Researcher: Eugenia Bogdanova-Kummer Calligraphy is often associated with the traditional Sinocentric cultural order in East Asia. Created in China and imported to the neighbouring countries, characters and calligraphy as their aesthetic manifestation served as a common cultural denominator for the region, placing China in the centre of East Asia’s cultural flows. However, with Japan’s rapid transformation following the Meiji reforms of the late nineteenth century and its reorientation towards Europe and the United States, this cultural order and calligraphy’s privileged position within it became contested. This project investigates the complex processes of modernisation of calligraphy in East Asia from the late nineteenth century until the end of the Pacific War. It […]
