English in Chinese Script 篆体英文
Invented by Shen Pei
Recently, Ambassador Qing Gang came to Minnesota to visit Center for Chinese Service. He watched me write down my own invention “Seal Script English”. He was very intrigued and said to me “You should file a patent for it.” When news of this was published in the papers, it had a great effect. Some were supportive. Others were curious and asked “You are a professional dancer. How did you get involved in inventing your own calligraphy?”
Well, in fact if we look at my reasonings from the beginning, it actually does have to do with my dance profession.
Since I began studying calligraphy in 2007, a lot of my American friends liked what they saw. They often looked at the calligraphy from head to toe and said “If you could think of a way for us to understand it while looking at it, that would be great.” While I said that I’ll try and thought to myself that it would be impossible, in reality, their passionate expectations were buried deep in my subconscious.
One time, at a talk about dance innovations, I said “We should look for the converging point of Chinese and Western culture at the source of human culture” and that “Nothing is set in stone. It all comes together from a lot of different parts. When we arrange different parts together using new rules, we can often create unexpected new things.” As I was saying these, a lightbulb suddenly turned on in my head.
Does the same rule apply when it comes to the fusion of Chinese and Western calligraphy? Aren’t Chinese characters also made using many different shaped symbols as elements! Could I use the ancient Seal Script’s structure as a starting point and simply replace those symbols with Romanized letters?
Who could’ve known the flood gates this one simple idea would open! I would think about various different combinations of letters every day. Often times I would think of a word at night and rush out of bed to write it down. I worked on this for the better half of a year and finally showcased my newly invented Seal Script English Calligraphy during “Wishes for the Sky”. (A funny story during this time is that when I brought my calligraphy to get framed, the shopkeeper said to me “You know, I specialize in Seal Script. How come I can’t recognize a single seal script you wrote?”) It was so well received. Everyone said “This original invention is so interesting!” Regardless of Chinese or American, they all liked it. It has been showcased multiple times now, but I am still perfecting it. I liked the raw feeling of Seal Scripts at first. Now I add that creative process to it. What joy!
Click here to see a PPT and learn more.
秦刚大使来明州，参观华助中心时看我演练自创的“篆体英文书法“，热情鼓掌并饶有兴趣地说：”你应该去申请专利。“这消息报纸一登，掀起一片涟漪，有鼓励的，也有好奇的：你一个搞舞蹈的，怎么发明起书法来了？
嘿！要追溯缘由，还真和我的舞蹈专业有关。
自2007年我自习书法以来，许多美国朋友非常喜欢，常常一面看，一面说：你要是能想办法让我们欣赏时能看懂就好了。“我嘴上说：”譲我试试。“心里却想：不可能。可实际上，那热切的期望已埋进我的潜意识。有一次，谈舞蹈创新，我说，中西文化的结合点，应该从人类文化的源头上去找。又说：事物并不都是铁板一块，是由许多不同的元素组成的。选取不同的元素按新规则重新组合，意想不到的新事物往往就是这样诞生的。说着说着，忽然，灵光一闪——书法的中西结合是否也同此理。汉字的组成不也是用很多不同形象的符号为元素组成的吗！是否可以参照中国古文字篆书的结构方法，只是将那些元素转换为拉丁字母？谁知闸门一开竟止都止不住，天天各种各样字型的组合就在眼前转悠，常常半夜得一字，赶快爬起来记下，如此这般地折腾了大半年，终于在“放飞希望”活动中展出了我新创的篆体英文书法，（中间还有一个笑话，去装裱，那位装裱的先生对我说：你知道吗？我是专写篆字的，怎么你写的篆字我一个都不认识。）竟然大受欢迎，大家都说：这个原创，太有意思了。不管中国人、外国人都喜欢。如今已展出多次，但我仍在完善中。篆字的古朴，奇拙，我本来就喜欢。再加上那创造过程，真是享受。
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