Choi Lucia and her art

Connettersi con gli Altri attraverso la Calligrafia

La calligrafia ha aperto davanti a me un altro mondo, letteralmente.
South Korea, Eastern Asia

Story by Choi Lucia. Translated by Maria Grazia Calarco
Published on March 1, 2022.

This story is also available in GB de kr



Ricordo le parole di mio padre quando ero bambina: un bravo studente dovrebbe scrivere bene, la parola scritta ha più potere dei buoni voti. È così che è nata la mia passione per la forma scritta. Studio e pratico la calligrafia da ormai 34 anni, e se qualcuno mi chiedesse cosa essa significhi per me, risponderei semplicemente che è la mia vita.

La calligrafia ha aperto davanti a me un altro mondo, letteralmente. Ovvero, mi ha dato la possibilità di viaggiare e conoscere persone provenienti da altri Paesi. Insegnare calligrafia è diventato per me un mezzo di comunicazione e di connessione. L’arte, certo, comunica sempre qualcosa, che sia la natura inconscia degli esseri umani o il dissenso politico. Ma per me, la calligrafia rappresenta la possibilità di condividere delle conversazioni che oltrepassano i confini delle culture e delle nazioni.

Non mi sarei mai aspettata di trovare una tale gentilezza, ogni volta che mi perdevo in un paese straniero dove non conoscevo nessuno, che mi trovassi ad Hanoi o a Jakarta. Quando dico che sono una calligrafa, le persone mostrano un interesse immediato. Una volta che mi ero persa, una donna gentile mi ha aiutata e, per ringraziarla, le ho proposto di prendere una birra. Mentre la bevevamo, ho notato che aveva il viso gonfio. Era appena stata dal dentista! Questi incontri casuali mi lasciano sempre dei ricordi preziosi.

Penso che l’opportunità che mi è stata concessa grazie al lavoro che faccio debba essere vista in prospettiva. Ho conosciuto molti artisti che non potevano permettersi di seguire i loro sogni, e ho visto le loro personalità sgretolarsi sotto il peso della pressione sociale. A un certo punto della mia vita, anche io volevo diventare qualcuno e guadagnare a sufficienza da vivere una vita agiata. Lavoravo duramente fino all’alba e le mie dita erano sempre macchiate di inchiostro. Durante l’epoca della dinastia Joseon,[1] gli eruditi classici trascorrevano la loro vita a studiare e a filosofare, al fine di temprare la mente e il cuore. Penso che ancora oggi il talento degli artisti dovrebbe essere la nostra forza motrice. Ma vivere in una metropoli della Corea del Sud, tra blocchi di cemento, senza aria pulita e con poca natura intorno, può essere soffocante.

Per molto tempo mi sono chiesta come avrei potuto vivere in un modo più naturale e più libero. Dalla calligrafia tradizionale mi sono avventurata in quella commerciale, in cui posso sperimentare vari stili di scrittura. In seguito, mi sono resa conto di non avere vincoli con la città e ho deciso di insegnare calligrafia all’estero. Quando viaggio, mi porto dietro uno zaino di circa 20-24 chili, pieno non di vestiti ma di pennelli, calamai e altri strumenti di calligrafia. Forse dovrei anche considerarmi fortunata perché lavoro in un’epoca in cui la cultura coreana sta guadagnando sempre più popolarità all’estero. Non potrei andare in Giappone, in Australia o a Singapore se le mie competenze non fossero richieste dai centri di cultura e dalle università. Anche se insegnare a gruppi numerosi è una conferma del fatto che tante persone sono interessate alla calligrafia, mi piace ugualmente insegnare a uno o due studenti, perché posso avere con loro conversazioni più profonde. A volte da questi incontri nascono mie collaborazioni con altri artisti. Per esempio, ho avuto modo di realizzare uno spettacolo insieme a un ballerino di Taiwan, che ho conosciuto durante un viaggio a Tainan [2]. La sinergia che si è creata tra la danza e la calligrafia ha dato vita a uno spettacolo di grande effetto.

Con il passare degli anni, certo, viaggiare come facevo un tempo, con uno zaino in spalla, sarà sempre meno possibile. Ma, durante la pandemia di covid-19, ho scoperto che posso conoscere nuove persone e insegnare loro utilizzando dei programmi video. Spero di continuare a comunicare con la gente, perché nulla è più importante che connettersi con gli altri e mantenere delle amicizie per molti anni, e posso fare questo grazie alla calligrafia. La mia vita e la scrittura sono inseparabili. Non c’è niente che mi renda più felice di poter condividere con gli altri un po’ della gioia che provo quando scrivo.


[1] Durante la dinastia Goryeo e Joseon, i seonbi o eruditi classici dedicavano tutta la loro vita agli studi. Ritenevano che l’illuminazione potesse essere raggiunta mediante l’istruzione e applicavano la saggezza che avevano acquisito per cercare di trovare soluzioni ai problemi della società.

[2] Tainan è una città situata lungo la costa sud-occidentale di Taiwan.


How does this story make you feel?

Follow-up

Do you have any questions after reading this story? Do you want to follow-up on what you've just read? Get in touch with our team to learn more! Send an email to
[email protected].

Talk about this Story

Please enable cookies to view the comments powered by Disqus.

