To be declared a calligraphy master is no small feat, and thankfully, Malaysia does have one such master in the form of Yun Longzi.

Yun recently had the honour of having his works featured at an art exhibition along the Great Wall of China! The exhibition, held last month, featured 69 of his calligraphy pieces and was televised on China’s national channels.

Speaking with FMT Lifestyle, Yun credited his grandfather for introducing him to calligraphy as a child.

“My grandfather was the head of a temple in Kedah. Every year, during Chinese New Year, my grandmother would help to grind the ink which my grandfather would use to write couplets.”

As a youngster, Yun was curious and thus, imitated his grandfather’s style of writing. However, it left much to be desired.

“He said my handwriting was atrocious!” Undeterred, while in university, Yun referred to the works of historical greats and began practising calligraphy every single day.

Eventually, he learnt enough to completely change and improve his handwriting, thoroughly impressing his grandfather.

Why is Yun so drawn to calligraphy? He said it was because writing had become akin to a “sacred” act in today’s society, where people barely write.

“Writing is an important part of civilisation. Someone once said, ‘A great civilisation does three things: build it, paint it and write it.’,” he said, adding that calligraphy integrates the latter two.

While he does not teach calligraphy, Yun is open to feeding feedback to beginners who show him their work.

“Calligraphy is about self-realisation. You have to discover it yourself. Anyone can learn anything as long as they put their heart to it. It depends if you are diligent, earnest and sincere enough to learn.”

How long does mastery take? Yun said that calligraphy is a habit that cannot be rushed and it goes beyond memorising. “It is not a short-term thing and it cannot be learnt overnight.”

He said good calligraphy must “inspire the audience”. He added: “For those who read it, it must bring out the energy in them. In other words, it adds to those who view it.”

He said he proposed having his recent exhibition at the Great Wall because of the bastion’s relevance in Chinese culture.

His earlier art exhibition at the same venue took place in 2020, but at the time, foreign tourists were barred from entering China due to the pandemic.

Hence, the calligraphy exhibition held this October was meant to welcome visitors not only from the Chinese public but from Malaysia and Singapore as well.

Yun said he believed there were many calligraphy masters waiting to be discovered right here in Malaysia. He also spoke of his deep pride in being selected to exhibit his work in China.

“In China, they have 1.4 billion people and they picked someone born in Malaysia to be the first person to exhibit his art and his calligraphy on the Great Wall.”

To be good at calligraphy, Yun said patience is important. “One must not want the harvest so quickly. Just look at the durian needing ten years to cultivate and grow!”

However, patience is not the only requirement. He said calligraphers must be persistent in preserving the art while being eager to innovate.

“It takes creativity to introduce innovation into something that is very, very old,” he said, also adding that it is good to not only know how but also why one does calligraphy.

“Somebody once wrote a nice piece of calligraphy and I asked him why he wrote it that way. ‘My teacher did so.’ Why did his teacher do this? ‘His teacher taught him so.’”

So, where to from here? Yun has been invited to display his calligraphy at various international locations, including an exhibition at next year’s Paris Summer Olympics.

Any advice for calligraphy novices? “Do it every single day for at least the next ten years or at most, your entire life.”