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Chinese Calligraphy and Tourism: From Cultural Heritage to Landscape Symbol and Media of the Tourism Industry

Jie Zhang, Wenyue Tang, Chunyun Shi, Zehua Liu and Xia Wang Institute for Tourism Research, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

In this article, the authors attempt to explain whether and how Chinese calligraphy – a characteristic cultural symbol – plays and will play an important role in the modern tourism industry in China given its historic context and modern renaissance. Chinese calligraphy as heritage, with its long history, diverse types and forms, broad connota- tion, maturity in theory, wide distribution, pervasive existence, and close relationship to living culture, is a tourist attraction and also a symbolic element characterizing the cultural landscape as national identity; in fact there exists a substantial calligraphic landscape. Investigations have revealed that there are many diverse calligraphy land- scapes perceived. Chinese calligraphy connects a system of cultures and forms a cul- tural chain. Reviewing recent research on cultural landscapes and heritage as well as calligraphy landscapes, some new ideas on tourism landscapes integrated with this culture of calligraphy are discussed in this paper. Based on characteristics of a culture chain that links calligraphy and the Chinese cultural system, a possible model with calligraphy to promote tourism is presented. The transformation process is as follows: calligraphy heritage!calligraphic context!traditional calli- graphy landscape !generalised calligraphic landscape!pervasive calligraphic sym- bolic system. With this process, calligraphy is transferred from cultural heritage to a holistic medium for the development of the tourism industry.

doi: 10.1080/13683500802475836

Keywords: calligraphy, symbolic space, regional context, calligraphic landscape, tourism

Introduction Calligraphy is involved in various writing systems in the world (Martin,

1984, pp. 7 – 35). The art of Chinese calligraphy seems to be a nationwide tourist attraction for Chinese domestic tourists rather than for foreign arrivals. Yet calligraphy is still a potential tourist attraction for foreign visitors, since without understanding it one would otherwise lose much of the appreciation and experience of the real China and Chinese culture. In China, Chinese calligraphy – basically the art of writing characters – is considered as a fine art, along with poetry and painting, which comprise the three perfections of Chinese art (Sullivan, 1986). On the Chinese scale of aesthetic values, top priority is given to calligraphy, painting, poetry, and music (Bussagli, 1988, p.13). For most Westerners, it is probably not very evident what aesthetic quality is attached to Chinese calligraphy (Willetts, 1958), some early European experts on Chinese art did not even mention calligraphy in the whole system of Chinese art (e.g. Cohn, 1935). Calligraphy had become a popular and elevated art

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form as early as 2000 years ago in the Han Dynasty (25 – 220BC) with both popular public participation and the emergence of related theories of art criti- cism or aesthetics. Chinese calligraphy is characterised by its origins, distri- bution, cultural connotations, and classification, and results in a so-called calligraphy culture chain (Zhang, 2006a), which has the potential for tourism development and the construction of identities of destinations. In most treatises on the Chinese cultural landscape, calligraphy itself has not been thought to be a kind of landscape, e.g., Wu and Liu (2004, p. 378) noticed that verse couplets in China were a linguistic landscape rather than a calligraphic landscape, though calligraphy actually played a basic visual communication medium in this case. However, calligraphy is distributed almost all over China in the forms of cliff epigraphs, signboards, and couplet epigraph boards, especially in those famous tourist destinations. Chinese geographers have claimed the existence of calligraphic landscape (e.g., Wu & Situ, 2002), and. Zhang (2003) redefined the calligraphic landscape and presented a detailed classification. Based on characteristics of calligraphy as heritage symbols and landscape, this paper will focus on the calligraphy’s role in future Chinese tourism during the process that China becomes a hot international tourist destination.

Chinese calligraphic heritage system – calligraphy as cultural heritage Chinese calligraphy as widespread culture in Chinese civilization

Chinese calligraphy has a long history and lasting continuity. The Sumerian cuneiform scripts and the Egyptian hieroglyphics belonging to the period before 3500 BC (Gaur, 1987; Wissler, 1923) are older than the Chinese character system, yet the Chinese character system being is the only surviving writing system out of those far ancient civilizations of the world. Many Chinese char- acters being used now still have the same structure and the meaning as their antecedents of 3500 years ago. The earliest calligraphy can be identified to the period of the oracle bone inscriptions (Chen, 1990, p. 36), a genius superior art form since the Han Dynasty (Wang, 1990, p. 1).

