Festival reveals origin, change of Chinese characters

Sponsored by the China Friendship Association of Cultural Circles, Chinese National Academic of Arts and Taiwan Association of Chinese Culture, the 3rd Cross-straits Chinese Character Art Festival kicks off in Zaozhuang, Shandong Province today.

Vice Chairman of the 10th NPC Standing Committee Xu Jialu, vice minister of culture Wang Wenzhang, president of Taiwan Association of Chinese Culture Liu Zhaoxuan and nearly 100 specialists, scholars and artists on both sides of the straits attended the opening ceremony.

The four-day Cross-straits Chinese Character Art Festival is themed "the origin and change of Chinese Characters".

In the festival, a series of calligraphy and seal curving art exhibitions, Han and Tang Yuefu performances, symposiums and seminars will be held. The exhibition will display 151 calligraphy and seal curving works from both sides of the straits.

The calligraphy works are based on The Analects, covering five chapters of seal script, official script, regular script, running script and cursive script.

They are jointly composed by representative calligraphers on both sides of the straits. The seal curving works cover the traditional Chinese festivals and 24 solar terms, and reflect the close geographic and meteorological connections of the compatriots on both sides.

Sponsored by cultural institutes on both sides of the straits, the Cross-strait Chinese Character Art Festival has been successfully held in Beijing (2010) and Taipei (2011) . It becomes an influential event on both sides of the straits, playing an important role in boosting cross-Straits cultural exchanges and inheriting Chinese Character Calligraphy.