THE IDEA of writing English in a Chinese way may sound weird. But this is the essence of award-winning artist Xu Bing's 'square-word calligraphy'.
'Square words', developed by Xu, look like Chinese characters, but they are not. Look closer, and there is still no clue. Actually, the puzzling calligraphy is made up of English letters arranged in a square-word format, which makes them look like Chinese characters.
The calligraphy was developed under the theme of readability. There are rules on how to arrange the English letters. 'Sometimes I receive letters which are written in square-word calligraphy,' said Xu, whose unique artwork won the prestigious MacArthur Award in 1999. It is popularly known as the 'prize for genius'.
Xu grew up in Beijing. His father, who loved calligraphy, was the head of Beijing University's history department and a librarian. His family background nurtured his passion for calligraphy. After moving to the United States in 1990, he was inspired by the English language and developed the new form in 1994.
'To Western people, Chinese calligraphy is just a picture. They can't enter the world of calligraphy. But square-word calligraphy allows them to enjoy Chinese calligraphy, too,' Xu explained.
He also related his 'not Chinese, not English' calligraphy to the practice of bilingualism in Hong Kong. 'The practice is very similar to the calligraphy. People [here] look like Chinese, but they're not. They may speak English. Just like the calligraphy. They look like Chinese characters, but in fact, they're made up of English,' Xu said.