The Monumental Calligraphy of Tong Yang-Tze

Lesley Ma | Perspectives | 28th February 2025

Traditional calligraphy, written with ink and brushes, is under threat from the ball point pen and the computer screen. Tong fears that its demise will mean a loss of “the roots of a culture”. That has motivated an artistic career focused on a painterly approach to calligraphy. She writes monumental scrolls using outsized characters and “energizes” the scroll by “magnifying the movement and dynamism of the lines.” Two scrolls on display in New York comprise the most important show of calligraphy in recent memory.