LookAtVietnam – A special exhibition of thu phap (calligraphy) in Berlin, capturing Viet Nam’s traditional culture and lifestyle, is attracting interest and appreciation from local art lovers.

A specialist in thu phap, the art was popular hundreds of years ago and is still evident in Vietnamese spirit and mind.

The organisers report most of the works have been sold, for prices ranging from US$7 to $140 each.

“For Vietnamese, the Lunar New Year, or Tet, includes peach blossoms, banh chung (glutinous rice cake filled with green bean and pork), and thu phap works,” says Nguyen Thi Hoai Thu, head of the Vinaphunu.

A specialist in thu phap, Thu believes the art was popular hundreds of years ago and is still evident in Vietnamese spirit and mind.

Thu and her daughter collected the thu phap works by artisans in Ha Noi and HCM City during their visit to Viet Nam last year.

Visitors will be able to learn more about Viet Nam and its people through such exhibitions, she says.

Thu and her staff also worked hard to launch a music and dance programme featuring both overseas Vietnamese and German performers on the event’s opening day last week.

Established in 1991 in Berlin, Vinaphunu engages in many charity and community activities, including providing free consulting services and training programmes in Vietnamese and German for Vietnamese women and their families in Berlin.

The exhibition runs through February 28 at the Vinaphunu office located in Prenzlauer Berg District’s Scholieb Street.

Artful tradition

Calligraphy in the Vietnamese language began in the early 1930s when the New Poetry movement spread through the country and local poets started writing poems in Vietnamese, rather than in Chinese and Nom (traditional Vietnamese characters).

In the late eighties, there was a resurgence of interest in the art as many writers who had their collections published in books, went on to write them out in Vietnamese calligraphy on giay do (traditional paper made from poonah tree) to present to loved ones and close friends.

It takes time but artists now write poems in various styles, expressing heart and soul through their thu phap works. In this art form, a melancholic poem is written very differently to a joyful one.

The increasing popularity of thu phap has been evident at a number of well attended public exhibitions held recently in Ha Noi, Hue city and HCM City. It is also now common to see calligraphy in newspapers and magazines, with poems and cau doi (couplets) calligraphically depicted.

To create a good written work, the artist should be patient and have peace in her/his mind as the work on traditional paper using Chinese ink.

During Tet, many writers write couplets or family mottoes for their friends, students and customers to hang in their homes. These wall hangings reflect an invocation for the home to be pervaded with phuc, loc, tho (happiness, prosperity and longevity), liem chinh (honesty) and that tha (sincerity).

Many calligraphy clubs attracting both the elderly and the young have already been set up in big cities and provinces across the country.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News