The peoples involved with Chinese calligraphy and its related culture live in regions including China, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia. Calligraphy is also a folklore culture. For instance, practising calligraphy and the appreciation of calligraphic works have been a tradition of Chinese leisure since the Han Dynasty. Calligraphy continues to be practised as a graceful and healthy leisure activity by modern Chinese. In China, calligraphy gained an elevated position in art since Confucius nominated ‘writing’ as one of the six essential arts (liuyi). Calligraphy as one’s handwriting, like that in European graphology (Gullen-Whur, 1984; Nesos, 1986), is thought to be associated with one’s per- sonality, character, temperament, emotion, and even to one’s moral character in the classics of Chinese calligraphy theory.

In terms of its forms, Chinese calligraphy may be classified into art works, crafts, and landscapes. Calligraphic art works include original brush works on rice paper (hanging scrolls, hand scrolls, fans, mounted albums, etc.) and copies (stone inscription rubbings, porcelain plates or craft, wood

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carvings, etc.). Calligraphic landscapes include stone inscription tablets, cliff inscriptions, resort epigraphy, plaque, and signboard, couplets in various tourist destinations like resorts, gardens, national parks, scenic spots, and tourist attractions.

Calligraphy in its form as resort epigraphy on cliffs, inscription tablets of mausoleums, and cenotaph historical sites is a record of historical information excluded from formal historical documents.

Chinese calligraphy as literati culture in Chinese civilization

Chinese calligraphy is thought to be the essence of the Chinese culture (Hsiung, 2003, cover), and the typical and superior form of traditional Chinese art. For example, some European researchers considered Chinese paintings as the only real art of China, yet Chinese painters usually first practise calligraphy before they turn to painting (Swan, 1958). Meanwhile, brush inscription of calligraphy composed a full composition of Chinese painting (Chiang, 1935). Techniques of calligraphic brushwork used to be fundamental elements in traditional Chinese paintings (Grousset, 1967, p. 286; Kwuo, 1981, p. XV; Tregear, 1980, p. 7). Because of its perceived superiority, calligraphy has been earning a unique status in Chinese civilization and in modern China’s heritage tourism. With some of its traits having originated from Chinese philosophy (Woo, 1979), Chinese calligraphy is also a unique type of art in world art.

As a system of traditional culture, calligraphy possesses is diversified in type, widely distributed, broadly connoted, and mature with plenty of theories. theories., and wide distribution. The Chinese calligraphic theory in practice and appreciation may reflect Confucian, Taoist, Zen Buddhism, traditional philosophy, and aesthetics, as well as military strategic theory (Ledderose, 1984). On the other hand, calligraphic theory made its own contribution to Chinese aesthetics (Chen, 2003). It even becomes the rule of other styles of art and technique, such as seal engraving, painting, crafts, and even architec- ture (Chiang, 1973, pp. 225 – 239; Lin, 2000, pp. 283 – 290, 308). Chinese calligra- phy is also a kind of culture carrier that spreads traditional Chinese philosophy, classics, poems, odes, verse, ancient lyrics, distich verse, as well as famous quo- tations. Calligraphy penetrates philosophical thinking, economic culture, material culture, religion, leisure culture, and architecture. The Chinese idea of nature and the universe may also be reflected in calligraphy aesthetics with that has a systematic tradition since the beginning of calligraphic theory 2000 years in the Han Dynasty.

Chinese calligraphy as heritage

Heritages can be classified into tangible and intangible ones. In current heri- tage preservation practice in China, folkloric intangible heritage has been the only one given proper attention. Since calligraphy is often thought to be elite culture, it is not cited in the recently publicised First Round National Intangible Heritage List of China. There exist four types of calligraphy (Table 1).

Calligraphy matches the UNESCO definition of intangible cultural heritage to the extent that it can be thought of as performance, ritual, craftsmanship, and as concerned with man and nature.

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For the Chinese, practicing calligraphy used to be one of the recreations and leisure activities of the literati; but nowadays it has become a popular leisure activity amongst all (Figure 1). With highly flexible brushes, variable chroma in Chinese ink, and highly absorptive rice paper, calligraphy is also extremely diversified in its style, tastes, and aesthetic imaginations. In this, the aesthetics of calligraphic knowledge and practices often reflect the way Chinese relate to nature and the universe (Zhang, 2004).

Calligraphy has also been a form of performing art in traditional salons and artistic gatherings for centuries. At the closing ceremony of the Asian Games, Doha, Chinese calligraphy was also performed in the promotional programmes for the following Asian Games of Guangzhou (China).

