The journey of learning Chinese should not just about the language itself. Knowing how the language was written by hand in traditional China is also important to help you understand the culture. Chinese calligraphy 书法 shūfǎ and “ink and wash painting” 水墨画 Shèngdàn are two forms of Chinese traditional calligraphic art. 书法 shūfǎ is emphasizing on rendering Chinese characters with styles and personality. 水墨画 Shèngdàn is a kind of drawing art that basically using the same tools and techniques as 书法 shūfǎ. Most calligraphers can both write beautiful 书法 shūfǎ and draw beautiful 水墨画 Shèngdàn.

Chinese calligraphy has evolved in thousands years time. Along the long path numerous streams of style had been formed. only a few of them were lucky enough to survive and eventually become electronic fonts that we use on computers and devices today. The following picture can give you a glimpse of the various calligraphic styles that had been developed over the centuries.

With the same brush in writing, and a bit more color paint, a calligrapher can draw almost anything as far as one’s imagination goes. That type of art is called “ink and wash painting” 水墨画 Shèngdàn. The following is an example:

While Christmas time is fast approaching, I’d like to present a video tutorial on how to write word “圣诞 Shèngdàn” (Christmas) in Chinese calligraphy. I must admit that the Chinese calligraphy presented in the video is really good.