
Because of this draft, I break many of the basic character structures that were already established. In other words, once I finish the first stroke, the second stroke no longer follows the draft but is instead generated by the form of the first stroke. This continues, with each stroke developing freely and organically, unconcerned with adhering strictly to the draft. This writing method is very much like painting. (Note: I majored in Calligraphy, Painting, and Seal Engraving in college), so when I create, I’m not just thinking of calligraphy; I also have painting and seal engraving ideas that unconsciously and consciously merge into the work.
From my own reflection, I’ve discovered that the fundamental essence of Eastern and Western art lies in the form of the line (or stroke). What do I mean by this? The starting point of any art form is the form of the line (or its appearance), and calligraphy is no exception. The most basic unit of a character's structure is the stroke. The key to constructing this structure lies in how these strokes are combined. Of course, I always emphasize that the combination should start from the space, not from the strokes themselves. My belief is that only when the “space” takes shape can the strokes take shape. Without the space, the strokes cannot form, and without the strokes, the structure cannot form. (Note: "Taking shape" means becoming a beautiful form, such as being straight, slanted, or curved.) When the space changes, the strokes change, and when the strokes change, the structure inevitably changes.
Therefore, the fusion of Eastern and Western art lies fundamentally in philosophy, aesthetics, and form, not in the distinction between calligraphy and painting. In the end, what is expressed is merely an art form, not the form itself. Thus, what I’m merging is the “space” of beauty, the “form” of beautiful lines, not the style. Because, when any art form is broken down, what remains is simply the fusion of line forms and space, not anything else.
5. Have you experimented with new mediums in your writing materials? How have these attempts enriched your creative expression?
Yulong Peng:
Chinese characters and calligraphy have historically been practiced on a variety of materials, such as oracle bone inscriptions on tortoise shells, bronze inscriptions on ancient vessels, and characters engraved on swords, coins, and even stone cliffs in rivers and mountains. These materials demonstrate the ethnic and global nature of Chinese calligraphy.
As for myself, I haven’t yet conducted extensive creative practice on different materials. However, I have recently been contemplating using a different medium for my third series, the Peng Yulong Custom Character “Cang Ji” series. Currently, the Peng Yulong Custom Character series is mainly practiced on various types of paper, but once the series diversifies and matures, I plan to explore other materials. Stay tuned for future developments!
6. How do you balance the traditional norms of calligraphic strokes with the freedom of contemporary forms in your work?
Yulong Peng:
This is an excellent question because it touches on a significant challenge for traditional calligraphy. Traditional calligraphy has an important characteristic: the aesthetic inheritance, which can be called tradition. What does aesthetic inheritance mean? It refers to the issue that has existed since the origins of writing: legibility. Once a written character enters the realm of reading, it necessarily releases its meaning, making writing an essential part of culture. This is the fundamental issue from the very beginning of writing—its connection to reading, which has always been intertwined with culture. Even with cursive script, the first thing people look at isn’t the artistic quality but the individual characters within the cursive script, after which they judge whether the technique is correct or not. Only once the script is deemed correct do they begin the so-called appreciation, rather than admiring it purely as art without first understanding the characters.
Given this, I started thinking about another way to express creativity—by first deconstructing the strokes to study them (as I mentioned earlier). Once the strokes were deconstructed, I discovered something very important: the same stroke appears differently in various historical contexts—such as in oracle bone script, bronze inscriptions, on swords and coins, cliff inscriptions, bamboo slips, scrolls, and particularly in the edicts from Emperor Qin Shi Huang, as well as in the various script forms from Qin and Han dynasties, like seal script, clerical script, cursive, running, and regular script, and in later dynasties' calligraphy.
At this point, I realized something very important: in calligraphy, the same stroke can have a very personalized expression. From this individualized stroke, I could generate many other personalized strokes. This is where it gets interesting. Once this personalized stroke is created, we can find the fundamental position in the structure to place the stroke, allowing for endless variations. In other words, as long as the stroke fits within this general position, the shape of the stroke in that spot can be freely decided by the calligrapher. This is similar to how an artist can freely present an object within a given position in a painting. This marks the contemporary nature of the stroke because this personalized stroke form can emerge from oracle bone script, bronze script, cliff inscriptions, and more, creating a rich variety of stroke shapes. Once the strokes are free, the structure becomes free too. When the structure is free, these personalized stroke forms can lead to endless possibilities for the overall composition.