Share your story

Every story we share is another perspective on a complex topic like migration, gender and sexuality or liberation. We believe that these personal stories are important to better understand what's going on in our globalised society - and to better understand each other. That's because we are convinced that the more we understand about each other, the easier it will be for us to really talk to one another, to get closer - and to maybe find solutions for the issues that affect us all. 

Do you want to share your story? Then have a look here for more info.

Share Your Story

Subscribe to our Monthly Newsletter

Stay up to date with new stories on Correspondents of the World by subscribing to our monthly newsletter:

* indicates required

Follow us on Social Media

Choi Lucia

Choi Lucia

Choi Lucia is an established calligraphy artist based in Seoul, South Korea. She has produced the writings for the popular soju brand “Good Day” and other merchandise that one would be able to see in most supermarkets. Besides using her skills for commercial products, she teaches calligraphy in and outside of South Korea. Her motto in life is that like the ink that flows naturally on the paper, so you should listen to your heart to carry you to unknown places and people.

Choi Lucia is always keen and open to new collaborations. She is just waiting to grasp the chance to travel to other countries. Whether you or your organization is looking to learn Korean calligraphy, just contact her and she will be sure to reply!

Visit her on Instagram and Facebook.

Other Stories in Italiano




Show all

Get involved

At Correspondents of the World, we want to contribute to a better understanding of one another in a world that seems to get smaller by the day - but somehow neglects to bring people closer together as well. We think that one of the most frequent reasons for misunderstanding and unnecessarily heated debates is that we don't really understand how each of us is affected differently by global issues.

Our aim is to change that with every personal story we share.

Share Your Story

Community Worldwide

Correspondents of the World is not just this website, but also a great community of people from all over the world. While face-to-face meetings are difficult at the moment, our Facebook Community Group is THE place to be to meet other people invested in Correspondents of the World. We are currently running a series of online-tea talks to get to know each other better.

Join Our Community

EXPLORE TOPIC Migration

Global Issues Through Local Eyes

We are Correspondents of the World, an online platform where people from all over the world share their personal stories in relation to global development. We try to collect stories from people of all ages and genders, people with different social and religious backgrounds and people with all kinds of political opinions in order to get a fuller picture of what is going on behind the big news.

Our Correspondents

At Correspondents of the World we invite everyone to share their own story. This means we don't have professional writers or skilled interviewers. We believe that this approach offers a whole new perspective on topics we normally only read about in the news - if at all. If you would like to share your story, you can find more info here.

Share Your Story

Our Editors

We acknowledge that the stories we collect will necessarily be biased. But so is news. Believing in the power of the narrative, our growing team of awesome editors helps correspondents to make sure that their story is strictly about their personal experience - and let that speak for itself.

Become an Editor

Vision

At Correspondents of the World, we want to contribute to a better understanding of one another in a world that seems to get smaller by the day - but somehow neglects to bring people closer together as well. We think that one of the most frequent reasons for misunderstanding and unnecessarily heated debates is that we don't really understand how each of us is affected differently by global issues.

Our aim is to change that with every personal story we share.

View Our Full Vision & Mission Statement

Topics

We believe in quality over quantity. To give ourselves a focus, we started out to collect personal stories that relate to our correspondents' experiences with six different global topics. However, these topics were selected to increase the likelihood that the stories of different correspondents will cover the same issues and therefore illuminate these issues from different perspectives - and not to exclude any stories. If you have a personal story relating to a global issue that's not covered by our topics, please still reach out to us! We definitely have some blind spots and are happy to revise our focus and introduce new topics at any point in time. 

Environment

Discussions about the environment often center on grim, impersonal figures. Among the numbers and warnings, it is easy to forget that all of these statistics actually also affect us - in very different ways. We believe that in order to understand the immensity of environmental topics and global climate change, we need the personal stories of our correspondents.

Gender and Sexuality

Gender is the assumption of a "normal". Unmet expectations of what is normal are a world-wide cause for violence. We hope that the stories of our correspondents will help us to better understand the effects of global developments related to gender and sexuality, and to reveal outdated concepts that have been reinforced for centuries.

Migration

Our correspondents write about migration because it is a deeply personal topic that is often dehumanized. People quickly become foreigners, refugees - a "they". But: we have always been migrating, and we always will. For millions of different reasons. By sharing personal stories about migration, we hope to re-humanize this global topic.

Liberation

We want to support the demand for justice by spotlighting the personal stories of people who seek liberation in all its different forms. Our correspondents share their individual experiences in creating equality. We hope that for some this will be an encouragement to continue their own struggle against inequality and oppression - and for some an encouragement to get involved.

Education

Education is the newest addition to our themes. We believe that education, not only formal but also informal, is one of the core aspects of just and equal society as well as social change. Our correspondents share their experiences and confrontations about educational inequalities, accessibility issues and influence of societal norms and structures. 

Corona Virus

2020 is a year different from others before - not least because of the Corona pandemic. The worldwide spread of a highly contagious virus is something that affects all of us in very different ways. To get a better picture of how the pandemic's plethora of explicit and implicit consequences influences our everyday life, we share lockdown stories from correspondents all over the world.

Growing Fast

Although we started just over a year ago, Correspondents of the World has a quickly growing community of correspondents - and a dedicated team of editors, translators and country managers.

94

Correspondents

113

Stories

57

Countries

433

Translations

Contact

Correspondents of the World is as much a community as an online platform. Please feel free to contact us for whatever reason!

Message Us

Message on WhatsApp

Call Us

Joost: +31 6 30273938