Centuries-old art back in vogue

Writing off stress, anxiety, and more

"Spending a day making phone calls to potential customers often leaves me drained at the end of the day and there seems to be buzz hovering in my head even after I get off work," said Liu Fei, the saleswoman.

"I usually spend about an hour focused on the copying before I go to bed. The quiet writing process helps me calm down and get the noise off my head so that I can get a good night's sleep".

Whenever Liu completes a piece she thinks calligraphically meritorious, she would take a shot of it and post the photo on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-equivalent. Usually she attaches a number of hashtags such as #PracticeCalligraphyTogether and #PowerOfHandwriting to her post, so that she can share her work with communities of like-minded people from around the country and beyond.

Thumbing through the posts with these hashtags, it would be no hard to spot posts raving about what a stress-reducer calligraphy, or simply handwriting is.

"In this era of information explosion, everyone every day receives a plethora of information, mainly scraps of information, thus giving rise to a lot of stress and anxiety", observed Li, a Guangzhou-based psychology professor who declined to give China Daily her full name.

"Copying per se could easily become a simple, repetitive form of hand movements. But to make a decent copy requires one to write slowly and carefully so as to produce a flawless outcome. It is even more challenging to create a copy that is free of textual errors and at the same time visually appealing," Li said.

"Hence, it's a great way to keep people focused on what they do and therefore help reduce their anxieties".

Meanwhile, as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to keep people's lives in limbo, negative feelings such as boredom, panic and anxiety have spiked, as shown by the recent survey conducted by Beijing Normal University based on its internet-and-hotline-based psychological assistance program launched to help the general public cope with psychological problems bred by the epidemic.

To combat these negative feelings pent up inside, many more Chinese have elected to adopt calligraphy as a hobby during this troubled time to keep themselves busy while trying to tame the tiger locked up inside.

The hashtag #WritingAtHome speaks volumes. Created by the official account of Weibo Calligraphy on Feb 18, the online campaign has attracted a total of 6,148 original posts as of April 21, logging as many as 680 million reads.

"Because of the epidemic, I've stayed at home for more than two months. Practicing calligraphy not only gets my handwriting improved, but affords me with a sense of fulfilment every day; otherwise I fear I'd fall sick merely from being cooped up at home for so long," a Weibo blogger told China Daily in early April as to why she indulged in the online activity.