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East Asia Program

Cornell University

Wong Chai Lok Calligraphy Fellowship

Wong Chai Lok is a renowned Chinese calligrapher and educator whose work has been exhibited at Cornell's Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. A fund established in his name occasionally awards a fellowship to a calligrapher of outstanding merit to exhibit their work and provide an artist's residency at Cornell. 

2020 Wong Chai Lok Calligraphy Fellow

Tong Yang-Tze

Tong Yang-Tze was the 2020 Wong Chai Lok Calligraphy Fellow. During a career spanning four decades, Yangtze has received critical acclaim for her large-scale and unrestrained cursive script. Yang-Tze's Immortal at the River was exhibited for the first time in the United States at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art on campus.

The subject of this 54-meter-long calligraphic work is the poem by the same name by Yang Shen (1488–1559) that forms the preface to the standard edition of the Chinese historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms (San guo yan yi). View the entire scroll.

The exhibition, which garnered positive reviews and media coverage, was curated by An-yi Pan, associate professor of the history of art and visual studies in the College of Arts and Sciences; and Ellen Avril, chief curator and curator of Asian art at the Johnson Museum.

Professor An-Yi Pan also wrote the text for the exhibition's catalog which can be ordered through the Herbert F. Johnson Museum's publications page. 

Two people standing in a gallery with calligraphic art on the surrounding walls
Immortal at the River, a nearly 60-yard calligraphy scroll by Taiwanese artist Tong Yang-Tze, on display at the Johnson Museum.

 

Dancers leap in front of a projection of Tong Yang-Tze's calligraphic art

Her calligraphy video series, "SAO" was integrated into this year's Locally Grown Dance Concert as part of the piece titled "Atelier 320: Upending." Enjoy an excerpt of that dance piece.