Classic strokes on TV

China Central Television unveiled its new documentary on Chinese calligraphy on Jan 2. Titled 5,000 Years of Chinese Calligraphy, the series ploughs the depths of the history of five typical types of character styles and explores how the art has come to symbolize the core of Chinese culture and spirit. To collect stories and study the evolution of Chinese calligraphy, the entire crew traveled around Europe, America and Asia, visited hundreds of museums and artifacts, and studied tens of thousands of relics. The documentary has eight episodes now showing on CCTV-4, the Chinese channel that is broadcast around the world.