The manufacture of writing tools has had a long tradition as a craft. The four basic tools for the practice of Chinese calligraphy, i.e., brush, ink stick, rice paper, and ink slab, became the ‘four treasures’ in traditional Chinese literati studios. The production of these four tools could also enhance the reputation of certain towns. For example, rice paper in China used to be called as Xuan

Figure 1 Percentage of citizens practising calligraphy from four metropolises of China in 2003 – 2004 Source: Adapted from Huang, 2004.

Table 1 Cultural heritage system of Chinese calligraphy

Category Type Case calligraphic culture

Tangible heritage

Hard landscape Epigraphy on cliff faces and stone tablets in scenic spots, couplets and signboards in gardens or towns, inscription on torsi or houses

Mobile tangible heritage

Masterpieces of calligraphic works in museums and private collections

Intangible heritage

Folklore Calligraphy-related folktale and religion, calligraphic craft and related manufacturing technique

Elite or non- folklore

Historic record of calligraphic evolution, important events in calligraphy history, calligraphy-related literature, calligraphic theory like aesthetics and critiques

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Paper, because the rice paper produced in Xuan Cheng county was of superior quality for calligraphy and painting; likewise, Huimo (literally Hui ink-sticks produced in Hui-zhou county), Duanyan (ink-slabs produced in Duanzhou county), and Hubi (brushes made in Huzhou county) (Du & Du, 2002, pp. 153 – 157). Furthermore, finely decorated instruments or materials of calli- graphy such as the four treasures of the studios became artefacts, crafts, and even artworks in themselves, e.g., ink slab carvings established many Chinese national folk art masters.

Calligraphic works were often used in folklore rituals, and people often hung a large calligraphic work with single large Chinese character (longevity) in the centre of a guest hall to celebrate one’s important birthdays, such as turning 50, 60, and so on. Hanging spring festival couplet scrolls on doors, on either side of doors, or on walls was a new year ’s celebration ritual for most traditional Chinese families.

For writing tools, derived culture might include related decorative arts and the techniques of manufacture, while the related historic sites might be the places of high-quality raw materials and famous local artisans. The intangible culture might be other related traditional craftsmanship. As a communication medium, its derived culture might be the textual researches and archeology, and the related historic sites might be the relict sites of discovery, e.g., the Anyang relict site of Henan Province was included in the list of World Cultural Heritage of UNESCO with the discovery of the first generation of mature Chinese scripts, i.e., oracle bone inscriptions.

Calligraphy as folklore

Folklore is characterised by nationality, locality, historical continuity, regional history, and cultural diversity, and such characteristics promote tourist attrac- tions. As a result, folklore becomes an effective, pervasive, penetrative, conno- tative, and attractive cultural resource. Based on Burne’s (1914) trichotomy classification of folklore, a system of hexachotomy folklore tourism attraction was proposed (Zhang, 1997), and calligraphy could be included in various types of folk tourist attractions (Table 2).

Calligraphy as tourist attractions Calligraphy as keel of a cultural chain

Calligraphy is a kind of cultural heritage that reflects genetic processes, evol- ution, and the related functions of human civilization. In recent research, a cul- tural chain of calligraphy was discussed and identified as a series of widely involved Chinese cultures with interrelationships based on calligraphy as the hinge or keel (Zhang, 2005a). So Calligraphic Cultural Chains (CCC) can be defined as an interrelated culture system with calligraphy as a structural keel or hinge linkage. CCC can cover various fields such as economy, society, phil- osophy, religion, literature, folklore, landscape, and history. For example, as a result of a pioneer calligrapher ’s aesthetic preference to diversified forms of cal- ligraphic works, diversification of contemporary rice paper production in colour, shading decoration, and form, as well as mounting styles emerged, instead of the traditional status with single white paper.

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Calligraphy is the symbol of Chinese culture. It plays a role as a marker of national identity and increasingly draws attention from people in the era of glo- balisation. Since CCC is pervasive and characteristic in Chinese civilisation, with calligraphy as the symbol of Chinese culture, it becomes a very important resource that the tourism industry should develop. In this case, derived cul- tures, related landscapes, heritage sites, types of heritage, and regional historic contexts related to CCC become the main attributes for tourism attraction assessment (Table 3).

