Chinese Calligraphy

I recently had the pleasure of working with Tiffany & Co. for their 2025 Lunar New Year brand activation to celebrate the Year of the Snake. I was requested to write blessings using traditional Chinese calligraphy brush pen on red door couplets.

While I was in store, many clients from various cultural backgrounds came to visit my station expressing their interest in the long lost artform and the significance of Chinese calligraphy for Lunar New Year, so I wanted to share some of my thoughts in this post.

The Significance

Chinese brush calligraphy, also 书法 (shūfǎ) in Chinese, holds significant importance during Chinese New Year as it represents the expression of history, culture, tradition, and artistic heritage. It is not just considered a writing style, but an artform that takes years or even a lifetime of practice to hone. Writing auspicious characters or couplets (春联, chūnlián) in elegant calligraphy is a popular practice. These are often written in gold or black ink on special red paper to symbolize good fortune, happiness, and prosperity for the coming year. The act of writing these characters is considered a way to honor one's ancestors, celebrate the beauty of the Chinese language, and invoke positive energy for the household. It also reinforces the themes of renewal and harmony central to the Lunar New Year.

Some special Chinese characters are turned upside down on purpose as a tradition. The reason is solely because of a pun! For example, the character 福 (fú) which means luck is a very popular word written on the red couplet. As a tradition, it is often hung upside down as the Chinese character for "upside down" (倒; dǎo) is pronounced very similar to "arrive" (到; dào), so it symbolizes that "luck as arrived!".

Wishing you all great health, prosperity, success and happiness in 2025!

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Let's Work Together!

If you are interested in hiring me as your Chinese calligrapher or hand engraving artist for your next event, please contact me for availability & pricing.