Ancient Chinese water calligraphy gaining popularity in Beijing

Chinese water calligraphy is often seen as the quintessential old mans hobby. Every morning, elderly men gather in Beijings parks to practice this ancient art on the ground with giant brushes dipped in water, writing fluid lines of ancient characters that disappear one by one as they dry.Many take it up as a hobby after retirement to train their concentration and precision.But a young foreigner is now bringing water calligraphy back on the streets of Beijing -- literally.Nicholas Hanna, a Canadian media artist living in the Chinese capital, has invented a tricycle that writes Chinese characters with water.His bizarre contraption has been puzzling local residents since it made its maiden voyage two weeks ago at the opening of Beijing design week.So the idea for this project comes from when I first arrived in Beijing and I started going to the parks here. And if you go to the parks, you will find generally older people. They are doing water calligraphy. They have these really long brushes and they dip them in a bucket of water and they write Chinese calligraphy on the ground. And so I thought this is a really interesting thing. I thought its really beautiful and I decided to build the machine, he said.After he moved to Beijing two years ago, Hanna first taught architecture before focusing on his art, much of which investigates the aesthetic properties of materials and technologies found around the city.His calligraphy-mobile is based around a tricycle with a palette similar to those used by the salesmen and waste collectors who trundle around the citys traditional hutong alleyways.An Apple laptop mounted on the handlebars uses software Hanna designed himself to transform Chinese characters into a series of signals that are sent to electromagnetic valves at the back of the tricycle.From these valves come drops of water which fall on the ground to make characters, or words from any language, in fact, as the vehicle moves.Beijing residents like Mrs. Wang were familiar with water calligraphy, but had never seen anything like the tricycle before.I think its quite interesting that a foreigner has designed such a tricycle. It writes long live the communist party and China is great etcetera. Its very interesting and innovative. This foreigner shows his creativity in China. Its all quite new. We really like it, Wang said.Twenty-six-year-old Zhang Xinzhe was distracted by the machine as she passed through the area, which is popular with tourists.This foreigner came to China from thousands of miles away. I think first of all he must have an in-depth understanding of Chinese culture. Secondly, he must also have a good understanding of Chinese characters. So thats why he could invent such a high-tech machine, Zheng said.The art is temporary. Like those written by the elderly men in the park, Hannas characters only live for a few brief moments before drying up and disappearing.But the image of one foreigner and his outlandish machine rolling down the alleyways is unlikely to fade from the minds of all those who see it.