Calligraphy as regional historic context

The regional cultural context is composed of a cultural system and related cultural symbols and landscapes. The Chinese writing system dates back almost 3500 years, and the evolution of the script from oracle-bone inscription to seal script, then to official script, to cursive script, to regular script, and to running script often match certain historical periods or dynasties. So the in situ epigraphy as calligraphic landscape may become regional historic documents with its epoch-connotative script style. Like other heritages, calli- graphy in China has also been exploited and developed to create a market in real, fake, and reproduced antiquities. Such tourist arts generally satisfy foreign tourists’ interest in the ancient past (Evans-Pritchard, 1993).

Calligraphy as regional historic context might be characterised with the regional school of calligraphy art, local master calligraphers, regional events, and anecdotes of calligraphy, master calligraphic works of local inscriptions, and the derived regional culture system (e.g., manufacturing writing tools). Generally speaking, regional historic context is the foundation of the identity and image of the region; it is a heritage system derived from long historic regional development. Such a heritage system is directly related to a specific place, or its origin, critical developing stages, and related events. It can be easily perceived or experienced with certain carriers, specific historic records, and oral histories. Regional historic context often possesses certain integrated

Table 2 Calligraphy as folklore

Folklore type Cases of Calligraphy folklore

Belief folklore Gods of Chinese character, Buddhism and Zen calligraphy, Taoist calligraphy

Social folklore Spring festival scrolls, folklore calligraphy, calligraphy rituals, calligraphy tools, Chinese graphology based on fortune-telling

Living folklore Large calligraphy works, calligraphy couplets, fan calligraphy

Economic folklore Manufacturing rice paper, ink sticks, ink slabs, mounting techniques, calligraphy signboards, calligraphy market

Legend folktale Calligraphy context folktales, Calligraphy context idioms and vulgarisms

Recreation and Games

Competitive games of calligraphy, Lanting annually gathering, calligraphy logogriphs and riddles, Calligraphy as leisure activity and therapy

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Table 3 Calligraphic cultural chain and the qualitative evaluation of the related tourism attraction

Core of the chain

Branch of the chain

Component culture of the chain

Derived Culture

Historic context

Related historic sites

Tangible heritage

Intangible heritages

Tourism attraction

Chinese calligraphy

Writing tools Brush þ þþ þ þ þþþ þ

Xuan paper (rice paper)

þ þ þ 2 þþþþ þ

Ink stick þ þ þ þ þþ þ

Ink slab þþ þ þþ þþ þþþþ þþ

Others: Brush holder, etc.

þþ þ 2 þþ þ þ

Communication media

Oracle inscriptions þ þþþþ þþþþ þþþþ 2 þþþ

Stone & brick inscriptions

þþ þþþ þþþ þþþþ 2 þþ

Bronze inscriptions þ þþþ þþ þþþþ 2 þ

Bamboo slips 2 þþþ þþþ þþ 2 þþ

Inscription on silk and textiles

þ þþþ þþþ þþ 2 þ

In situ epigraphs in scenic spots

þþ þþþþ þþþþ þþþþ 2 þþþþ

Historic records and documents

þ þþþþ þþþþ þ þ þ

Historic context History of calligraphy þ þþþ þþ þ 2 þþ

History of calligraphic schools

þ þþ þþþ þþ 2 þþþ

(Continued)

C h in e se

C a llig

ra p h y a n d To

u rism

5 3 5

Table 3 Continued

Core of the chain

Branch of the chain Component culture of the chain

Derived Culture

Historic context

Related historic sites

Tangible heritage

Intangible heritages

Tourism attraction

Master calligraphers and regional history

þþ þþþ þþþþ þ 2 þþþþ

Succeeding of master works of calligraphy

2 þ 2 þþþþ 2 2

Script evolution and varieties þ þþ þ þþþ 2 þ

Performance techniques

Dot and stroke morphology þ þþ 2 2 2 þ

Character composition þþ þ 2 2 2 þ

Paragraph composition þþ þ 2 - 2 þ

Sense of brush-control: wet – dry, thick – thin, fast – slow moved

þþþ þ þ 2 2 þ

Appreciation aesthetics þþþþ þþ þþ þ þ þþþ

Communicated content

Quotations of classics, philosophy

þ þþ þ 2 2 þ

Literature: Poem, verse, couplet. . .

