Chinese Calligraphy at the Heart of Warsaw — Linmo Studio at China Day
On June 2nd, the Chinese Embassy in Warsaw hosted China Day, a public event bringing together hundreds of students, academics, and businesspeople. The event featured humanoid robots, electric vehicles, and models of China’s Tiangong space station. Linmo Studio has the honour to be invited to run the calligraphy workshop during the China Day.
Photo: trybuna
China Day at the Chinese Embassy
China Day was opened by Ambassador Lu Shan, who described the embassy as a place of dialogue and exchange for Warsaw’s residents and expressed hope for strengthened Polish-Chinese cooperation.
Chinese Ambassador to Poland Lu Shan during China Day in Warsaw. His speech was interpreted by Edward Warchocki. Photo: official profile of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Poland.
The programme included models of the Tiangong space station and the Fuxing high-speed train, electric vehicles from XPENG and Exlantix, and a humanoid robot named Edward Warchocki. Linmo Studio represented the cultural programme with a calligraphy workshop.
What Happened at the Calligraphy Tables
In the central garden of the Chinese embassy, Linmo Studio prepared all the essential materials for Chinese calligraphy: Xuan paper, brushes, ink, and ink stones. Over the two-hour session, the workshop attracted participation from roughly 90% of all attendees at China Day, drawing a continuous flow of visitors throughout the space. What emerged was not a passive exhibition, but a participatory form of cultural exchange, where the act of writing itself became the medium through which the tradition was understood and shared.
The workshop centred around the character “福” (fu), which holds deep significance in Chinese culture, symbolising blessings, good fortune, and positive wishes. Linmo studio calligrapher Yating Liu prepared a selection of “福” as it has evolved across different stages of Chinese calligraphy history – from seal script and clerical script to cursive and regular styles. Participants were invited to choose the version they most resonated with and write it themselves using traditional brushes on xuan paper, creating their own calligraphy scrolls.
The atmosphere was remarkably lively. Within just two hours, around 300 to 500 people took part, with queues forming throughout the space — yet many were still willing to wait for the chance to try.
For many, it was their first time holding a traditional Chinese brush or attempting to write Chinese characters. And yet, even without understanding the language, the experience revealed something universal: that artistic expression can bridge cultures in a direct and immediate way, creating connection beyond words.
“Children were most eager to try, though adults approached too — asking questions, taking photos, and eventually picking up the brush themselves.”— Dziennik Trybuna, China Day coverage, June 6, 2026
Why Chinese Calligraphy Still Matters
We live in an age that optimises for speed, scale, and reproducibility. Which is precisely why the deliberate, irreproducible act of writing by hand with a brush has acquired a new kind of value. This isn’t nostalgia. It’s a conscious choice of presence.
Chinese calligraphy — shūfǎ (书法), literally “the method of writing” is one of the oldest continuous art forms in the world. In traditional Chinese culture, calligraphy is regarded as one of the highest art forms, existing alongside painting and poetry as part of the classical “three perfections.”Each character carries millennia of accumulated meaning, aesthetic refinement, and cultural memory. To write one is to participate in that lineage, however briefly.
Why people come to Linmo Studio
- Focus and stillness — calligraphy demands full presence; the mind quiets because it has to
- Cultural depth — 5,000 years of history encoded in gesture and form
- Aesthetic pleasure — working with ink, paper, and negative space as a visual meditation
- A meaningful keepsake — a character written by your own hand is something no one else can replicate
- A gateway to the language — learning characters through writing is the most durable path into Chinese script
About Linmo Studio
Linmo Studio is a Warsaw-based Chinese calligraphy and cultural arts studio. We run workshops for adults and children, individual sessions, and bespoke cultural experiences for companies, schools, cultural institutions, and private events across Europe.
Our calligrapher, Yating Liu, is also a contemporary Chinese calligraphy artist whose practice bridges tradition and modern expression. Working at the intersection of art and technology, she reinterprets classical calligraphy through modern presentation formats, including contemporary framing and installation-based works. Her practice also includes commissioned pieces for technology-driven organisations such as BYD, positioning calligraphy within a wider dialogue between heritage and innovation.
China Day at the Chinese Embassy was a reminder of what we have believed from the beginning: calligraphy does not require lengthy explanation. It requires a brush, ink, paper, and a moment of stillness.
We are focused on making Chinese calligraphy more accessible, shareable, and experience-driven, allowing people from different cultural backgrounds to engage with it directly and intuitively.
Linmo Studio is available for collaborations across Europe, and we welcome partnerships with organisations, brands, and cultural initiatives interested in creating meaningful, hands-on cultural experiences.
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