Chinese calligraphy in touch-screen age

Seals in ancient Chinese language. Zou Hong / For China Daily

In a nearby store, a man who declines to give his name argues that technology alone isn't responsible for the perceived slowdown in sales of calligraphy tools. A native of eastern China's Jiangxi province, he has been selling brushes and paper in Shuyuanmen for the past 20 years, and calls this year tough for his trade. His goods cost from 10-1,000 yuan.

But there are other factors, including general market conditions and what calligraphy means to different age groups in China, he says. For the elderly, practicing calligraphy can be therapeutic and it can serve as a way to strengthen mental agility, the unnamed shop owner offers as an example.

Elsewhere in the neighborhood, Ma Xiaopeng, a 42-year-old calligraphy enthusiast is seen buying paper rolls rich in texture. Each roll has about 50 pages, with 4.5 yuan for one.

He describes calligraphy as a hobby that makes him relax, like yoga does. And while Ma no longer handwrites letters, he pursues Chinese calligraphy, he says.

Ma buys paper from a shop that is run by another East China native, who came to Xi'an from Anhui province, a few years ago. Besides paper, ink and brushes, this shop stocks up on a wide variety of trays made of rocks on which a calligrapher's ink is poured for the writing. The trays made of jade are more expensive.

One comes across several practitioners of calligraphy sitting in the open while walking through the lanes of Shuyuanmen.