Characters count

Many miners' spirits are low after tiring work, which leads to frequent absenteeism. They may easily squander their wages on alcohol because they have nothing to do within their short spare time.

"At least, calligraphy is a better idea to kill time," Wang recalls. "Boring work nurtures abundant ways for entertainment."

He felt lucky to be able to shorten working hours underground because he was sometimes assigned to write posters for the mine's publicity department.

"The miners' writings are generally unconstrained," Wang says. "We don't want to follow old disciplines and get restricted by certain ancient style. Each one develops unique characteristics."

Some rusticated youths from Beijing and Shanghai, who came to work at the mine in the 1970s, enlarged the calligraphers' squad and they often organized small exhibitions. The end of the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) gave impetus to their wave of stronger emotion.

In 1979, Wuhai's first enterprise-level arts and literature group was founded in the mine. Wang gathered several colleagues to publish their first album, The Black Jade, in 1983. The appeal of this aesthetic writing soon mushroomed, and numerous calligraphy schools and classes opened for the public.

Zhu Xiaoyu, 49, is an employee of a local district's industrial and commercial bureau. She was frustrated shortly when she started work there in the early 1990s because all proprietors' names on the business licenses were written by hand.

"If my handwriting is not good, it will be impolite for the proprietors," Zhu says about her simple motive to learn calligraphy. "Since there are so many schools and the annual tuition is less than my monthly salary, it was practical to grasp the skill."