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A sub-exhibition of the China Orchid Pavilion International Calligraphy Festival in 2019. [Photo/sx.gov.cn]

The China Orchid Pavilion International Calligraphy Festival is held each year on the third day of the third lunar month, attracting calligraphy lovers from home and abroad.

The festival generally opens in Lanting, or the Orchid Pavilion, in the southwest suburb of Shaoxing, Zhejiang province.

The festival got its name from a gathering of 42 calligraphers at Lanting during the Eastern Jin Dynasty in AD 353. The gathering led to the creation of Lanting Anthology (poems composed at the Orchid Pavilion) and The Preface to the Lanting Anthology (the opening words to the Lanting Anthology). The latter was written by Wang Xizhi, a famous calligrapher of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, who is known as the Saint of Calligraphy. It has become the best-known work in the history of Chinese calligraphy.

On the third day of the third lunar month in 1981, 27 famous calligraphers from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai gathered in Lanting and proposed the establishment of the Lanting Calligraphy Club which was officially approved by the Zhejiang Federation of Literary and Art Circles in the following year. In January 1985, the Standing Committee of the Shaoxing Municipal People's Congress resolved to hold the Shaoxing Calligraphy Festival on the third day of the third lunar month. The emblem and song were chosen for the festival in 1993.

Thus, starting in 1985, the China Orchid Pavilion International Calligraphy Festival has been held for 34 years as a platform carrying forward the art of calligraphy and promoting Shaoxing's cultural attractions.

As a result, Lanting, which has been reputed as a sacred place of calligraphy for over 1,600 years, enjoys more widespread fame today.

At the annual gathering, a large number of calligraphers from home and abroad descend on Lanting to attend a grand festival and various accompanying activities. Some of them visit ancient monuments and historic sites while others enjoy forums for artistic exchanges. Many of the festival-goers attend the re-creation of "Qu Shui Liu Shang", an ancient game which features writers floating cups of wine on a stream. The writer nearest the cup when it stops has to drink the wine and compose a poem. This is how Wang Xizhi wrote the Lanting Xu.

Meanwhile, as the Hometown of Calligraphy, Shaoxing also stages a variety of calligraphy-related activities to attract public participation and strengthen the festive atmosphere.