what the western world knows
as „calligraphie“, e.g., in Germany elementary school kids become
graded for the prettiness of their handwriting.
I've only ever encountered the word "Kalligraphie" (now preferred:
"Kalligrafie") in the meaning of "artistic writing" in Germany. If the
word is also used to denote a grading category for "neat handwriting"
(which iirc was for me and in my region just called "Schrift"), most
people won't be familiar with such usage, this being very much a
derived, secondary meaning. And I've definitely seen {Chinese classes
that were primarily concerned with stroke order and otherwise neat
writing} described as classes in 书法 ("calligraphy").
also a matter of whether the calligrapher walks on four, two or
three legs
(okay) ... and ...
…nothing but a juicy complement, to end up with a rich green
pasture of calligraphic possibilities.
Regarding world weariness there is surely room for improvement in
a sentence like
|>|for the production of corporate logos, advertizing, and identifiation of
|>|products and trademarks, so I would not say that calligraphy is dead in
|> the alphabetic script.
Hansel and Gretel would never have found a Burger Palace without
a nice big billboard! Thus this shouldn't be underrated.
So I must admit that I often find the wit hiding behind such cultural
references to be lost on me, or at least far-fetched.
Stephan
