Chinese Calligrapher Dong Fengshu's Work Sold Record High At Charity Auction (Photo : Getty Images)
Calligraphy is one of the art forms in China that continues to be done and appreciated in China and other parts of the world.
However, because of the unique way that some Chinese women do calligraphy, a 63-year-old artist was kicked out of government-led China Artists Association (CAA). Sun Ping of Heilongjiang, a member of the CAA since 1985, first featured a half-naked woman in 2006 in his calligraphy titled “Unknown Tao.”
The woman wrote Chinese text with a calligraphy brush in her vagina, reported Shanghaiist. Chinese media, which were shocked by the intimate performance art piece, called Sun’s work “vulgar” and an affront to the art of calligraphy and traditional Chinese society.
His next work is “Bi Front” which also used a similar way of writing calligraphy in Sun’s bid to dissect dignity, identity and sexism. But according to Sixth Tome, the CAA decided to remove him from their association because of his work being recognized abroad, reported Dazeddigital.
In response to his expulsion from CAA, Sun wrote an open letter which criticized media and the association for their misdirection and untruthfulness.
Sun wrote, “I felt honoured to have a government organisation remembering me but since I began to do contemporary art in the late 80s, I never had anything to do with them, the membership was just like a dead body, and I would like to thank them for kicking me out.”
At the same time, the artist denied that the brush pen used by the female calligrapher was made out of women's pubic hair. Sun further said, “They don’t know that this type of calligraphy was aimed at challenging the recognition of high brow and low brow. Those who associate this with sexual activity and dirty things are ones who really [are] dirty and boring, therefore they felt offended.”
