Interview with calligrapher Mi Guangjiang
Arabic calligraphy in Chinese traditional style
An interview with Haji Noor Deen Mi Guangjiang
Haji Noor Deen Mi Guangjiang is an internationally renowned Arabic calligrapher. Born to a Hui Muslim family in 1964, he has been fond of Arabic calligraphy since a teenager, and received systematic and professional training in Egypt and Turkey. In 1997, Haji Noor Deen became the first Chinese Muslim to be awarded the Egyptian Certificate of Arabic Calligraphy and was admitted as a member of the Association of Egyptian Calligraphy. His calligraphy has become well-known for its ingenious composition, vivid artistic expression, and creative combination of both Chinese and Arabic scripts, and has been displayed in various cultural spaces, and collected by museums around the world. Through lectures, workshops, publications, and exhibitions, he has long been committed to promoting cross-cultural dialogue. In this interview, he shares with us his stories with, and visions and reflections on calligraphic arts.
1. You started learning Arabic calligraphy in the 1980s, first in China, and then the Middle East. Can you tell us how your interest in this began?
The Hui people have a tradition. We all like pasting Arabic-language scripture on the door when hosting joyous events such as a wedding or housewarming. My family has many siblings, and when I was a child, around seven or eight years old, there was often someone in my family having a wedding ceremony. Every time my brothers had wedding, we would paint the door black, and request the ahong [imam, Islamic cleric] to write Arabic scriptures on red paper that we would then stick on the door frame.
At that time, I didn't know Arabic. But I knew it was the sacred scriptural characters, and became interested in it. I later learnt about English alphabets, pinyin, and Chinese, but Arabic remained the one which seemed unique, in particular its letters. Such as alif, it was written like a sharp knife which looks beautiful. I had been particularly fond of Arabic calligraphy when I was a teenager. We didn’t call it calligraphy then, but instead, scriptural character, or du’ayi. It was for religious usage, to be stuck on the door.
When I was seventeen and graduated from high school, I went to the mosque to pursue classical Islamic studies. That’s how I started learning Arabic characters. Many religious books were burned during the Cultural Revolution so we could only borrow them from the elderly ahongs, and copy them on our own. Alongside repetitive copying, I became interested in writing Arabic. This script initially appeared strange to me but as time passed, I was able to recognise it. Later, people saw the scriptures I copied, and told me that my handwriting was beautiful. They asked me to write for them, and in this way I became skilled in Arabic handwriting.
2. How did your living, studying, and working experience in the Middle East in the 1990s influence the shape of your calligraphic expression?
I went to Kuwait in 1989, and came back because of the Gulf War. I had been living in Egypt for eight years, from 1991 to 1999. The total of ten years in the Middle East had a significant influence on my calligraphic career. Cairo is a place with ancient civilisation. The calligraphy, and the art there are beautiful. In Cairo, I had the opportunity to receive systematic and professional training in Arabic calligraphy, and was exposed to some calligraphic scripts completely different from that of the Chinese Arabic calligraphy. Arab calligraphers also differ from us in terms of using paper, ink, and brush. In addition, Cairo hosted the international book fair every year. I used to buy a lot of books from there as reference materials. I enjoyed collecting some materials, and compiling books on calligraphy. Upon returning to China, I launched courses on Arabic calligraphy at the Zhengzhou Islamic Institute, introducing Arabic calligraphy to those students who were fond of it. That was in 2000, or 1999, a quite early time.
3. Could you give us some background to Sini script? What is your first piece of calligraphy of this style? When and where did the idea for this come from? In your view, is Sini script a genre of writing, or drawing?
Sini is a transliteration. In Arabic, “China” is called Sini. Sini script has two categories, one is writing, and another drawing with characters. Regarding Sini script, in the past, it was called in English “Sini calligraphy”. No one called it Sini script. It was around 2002 and 2003, when I first proposed the term “Arabic calligraphy in Chinese traditional style”.
The first piece of calligraphy in Sini script that I wrote is a copying practice of learning to write Tasmiyah [the Muslim blessing “In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful”]. We are Hui people, we are Muslims. To do something meaningful, we start with saying Tasmiyah. Without Tasmiyah as the beginning, this thing would be imperfect. The first Arabic calligraphic work that I got to recognise is also Tasmiyah.
It was in 2003 when I wrote my first piece of Arabic calligraphy which looks like the Chinese characters. I accompanied Peter Sanders, a renowned British photographer, to China for his photographic project on the Silk Road. We were at the Xining Railway Station then, waiting for our friend. I inadvertently looked up, noticing the character ning in the word Xining. I thought – is it possible to visualise it through Arabic script? I paused to think for a while, and attempted it after going home. That is how the work ning came into being.