þþ þþ þþþ þ þ þþþþ

Folklores and nostalgic elements

þþþ þþþ þþ þ þþ þþþþ

Famous calligraphic works 2 þ þþ þþþþ 2 þ

Symbol of well-educated trait and identity of social status

þþ þþþþ 2 2 þþþ þþ

Practice education Leisure activity and recreation þþþ þþ þþþþ þ þ þþþ

Health and recreation therapy þþþ þþþ 2 2 þþ þþþ

Note: þþþþ, extremely important; þþþ, very important; þþ, important; þ, positive; 2, not important, obviously.

5 3 6

C u rre

n t Issu

e s in

To u rism

spiritual connotations that result in related cultural symbols and ambience, which specifically attract significant public attention. Regional historic contexts exist in real landscapes, in folklore, and in human geographical ambience. Calligraphy with its cultural chain, therefore, is such a regional context with various branches and values (Table 3), and may be related to various local real landscapes or mobile landscapes.

Calligraphy as landscape symbols

Tuan (1991), through citing the famous Qing dynasty novel The Story of Stone (The Dream of Red Mansion), pointed out that written words perfect a good Chinese garden and landscape. Here the written words are in fact the calligra- phy often on a signboard. The terminology of calligraphic landscapes concerns the role of calligraphy in a regional culture and place. Applying the classic defi- nition of cultural landscape of Sauer (1963), an early definition of calligraphic landscape mechanically refers to it as ‘a cultural configuration of modified physical environment by [the] calligrapher’ and the attached artistic configur- ation to physical landscape (Wu & Situ, 2002). In order to avoid the restrictions of such a definition, in the later research (Zhang, 2003), calligraphic landscape was defined as a portion of geographical space with specific visual character- istics and special sense of place resulting from the laying-out of assemblies of calligraphy as landscape elements, and the calligraphic landscapes were then systematically classified (Table 4).

Public perception of calligraphic landscape has been noticed and studied in some of the latest researches. The existence and the regional differentiation of calligraphic landscape were recognised and revealed (Zhang, 2006b). And investigation on the image of a township in Jiangsu Province revealed a coinci- dence: the existence of a calligraphic landscape dimension along with the geo- graphical dimension (Zhang et al., 2006). In our recent investigation on perceived places of calligraphic landscapes (Figure 2), it is revealed that calli- graphic landscapes occurred most frequently on scenic sites, which implies the significance of calligraphy as landscape attractions for tourism.

Calligraphy as an alternative tourist attraction

For tourists from Western countries, Chinese calligraphy might be a tourist attraction possessed of certain obstacles that limit their ability to understand or appreciate it; however, Chinese calligraphy can be easily appreciated in the first instance as long as it is treated as a visual art with certain attributes like painting or drawing. Moreover, calligraphic culture chains are located in the centre of Chinese culture with its visual symbolic significance, especially in this era of globalisation.

Generally speaking, from the view of classification of tourist resources (National Bureau of Standards, 2002), calligraphy belongs to the category of cultural attraction. However, calligraphy emerges widely in natural scenic sites and some service resources. For example, in some famous mountain scenic spots listed as World Natural Heritage by UNESCO, such as Mt. Huangshan (Figure 3) and Mt. Taishan, there are many calligraphic landscapes by way of epigraphs on cliffs or tablets.

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As a matter of fact, calligraphy exists pervasively in almost every destination of China. With the Regional Tourism Websites Index (Zhang et al., 2004), we inves- tigated calligraphy and regional tourism with regional units of provinces, and the results revealed that calligraphy might be closely related to regional tourism with significant potentiality for future tourism development (Figure 4).

Calligraphic works and the derived crafts of calligraphy serve as souvenirs with the contents of showcasing locally related literature. Practicsing calligra- phy is still a very important leisure activity for the recreation of urban citizens (Figure 1). For the younger generation, practising calligraphy is symbol of accomplishment, while for the aged generation practising calligraphy is a health regime and recreational therapy, much like acting and music act as

Table 4 Classification of calligraphic landscape and/or space

Category Type Descriptions and cases

Scale Landscape (narrow sense)

Larger than architecture, composed of assemblies of architecture, community blocks or even regions.

Setting Smaller than single architecture

Appearance Scenery As landmarks of scenery, e.g., epigraphs of natural scenery

Ornament As ornaments of interior design, e.g., calligraphy couplet

Exhibition As a temporal show forming an interior landscape/space

Dominance in space

Panorama Calligraphy as pervasive landscape elements

Theme As focus of landscape system, e.g., epigraphy tablet in a city or town square

Intersperse As the subordinate of landscape, e.g., calligraphy ornament in urban design

Cultural attribute Religion Symbols of a sacred landscape, e.g., monument stone

Folklore Symbols of folklore space, spring festival scrolls

Economic Symbols of commercial space, e.g., signboard, and crafts etc.

