{"id":20759,"date":"2022-03-17T11:32:55","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T03:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/?p=20759"},"modified":"2024-04-17T11:42:43","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T03:42:43","slug":"calligraphy-therapist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/2022\/03\/calligraphy-therapist\/","title":{"rendered":"Calligraphy Therapist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Calligraphy therapist Kwan Man-lung comforts troubled souls with his writing.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enya So<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calligraphy artist Kwan Man-lung plays the role of a therapist by comforting troubled souls with his magic brush.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, Kwan helped a woman who shared her story about having a miscarriage and suffering from depression at a calligraphy event.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wrote \u2018We trust that destiny will bring us a better life\u2019 with my brush to encourage her at the event. The woman found strength in my calligraphy. She later was pregnant again with a baby girl.\u00a0 She visited me to tell me about the good news after a few months,\u201d he recalls.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel touched when people share their thoughts with me and find warmth from my calligraphy. I hope my art can bring happiness to others. This is a mission I am committed to,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel touched when people share their thoughts with me and find warmth from my calligraphy. I hope my art can bring happiness to others. This is a mission I am committed to.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Kwan usually categorises people with different kinds of worries in folders in his mind to help others efficiently.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRelationship problems are saved in one spot in my brain and workplace problems are stored in another folder. I take ideas out when I need them,\u201d he says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen someone shares his or her worries with me, I am all ears and I give them advice sometimes by thinking in his or her shoes to understand them. This gives me ideas when I am writing calligraphy for them,\u201d he adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kwan mostly writes encouraging messages for others with his calligraphy such as: \u201cBelieve that everything is the best arrangement\u201d and \u201cNever forget why you started and there will be reward. There is always light for us\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
\u201cStay Healthy and Happy\u201d and \u201cWe will get over the situation in this year\u201d written by Kwan Man-lung<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe most important elements in my calligraphy are humour and memes that can help those with worries to relax and stay positive,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kwan thinks calligraphy is the combination and variation of Chinese characters. He was inspired by Japanese and Chinese calligraphy that he absorbed their characteristics to create his own calligraphy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Career of Therapist<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kwan develops different calligraphy styles and fonts style by finding inspiration from anime, games, Japanese music, Cantopop and films by Wong Kar-wai. They also help him to think of what kind of painting to go with his calligraphy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWriting and drawing are my hobbies. When I was in secondary school, I usually helped to create artistic fonts and design backdrops and posters,\u201d Kwan says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 34-year-old artist has been working as a full-time calligraphy artist with the name Dark. Kenjamin since the end of 2015. Kwan says the nickname means driving away darkness in everyone\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy motto is \u2018practice makes better, but not perfect\u2019. So through consistent practice, I wish to transform my own and others\u2019 negative vibes and worries into my creative calligraphy which can bring comforts to my clients,\u201d he says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBlack is the colour that I use most frequently to express my emotions and the colour I am most familiar with,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before being a full-time calligraphy artist, Kwan tried working as an office clerk, a salesman and a shop assistant.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now he sets up stalls in marketplaces to sell calligraphy writings, designs Chinese fonts for company brands and advertisements and organises talks and workshops about calligraphy to make a living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy income depends on how many calligraphy projects I have every month. It is quite unstable. The pandemic makes it more difficult to host workshops and sharing sessions,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost events such as the Lunar New Year Fair and company annual events have been cancelled because of the pandemic. I used to write spring couplets at these events. But these events have been either cancelled or reduced in scale because of budget cuts and the pandemic,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Kwan Man-lung holding his piece of calligraphy \u201cGood luck on everything\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Future of Calligraphy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kwan thinks financial support is not the only way to show appreciation of art creation. He also values the interaction with people sharing worries with him during calligraphy promotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome people simply buy my calligraphy artwork without talking to me. Sharing ideas is important for promoting art and creating art,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Sharing ideas is important for promoting art and creating art.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Kwan hopes more people can learn about calligraphy so that it can be shared and developed in other parts of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are many passionate calligraphy artists in Hong Kong. I hope more people can appreciate their artwork and show support to their works,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sub-edited by Alina Chen<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Calligraphy therapist Kwan Man-lung comforts troubled souls with his writing. Enya So Calligraphy artist Kwan Man-lung plays the role of a therapist by comforting troubled souls with his magic brush.\u00a0 In 2021, Kwan helped a woman who shared her story about having a miscarriage and suffering from depression at a calligraphy event.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI wrote \u2018We […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":20761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2175,79],"tags":[57,1933,1307],"class_list":["post-20759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-march-2022","category-people","tag-art","tag-calligraphy","tag-local-artist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20759"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20764,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20759\/revisions\/20764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}