Since 2003, I have combined the two scripts, Chinese and Arabic, in my calligraphy. Not every sentence and every character from both scripts can be combined naturally – I sometimes can only choose some sentences and characters, and some letters. Sometimes my script might look like Chinese characters, but has no Chinese meaning. Sometimes it looks like Chinese characters, and you can identify it as Chinese, although only at a stretch. The two meanings in Arabic and in Chinese respectively differ. Sometimes once you see the script you immediately recognise it as both Arabic and Chinese, which is rare.
Starting from the composition, it takes a long time to write these works. I need to take into consideration many aspects while working on a project. Because I understand Arabic and understand its meaning, and I am a pious Muslim. I consider how to write a great piece of calligraphy from a range of aspects. When writing calligraphy, I not only try to make it appear beautiful, I seek to visualise its meaning, which is equally important.
4. Over the past four decades, are there any figures (e.g., calligrapher, artist, philosopher, director, scholar, writer, painter) from the Middle East who has deeply influenced you and your work in one way or another? Is there someone you wish to collaborate with in the near future?
Some artistic works cannot come into being immediately. Art is not something achieved in a straightforward way. Some pieces need to be worked on for a long time and the design changed frequently. Probably years later, I would find myself unsatisfied with the initial design. In that case, I need to make some adjustments. In addition, creating calligraphy should be a process of communication with others. A fleeting moment, or an idea others suggest, might give birth to a piece of work.
My collaboration with a Turkish Ebru artist originated from an idea he had. He suggested we work together on a project, to which I agreed. He designed the canvas, and I wrote the calligraphy on it. There are several considerations in our collaborative work: the Turkish Ebru, the Islamic art, the Chinese culture including signature, profound religious meanings, composition, colouring, and ink, all these together constitute a piece of work. Once finished, it was amazing. The Turkish government was impressed by the collaborative work, saying that China is the starting point of the Silk Road, and Turkey the end point. So we set out to do a project themed the Silk Road, displaying the cultures of the two countries.
Sometimes, creating artistic works doesn't go as planned. We hope to do well, but it fails. Like the piece of work in the picture that I sent to you for your website. When I wrote it, the vertical line on the left didn’t exist actually. It was the ink drip, since I lifted it before the ink got dry. Without the ink drip, the whole piece of work wouldn’t be beautiful. It is an accident to have this vertical line as part of the work. Intentional writing would not produce the same piece of work. The Arabic writing was the word salam. When the ink dripped out, I looked up, ouch, I had ruined the calligraphy writing. But when I looked at it closely, I thought it was wonderful! It looks like the Chinese character wei [great].
5. Your works have been displayed in galleries and cultural spaces across the world, and collected by some museums such as the British Museum, Harvard Art Museums, and the National Museum of Scotland. In your private collections, what is your favourite piece of calligraphy (of your own or of others), or art item with Arabic calligraphy on it?
My works are like my own children—I like them all. All look great. One of my favourites is “A Brushstroke of Tasmiyah”. Its ingenuity lies in the interpolation of letters. There are three rings, representing past life, present life, and future life respectively. These three rings are connected one by one. This piece of work has been incorporated in the textbook Milestones in English.
6. Would you like to talk about your ongoing or next calligraphic project?
I am working on the Kaaba-themed project, the Kaaba in Mecca, through Arabic calligraphy. From different perspective of the Kaaba to see Arabic calligraphy. This project has not been finished yet. I am preparing to write twenty or thirty pieces of work, as a series. The exhibition of this project would take approximately two years.
I am also working on a project of writing Tasmiyah in various styles. To write Tasmiyah in more than two hundred styles. So far, I have completed two hundred and sixty styles or so. My book Six Hundred Famous Ways to Write Tasmiyah incorporates various types of writing over the past one thousand years or so, most of which were written by foreign calligraphers. What I am doing this time is to collect various styles of Tasmiyah I have written over the past forty years of my calligraphic career. Few calligraphers are able to write more than thirty or forty types of Tasmiyah in his or her lifetime. There are numerous ways to write Tasmiyah, around thousands. But as far as one individual calligrapher is concerned, it is difficult to design tens of styles. The difficult point is that Tasmiyah includes nineteen letters. Cha, we Chinese people write the One Hundred Cha, the One Hundred Fu, the One Hundred Shou. It is extremely incredible to be able to write the One Hundred Shou, the One Hundred Fu. It is extremely difficult to create hundreds of ways to write one character, for the writing script is limited in number.
This interview was conducted and translated by Jie Wang with editing assistance by Adam Hanieh. Jie would like to thank Dr Ibrahim Xiaoliang Ba for his kind help in arranging the interview, and Dr Mia Ma for her valuable suggestions.