Living As ornaments of living space, e.g., interior design

Literati Symbols of literati space, e.g., calligraphy works of quotations

Aesthetics As guidelines of landscape aesthetics

Existence of calligraphy

Real landscape As the concrete existence of the environment, stone epigraphy

Mobile landscape Calligraphy as mobile articles of art works or ornaments

Source: Adapted from Zhang, 2003. Modified.

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therapies in the West (Pavlicevic, 1997; Sporre, 2000, p. 8). Chinese arts are for both creation and recreation (Lin 1998, p. 371), and this is typified with the case of calligraphy. Thus, calligraphy might have its role in the leisure industry. Recent research noticed the current Chinese leisure industry’s lack of status and deep meaningful experience within most amusement parks (Zhang et al., 1998). Instead, practising calligraphy as a popular and traditional leisure activity with elegant taste and deep cultural and aesthetic experience could be used as commercial leisure products by providing better practising environments.

In Chinese history, calligraphy used to be a dominant elite culture that was distinguishable from folk culture. Elite culture, as the dominant culture of

Figure 3 Calligraphic cliff epigraph in Huangshan National Park

Figure 2 Frequency of visitors to places with calligraphic landscapes (n ¼ 496)

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the elite class or literali, is usually documented within historical records, and thought of as the authentic cultural heritage. This, however, is not the real status of calligraphy. Nowadays calligraphy faces a period that on the one hand, its significance as symbolic culture becomes increasingly important in the era of globalisation, while on the other hand, traditional calligraphy due to its declining popularity in everyday life is losing its former status as a superior art in the cultural system (Cong, 2002; Zhang, 2006a).

Calligraphy as a dominant culture has a close relationship to other aspects of the dominant culture. For example, style and aesthetic tastes of calligraphy in the Wei and Jin Dynasties (220 – 420) were influenced by Taoism and metaphy- sics in the same period (Ledderose, 1984; Su, 2000; Sun, 2001; Wang, 2002, p. 228), while the freehand esteemed school of calligraphy of the Song Dynasty was highly influenced by Zen philosophy (Song, 2005). During the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644), there was a kind of literary romanticism, based on Wang Yangming’s philosophy of mind and ideas that was promoted by Li Zhi ( , 1527 – 1620) and Tang Xianzu ( , 1550 – 1616) on individuality. This advanced diversified individual styles of calligraphy that esteemed indi- viduality, personality, expressionism, and emotionalism. It further resulted in a profusion of diversified schools of calligraphy such as the plainly simple school; heavy strong school; classic elegance school; classic simple school; and aestheticism school etc. (Chen, 2000, Ye, 2000). Calligraphy works as the written data of history that documented ancient social lives, social affiliations, and social customs. As famous ancient calligraphers belonged to the elite, they were often recorded in formal historical documents and chorography, which has resulted in the formation of an important regional historic context for tourism attraction. Throughout history, calligraphy as the dominant culture emerged in formal government institutions and offices, and the related tangible

Figure 4 Web pages searched on www.google.com using the Chinese keywords Tourismþprovince and calligraphyþtourismþprovince (May, 2007)

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heritage or their relics are often of large scale, well-designed and delicate techniques, and in or on refined architectural structures, which has produced a series of related cultural attractions (Figure 5) of even more historic, cultural, and artistic value.

In brief, calligraphy is not only a simple tourist attraction of art works, but also an alternative system of attraction in regional historic contexts and land- scapes, of souvenirs, and even a participative leisure activity of tourism pro- ducts.

Calligraphy as tourism development drive Ideas of calligraphic landscape, calligraphic cultural chain, and the visualisa-

tion of regional calligraphic contexts are the main theoretical foundations for the development of calligraphic tourism products.

Calligraphy as tourism product

Landscape components possess certain semantic values (e.g., Ozbilen & Kalin’s study on plants, 2001). New definitions of calligraphic landscapes encompass wide fields that can be applied to tourism. More recent research proposes the use of calligraphic landscape as ornaments in a modern urban landscape design (Figure 6) (Zhang & Zhang, 2004) and as symbolic elements in an urban leisure space (Zhang, 2005b). The evolving processes of calligraphy from signal to sign and then to symbol in the visualisation of calligraphic con- texts in modern urban landscape design has been shown by Zhang et al. (2004, Table 5).

