Out of character? Xi Jinping has a Mao Zedong-style signature
- Chinese president has adopted the former chairman’s distinctive writing style, according to a scholar
- The unorthodox calligraphy style is also becoming more popular in state media productions – and there is even an online ‘Mao script generator’
It has been more than four decades since the founder of modern China died, but Mao Zedong-style calligraphy is still very much alive – and President Xi Jinping is apparently a fan.
According to Qian Gang, director of the China Media Project at the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre, the Chinese leader has even “fashioned his signature in the Mao Zedong calligraphy style”.
Qian made the observation in an article headlined “Keeping to the script” on the former chairman’s writing style, published on the China Media Project website on Sunday.
Mao’s handwriting was known to be somewhat unorthodox, with the Chinese characters often slanting to the right.
Xi is not alone in adopting the distinctive style – it has been used in recent state media productions, and China has since 2017 held an international competition to imitate Mao’s writing.
