In a presentation Wednesday, Clark Honors College director Richard Kraus showed black and white photographs of a mob of civilians, hovering with bated breath around a political leader. They were watching the leader write calligraphy.
Kraus, who is also a professor of political science at the University, spoke at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art about the relationship between calligraphy and Chinese politics. Kraus, the author of the book “Brushes with Power,” lived in China for several years teaching and conducting research.
Pacing around the front of the room, Kraus went through slide after slide. The first picture he chose was of an evening in Beijing. The political figures gaze paternally at the theatrical act on a stage. From the front of the audience, the Chinese leaders are deep in the moment. The portrait is bright with many colors. Kraus explained that in China, political leaders must be enthusiastic about the arts. This is essential to their political success and if they are not actually interested, they must appear cultivated in the arts.
This is a distinguishable difference between Chinese and American politics, Kraus noted. Unlike American politicians, the Chinese public figures are supposed to be enthused by the arts.
“I once read an interview with Jimmy Carter where he disclosed a hidden fondness for chamber music,” he said. “His managers really kept that one quiet. There’s nothing that would lose you votes faster in America than having people say, ‘He likes string quartets.’ In China, it’s the opposite.”
Prominent Chinese political figures are often asked to inscribe something before a crowd. Kraus compared this to American political candidates kissing babies. Consequently, most politicians have a few inscriptions in their minds for these occasions. If one were unable to complete the task on the spot, it would prove to be humiliating. On a subtle level, this reveals that the person may be an incompetent leader.
Calligraphy is code for political success, he explained. It’s code for more than directly judging a Chinese politician. By questioning the quality of the calligraphy, people are actually challenging the figure himself. By inquiring about the calligraphy, the public is actually debating the content of the politician’s character. These indirect approaches are custom for the Chinese, he said.
“Part of the deal of calligraphy is to go along with the part of Chinese political culture that tends to deny conflict,” he explained. “The search for harmony, ‘we’re all working together.’ Even when it’s not true.”
Chinese politicians often inscribe words expressing universal love, idealistic values or other messages. After the act of inscription, the words may be framed or hung on a wall for display.
Should a famous Chinese politician commit a crime or find himself in a less-than-desirable situation, his calligraphy may be ripped from its frame on the wall, Kraus said. The politician becomes an evil character in civilization, and immediately after, his calligraphy becomes horrible, too. The two are very much connected.
Kraus said repeatedly that calligraphy is used not for its beauty, but as a symbol or guide to power relations in China.
He showed other slides where Chinese men use a calligraphy brush in place of a weapon. The photos showed no pistol, Kraus noted; the only thing they were armed with was a brush. This accurately portrays the significance, power and symbolism of the brush in Chinese culture.
Kraus described a public debate that took place over an oil painting of another Chinese leader. The man had no brush pen behind his ear, and many believed that he should. If all prominent figures aspire to be calligraphers, why would anyone be the exception? The pen won, and the new painting has a faint outline of a brush tucked behind the man’s ear.
Kraus displayed a slide of an exhibition of Chinese calligraphy in Tokyo.
“In addition to the uses of calligraphy in domestic Chinese politics, it has an obvious foreign policy side,” he said. “This is a way of China reaching out to the Japanese people and saying, ‘Look: There may have been an unpleasant war between us. There may have been a few million people who lost their lives. We may oppose you in the United Nations every chance we get. But, hey, we share something and what we share is a love of brush culture.”
Though he is not a calligrapher, Kraus demonstrated passion for the respected world of calligraphy.
“Understanding calligraphy in Chinese culture is important because “it’s one of the signals that Chinese use to let one another know what’s been happening among power relationships,” Kraus said. “It’s a different kind of signal than anything we have. Thus, if we want to understand another culture, we need to know the assumptions that they’re making about how the world works.”