Detailed discussion on CCC suggested a mode for developing tourism pro- ducts that possess a pervasive calligraphic culture (Zhang, 2006a), and has resulted in an integrated enhanced status for both calligraphy and tourism.

Figure 5 Calligraphy in the emperor’s chamber (Taihedian Hall) of the Forbidden City, Beijing

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Figure 6 Calligraphy as landscape elements in modern urban design (Nanjing (a) and Beijing (b))

Table 5 Visualisation of calligraphy context into landscape

Evolution Processes

Role of Chinese characters Character!calligraphy!landscape

Sign process Signal! sign!icon!indices !symbol

Existence of calligraphy Plane in microscale!Plane in macroscale! solid!pervasive in all space

Environmental symbolic processes

Architecture parts!architecture!building cluster!community!urban!region!nation . . .

Source: Adapted from Zhang et al., 2004.

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After the Cultural Revolution and at the beginning of the Chinese Open Policy, Chinese calligraphy, in the form of common tourism souvenirs, was able to have something of a renaissance (Zhang, 2005a).

The early development of calligraphy in tourism usually took after the tra- ditional mode of stele forest like in Xi’an city. Although this kind of presen- tation did work in the early stages, there are, however, some market traps with this in more recent tourism (Fu, 2006).

Destination authenticity

Destination authenticity may consist of elements from settings to buildings (Waitt, 2000) and with characteristics of ethical, natural, honest, simple, beautiful, rooted, and human (Brass & McMahon-Beattie, 2007). The sense of place may be derived from the social lives, architecture, and rituals (Mazumdar et al., 2000). Calligraphy pervades all these fields and matches all the characters and creates the connections that authenticity lies in, as suggested by Hall (2007).

During the research on the geography of calligraphy, several fields such as the regional distribution of calligraphers, regional styles of calligraphy, and the geographic environmental influence on calligraphic styles were noticed (Feng & Hu, 1999; Feng & Zhang, 1999). In fact, the regional differentiation of calligraphic culture is exactly a substantial tourist attraction. Recent investi- gations on the diversity of calligraphy of 25 minorities in China (Guan, 2001) indicate the wide distribution and high diversity of calligraphy in China. Research on national identity with a symbolic landscape (Gordon & Osborne, 2004) provides some useful ideas and historical experience for tourism. Calligraphy as a cultural chain exists in the Chinese culture system as a cultural symbol or national identity in China’s tourism destinations, and it makes its penetration into regional contexts feasible. Thus, calligraphy becomes a symbol of identity and authenticity in a destination. In modern urban design, calligraphy exists from traditional landscape to transformational landscape. Calligraphy becomes such a tourist art which, as Evans-Pritchard (1993) suggests, draws on ancient themes rather than being a response to nationalism or a response to consumer demands.

Authenticity of regional landscapes can be revealed with cultural symbols and traditional landscapes. Combined with the Chinese language, Chinese cal- ligraphy contributes a national context. At the same time, subregional systems of calligraphy, like regional calligraphy schools and styles, result in regional differentiation each with a sense of place.

The latest ideas of authenticity conservation stress upon creativity and the local context (Gustavsson & Peterson, 2003). Based on the characteristics of the cultural chain of calligraphy and its links to the Chinese cultural system, a model with calligraphy to promote tourism development in a holistic sense is presented as a transformation process, in combination with creativity and the Chinese context as follows:

Calligraphy heritage!calligraphic context!traditional calligraphy landscape!generalised calligraphic landscape!pervasive calli- graphic symbolic system

Chinese Calligraphy and Tourism 543

Thus, calligraphy fulfills a fine process from cultural heritage to being a medium for the development of the entire tourism industry. During the process, it is very important to rediscover and to re-organise the local calligraphic contexts so as to develop tourism with calligraphy. In fact, the discontinuity of regional contexts with recent tourism developments in many of China’s destinations has already been noticed (Zheng, 2004).

Within this period of generalised calligraphic landscape, calligraphy will drift into various architectural spaces and natural or cultural environments, extending to interior, community, and leisure spaces, and as well as mobile landscapes. Furthermore, innovation of calligraphic tourism products is a mega-culture strategy within calligraphy-related tourism development based on CCC rather than landscape architecture.

