By staff reporter ZHANG HONG

A Chinese calligrapher and an English cellist share one stage. The former creates a work of calligraphy, the latter music. Their performance dialogue of music and calligraphy constitutes a common work – The Music of Ink.

“A Young Monk Named Huaisu”

British cellist Rohan De Saram sits on one side of the stage, his eyes half closed, as he begins to play Bach’s Cello Suites. Chinese calligrapher Zeng Laide begins grinding his ink stick. He momentarily closes his eyes to focus his concentration, and begins brushing Chinese characters onto a 6-meter-long sheet of xuan paper made in China’s Anhui Province in the 1970s. The seven Chinese characters he has written read: “Shaonian shangren hao Huaisu” -- A young Buddhist monk named Huaisu -- the first line of Li Bai’s poem In Praise of Cursive Calligraphy.

Rohan De Saram begins to play Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly’s Cello Solo, and Zeng Laide’s strokes become more rapid. The sheet is soon filled with characters. The cellist launches into pure improvisation, as children assisting calligrapher Zeng Laide run back and forth bringing him fresh sheets of xuan paper. Upon reaching its climax the music stops and the audience focuses on the calligraphy in process. Writing the last line of the poem on his eleventh sheet of xuan paper Zeng Laide roars as he executes the ultimate stroke in this work of cursive calligraphy, as applause for this performance by calligrapher and musician echoes in the rafters of the stately British Museum.

“The Music of Ink – Chinese Arts Ancient and Modern,” masterminded and sponsored by the British Museum, was performed on June 18, 2005 against the backdrop of an exhibition of the museum’s Chinese classic landscape paintings. Its aim – to explore the link between Chinese calligraphy and contemporary art.

Hundreds of artists from Britain and France attended what the media called the “summit dialogue between Chinese and Western arts” performed by Zeng Laide and Rohan De Saram. Zeng Laide’s roar at the end of his performance seemed to send centuries-old dust flying from all corners of the venerable British Museum.

Core of “The Music of Ink”

Zeng Laide has long since perceived the number eight as a main link between ink and music, as music consists of the eight basic notes (Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti-Do) and Chinese characters of eight basic strokes: the dian (dot), heng (horizontal stroke), pie (left-falling stroke), na (right-falling stroke), gou (hook stroke), tiao (rising stroke), zhe (turning stroke) and ti (rising stroke). Zeng first became interested in calligraphy 15 years ago while serving in the army in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region’s Tengger Desert in northwestern China. When practicing with a camel thorn (Alhagi maurorum) twig on sand he was inspired by the subtle sound of calligraphy being inscribed. He thought that if recorded, the sound of inscribing images on sand with an awl by Chinese ancients would make beautiful music.

When practicing calligraphy, especially the cursive style, Zeng Laide would hold his breath so as to catch the subtle cadences of his brush moving across xuan paper. To him the sound of music is extravert while that of writing calligraphy is introvert, and the magnified sound of writing characters is as affective as music.

In the spring of 2004, Zeng Laide attended a concert by famous violinist Lu Siqing at the Poly Theater, Beijing. Later that evening, Zeng and Lu discussed the possibility of a joint performance of calligraphy and music that would present a dialogue between the two art forms.

In August 2004, well-known Chinese poet Yang Lian left his home in Britain for China to meet Zeng Laide and discuss the idea. He was all for it, and upon reaching agreement as to staging and presentation, went back to London to work on “The Music of Ink” concert at the British Museum.

The day after the performance, Andrew Burnett, the museum’s deputy director, officiated at the inauguration ceremony of its collection of Zeng Laide’s calligraphy and landscape paintings. He said, “We have always respected Chinese calligraphy but have hitherto known too little about it. ‘The Music of Ink’ concert has broadened our perspective as to its fascination. It has been instrumental in our decision to extend the museum’s collection of Chinese calligraphic works.”

Yang Lian’s comment: “‘The Music of Ink’ may be called a successful ideological adventure.” To this poet, Chinese characters are the foundation of classical Chinese traditions and, therefore, the Chinese art forms of poetry, calligraphy, painting, music and architecture. Yang concludes, “In the past, to most people calligraphy was an ancient classic art form confined to ancient books and museums, but ‘The Music of Ink’ concert demonstrates its organic link with contemporary life and culture. It has vitalized this ancient art.”