No rules, just heartfelt voices — 100 ordinary people in Nanjing held a 'calligraphy exhibition'

This is a report from Nanjing, China: On October 1st, an exhibition called 'Calligraphy of Life' opened at the Light and Shadow Corridor in Nanjing New City Plaza. The 100 participants had one thing in common: none of them were calligraphers, and many had never even held a brush before.

▲The scene at the 'Calligraphy of Life' exhibition with a hundred people writing.

Crooked characters, smudged ink blobs, and dried-up brushes that ran out of ink mid-writing—these ink marks, considered 'unqualified' by traditional calligraphy standards, are carefully mounted, hung on the wall, and lit up. Some people call it graffiti, while others think it’s pretty interesting.

▲The handwriting of a hundred ordinary people is framed and hung on the wall.

In the exhibition, there is a series of works called 'Write an Honest Sentence.' Curator Lü Hengkang spread out rice paper on the street and grabbed whoever passed by: delivery guys, security guards, cleaning ladies, breakfast stall owners, roast duck shop owners, uncles selling fish and meat at the market. He handed them a brush and just said: 'Write a sentence from your heart.' The delivery guy wrote quickly: 'Life is busy, just enjoy each day.' A blind massage therapist, who could only see a little light, wrote cautiously: 'Keep body and mind healthy.' The fish stall owner wrote with wet hands: 'Everything’s fine.'

▲“Slack off”“Lie flat”“Watch the sunset”……Ordinary people's inner thoughts are written all over the walls.

Traditional calligraphy exhibitions, when visitors enter, they first look at the "skill level": whether the starting and ending strokes have proper sources, whether the structure and composition are sophisticated. Behind a piece of work, there are often decades of copybook practice. “Calligraphy of everyday life” throws all these standards away. Mixed into the ink are the fireworks of ordinary life: some write about the exhaustion from working overtime until late at night, some write about the dilemma of wanting to go back to their hometown but not being able to, some write about mortgages, some write “just living is fine”.

Doubts came as expected—"Is this even calligraphy?" Lü Hengkun had anticipated it. His logic was simple: bring calligraphy down from its 'professional threshold' and give it back to ordinary people. When the purpose of writing is no longer to 'look good,' but to 'express,' the brush returns to its original form: a tool for expression.

In Lü Hengkunn's view, for someone who has never held a brush, being invited to write down their inner thoughts and then hang it up for everyone to see is far more important than whether the handwriting looks good or not.

▲The 'human bullet screen' wall is filled with the heartfelt voices of ordinary people.

I saw a calligraphy exhibition at the new city square and felt an inexplicable emotion. To be honest, after seeing countless professional exhibitions, few have moved me. This exhibition is very small, only a few walls. Yet, it features writings by 100 people from various professions in Nanjing who don't know calligraphy, sharing their hearts. If you have time, come take a look—you might experience a different kind of life from each stroke.