One of the things about China that foreigners find most fascinating and mystifying is Chinese characters, hanzi. The thousands of ideograms are beautiful and completely different from what an English-speaker, who has grown up with the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet, is used to.

Chinese characters are never more artistic than when they are represented in calligraphy. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) inscribed Chinese calligraphy into its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009.

It said, "In its distinctive Chinese form, calligraphy offers an important channel for the appreciation of traditional culture and for arts education. It is also a source of pride and pleasure for the Chinese people and embodies important aspects of the country's intellectual and artistic heritage."

Even after learning Chinese, it is still difficult to read much of the calligraphy, because it is written in different styles that make the characters more decorative but also harder to recognize. On April 14, however, I had the chance to speak to Duanmu Liyin at an exhibition of his calligraphy at the Jiangsu Administration Institute.

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