When the structure is no longer constrained, it becomes free. As contemporary people inject their modern aesthetic concepts, the creative practice can become distinctly contemporary. For example, if contemporary people favor large, bold structures, all we need to do is exaggerate the strokes and expand the spacing between them. The possibilities are endless.
7. What advice would you give to beginners or those interested in calligraphy to help them understand its contemporary nature?
Yulong Peng:
The contemporary nature of calligraphy has existed since the dawn of written language; it's just that what we view as "contemporary" today was once part of its own era. For beginners, the key to understanding contemporary calligraphy lies in recognizing the difference in aesthetic experience between traditional and modern works. If a calligraphic piece evokes a new and deeper emotional response compared to classical works, it may have contemporary characteristics. This modern aesthetic resonates when it deeply connects with the viewer’s inner world. A truly contemporary piece is one that resonates with you, reflecting a shared understanding of the present era.
8. Looking ahead, what kind of impact do you hope your work will have on the development of calligraphy and its audience?
Yulong Peng:
In my three series of works, I have deep expectations for each. The first two series are closely connected to deep tradition, appearing traditional but differing greatly from it. The third series, although seemingly traditional, breaks from tradition entirely. In this series, almost every character’s form has never existed before, yet the components of its structure are rooted in traditional brushstrokes and forms. The most prominent characteristic across all three series is the principle of "resemblance and non-resemblance," a fundamental law in all art forms.
The first series presents a "child-like" style, with strokes that are innocent and natural, and a structure that is free and uninhibited. The second series breaks away from traditional stroke-based forms and shifts focus to "space." From a visual perspective, the first thing you notice is the exaggerated, transformed "blank space" in the structure of the characters, while the traditional brushstrokes recede to the background. This shift in focus allows you to first appreciate the space before transitioning to the strokes and structure, moving from an aesthetic appreciation of brushstrokes and structure to a focus on the space and then back to the brushstrokes. The emphasis on the horizontal structure creates a sense of uncertainty, which is this series' most intriguing aspect. Throughout the history of calligraphy, such forms have appeared across different eras. I believe this series stands at the forefront of this era, as it challenges the traditional approach to calligraphy while placing a greater emphasis on the artistic core principle of "space" (the empty space), which has always been fundamental in classical calligraphy.
My third series is particularly promising and worth cherishing. The most essential aspect of this series is that it is still calligraphy—yes, it retains the brushstrokes and structure of calligraphy, but the characters themselves are unrecognizable. This solves the fundamental issue facing the future of calligraphy, which is the need for the viewer to understand the meaning of the characters to appreciate the work. By making the characters unrecognizable, the work can be appreciated purely as an artwork, focusing solely on its visual and aesthetic appeal, without requiring any textual interpretation. This allows for a purely artistic and visual experience. Even I, as the creator, may not recognize the characters' original meaning, though I may eventually learn them. What matters is that the work is composed of various beautiful structures formed by the brushstrokes, and these forms can evolve infinitely, providing endless variations of beauty.
I truly believe that this third series is something to look forward to, as it offers an entirely new artistic experience. While it is still in its early stages, I see its potential for great success once it enters full practice. I hope that, once released, people will appreciate the growth of this series and the beauty it offers, as well as its future value. I encourage everyone to give me feedback on their experience with these works, as I will continue to refine their ideas, aesthetic, and artistic value, as well as their relevance in contemporary society.
Yulong Peng's calligraphy creation is not only a presentation of artistic form but also a profound reflection on cultural inheritance and contemporary aesthetics. Through the contemporary nature of structure, he opens the door to innovation in calligraphy, elevating traditional art to a higher academic and artistic value. This fusion of tradition and modernity offers a new direction for the development of calligraphy in contemporary times.