Calligraphy as market promotion drive

Heritage tourism is a powerful force in the construction and maintenance of a national identity, because it relies upon the historic symbols of the nation as a means of attracting tourists (Palmer, 1999). Calligraphy as heritage in the same sense is such a symbol of Chinese culture. Several modes of tourism promotion with calligraphy can be developed as follows:

(1) Demand promotion mode introduces and distributes Chinese calligraphy with other Chinese culture through cultural exchange education units like Confucius Institutes all over the world, and helps non-Chinese to understand Chinese calligraphy so as to cultivate sectional markets for Chinese tourism.

(2) Attraction-oriented mode cultivates and develops various tourism pro- ducts with calligraphy. Learning to practise calligraphy can be a recreation product, and calligraphy as landscape can be a symbol of China’s charac- teristic tourism symbols (Zhang, 2005b) of various types (Zhang, 2003). Calligraphy can be used as an element in modern urban design on wall decora- tions, pavement designs, and environmental designs (Zhang & Zhang, 2004).

(3) Packaging modes is the packaging of various tourism products, marketing media, souvenirs as well as service places/spaces with calligraphy.

(4) Cultural chain mode is the development of tourism products and markets through calligraphic chains with value systems consisting of historic, cul- tural, artistic, landscape, economic, therapeutic, and religious values, and with functions of landscape, tourism, marketing, aesthetics, leisure, and recreational therapy, as well as public media.

Calligraphy tourism products as international strategy

Since calligraphy as social and cultural phenomena is closely related to Chinese language and ideology, a step-by-step interpretation system should be the shortcut for the foundation of internationalised calligraphic tourism pro- ducts. The interpretation of calligraphic tourism products can be managed in several steps, either for individual tourist learning during the trip or for a sec- tional tourist market mix.

(1) A signal introduction stage romotes calligraphy culture by building up a unique Chinese destination image associated with calligraphy. There are

544 Current Issues in Tourism

some emerging cases such as the calligraphic performance at the recent closing ceremony of the Doha Asian Games and the Olympic Games with a logo of a Chinese seal. Through this step, a very simple introduction to calligraphy was presented mainly on basic classifications and attributes of calligraphy in China.

(2) A context-oriented stage builds an image of the important role of calligraphy.

(3) The aesthetic stage relates to providing an understanding of the visual aes- thetics of this art. Because calligraphy as a visual art is basically composed of dots and lines with various tones of ink and a specific brush technique, it also has common attributes to the visual arts in shape, texture, spatial composition, and sense of brush movement. So, even without knowing Chinese characters, a foreign visitor can easily appreciate and understand it partially with its visual aesthetics.

(4) Full context-oriented stage is for those who already have sufficient knowl- edge of China and the Chinese language, and can be presented with the full context information (as in Table 3), providing interpretations of calli- graphy either as culture or as destination attraction.

Conclusion and prospect Taking Chinese calligraphy as linguistic and artistic cultural symbols, this

paper presented a mode for cultural symbols as part of a drive to promote tourism. Through a heritage system analysis of Chinese calligraphy, consider- ing it in its regional context, as links in a cultural chain, and as landscape symbols, we identified calligraphy as an alternative tourist attraction for the Chinese tourism industry in the global era. It is possible for calligraphy to promote tourism development by a process of transforming heritage to perva- sive symbolic system; calligraphy changes to a holistic medium for the devel- opment of the tourism industry. This mode of using calligraphy as tourism symbol to cover the whole present rather than just a part is, coincidentally, one of the Tilden’s (1957) famous six heritage interpretation principles that interpretation should aim at presenting a whole. Calligraphy is being used in more and more fields of tourism and related industries. For example, the logo of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games was a Chinese seal, the Chinese paral- lel art of calligraphy, and all the logos of each athletic sport in the Games – with a form of matchstick figures – were designed with images of a Chinese seal with calligraphic writing. There has been a trend that more and more calligraphic landscape elements have emerged in modern Chinese urban design, e.g., in cities such as Nanjing, Beijing (Figure 6), Xi’an, and Xiamen, etc. Also, more and more calligraphy has been used as cultural signs in various fields such as marketing, planning, design, and media. It indicates that calligraphy has become increasingly important in China as an international tourism destination.

Acknowledgements

This article is based on the research project (40871072), supported by the National Science Foundation of China, and the 985 Program of Nanjing

Chinese Calligraphy and Tourism 545

University, China. The authors sincerely thank the referees’ helpful comments and suggestions in amending the manuscript.

Correspondence

Any correspondence should be directed to Jie Zhang, ([email protected]).

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