The 2025 National College Student Seal Engraving Exhibition kicked off at the Shanghai Library on the afternoon of December 19th. With the theme of "Tracing the Origin of Characters, Preserving Cultural Heritage Through Art", this exhibition aims to guide young students to explore the origin of Chinese characters and embrace the Chinese cultural context through the art of seal engraving.
The exhibition has attracted 637 students from 166 universities, including some international students studying in China. After expert review, a total of 288 works were selected for the exhibition.
Seven years ago, in July 2018, East China Normal University first proposed holding the National College Student Seal Engraving Exhibition. On New Year's Day 2019, a series of activities of the first exhibition were successfully held at the Shanghai Library and ECNU, pioneering the first national special exhibition of seal engraving exclusively for college students.
This exhibition breaks through traditional models by innovatively setting up three guided appreciation sections: "Text Content", "Seal Engraving Style", and "Origin and Development of Characters". These sections lead the audience to trace the origin and development of characters and interpret artistic influences, elevating the exhibition from a single visual appreciation to a readable, perceptible, and thoughtful cultural journey, allowing people to approach seal engraving and appreciate the charm of Chinese characters.
During the exhibition, a seal engraving-themed workshop will be held daily, guided on-site by a team of teachers and students from the Calligraphy and Seal Engraving major of ECNU. This allows the audience to get hands-on experience in seal engraving, achieving an immersive experience of "being accessible, being able to sit down, being able to participate, and being able to take away".
"Intangible cultural heritage seal engraving is an important symbol of Chinese civilization. Displaying seal engraving in the public space of an urban library is also an effective way to promote ancient Chinese characters to the public and popularize it," said Professor Zhang Suo, Director of the Calligraphy Department of ECNU.
Professor Zhang Suo stated that Chinese characters carry the ancient cultural genes of the Chinese nation and embody the wisdom of Chinese ancestors in creating characters among the world's writing systems. Seal engraving is a traditional art based on ancient Chinese seal script, which is much appreciated. It is a "living fossil" that has been widely used even after ancient Chinese characters withdrew from the historical stage and is thus an important bridge for contemporary people to understand ancient Chinese characters. The texts of seal engravings are often concise and comprehensive, with the characteristics of headline literature, and have special significance in practicing core socialist values today.
Shanghai, as an important cultural hub and art center since modern times, has a profound connection with the art of seal engraving and is known as "China's City of Seal Engraving". Since modern times, it has gathered a group of founding seal engraving masters. They inherited the past and ushered in the future, integrated and innovated, forming an influential Shanghai-style seal engraving style, making Shanghai a gathering place for various schools of modern seal engraving art and numerous masters.
To this day, a group of accomplished seal engraving masters are still active on this land, continuing the cultural context and glory of Shanghai-style seal engraving. This rich historical heritage and vivid contemporary practice are not only the solid foundation of Shanghai's urban cultural confidence but also endow it with a special responsibility and historical mission to inherit and carry forward this precious cultural heritage.
Exhibition Period
December 19th——December 25th
Monday to Sunday: 9:00 AM——5:00 PM (Last entry at 4:30 PM)
Venue
Shanghai Library (No. 1555 Middle Huaihai Road)
