Calligraphy has developed greatly since the 1980s. Cultural institutions such as cultural centers, trade unions, mass art galleries and youth officials have begun to set up posts about calligraphy. In addition, some calligraphers left their original jobs and began to teach or create calligraphy. Nowadays, cities at all levels have gathered a group of calligraphy freelancers. The specialization of calligraphy is a trend in modern society. Another clue of specialization is the professional education of the college. 1963, Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now China Academy of Fine Arts) enrolled the first undergraduate calligraphy students, with 2 students; 1979 Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts recruits the first graduate students of calligraphy and seal cutting, with 5 students. Professional education brings systematic professional knowledge, strict basic training and good professional atmosphere. Calligraphy major in the Academy of Fine Arts has also brought more contacts between students studying calligraphy and students studying fine arts, which has a certain impact on the future development of calligraphy major. Since then, the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Nanjing Art Institute, Capital Normal University and Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts have successively recruited undergraduate, master and doctoral students in calligraphy. Today, there are about 40 calligraphy-related colleges and universities in China, enrolling hundreds of students every year.
Over the past 30 years, outstanding calligraphers among calligraphy graduates have become the backbone of calligraphy. At the same time, these colleges and universities recruit various forms of advanced students, mostly in the same year. The number of people who have studied is estimated to be over ten thousand. Excellent calligraphers under the age of 50 rarely have not studied in colleges and universities. Many graduates become professional calligraphers. Professional education has changed people's concept of calligraphy. The view that calligraphy can only be done by amateurs in the past is no longer suitable for today's situation. Nearly 100 master's and doctoral students majoring in calligraphy are enrolled every year in China. Although the calligraphy position is not easy to find and its influence is still there, it is no longer possible to control people to do it specially. But there are always not many excellent teachers, and traditional calligraphy can only be part-time. There are two main reasons for studying young people professionally: first, everyone can write calligraphy, which can be defined by self-cultivation.
Looking back on the history of calligraphy is very intense, but since the Song Dynasty, the emphasis on self-cultivation and technical competition has actually adapted to the so-called "amateur" state. However, once people pursue perfection for a long time, lack technical training and constantly improve their technical requirements, it is easy to find that these people in the history of calligraphy have made progress in the world and found profound ancient masterpieces that amateurs can't cope with. It requires people to put all their energy into it. The second thing is to go deep into the water. Professionalization will lead to a tendency to focus only on technology and form, ignoring self-cultivation and people's tempering, and will only create formal works. It is possible. Specialization will indeed build a team that criticizes professional formalism, and it will also bring great benefits, so that people can devote all their energy to a field and even reach the peak of science and technology in a country and city. As for the tempering of spiritual life, it depends on personal consciousness. As long as there are a few people who attach importance to cultural accomplishment and spiritual life in a professional field, there is hope that there will be Jieshan artists in this field.
The recognition of calligraphy has both material reality and spiritual ideal. Some calligraphers have a sense of mission to calligraphy. They are determined to devote their lives to this cause, and the position of this cause in contemporary culture will determine the height they can reach in their lives. In other words, if calligraphy is destined to be a secondary field in contemporary culture, then their life can only make second-rate and third-rate contributions at best. Therefore, when some people enter this major, they make up their minds to make calligraphy creation an important category in contemporary art and calligraphy theory an important subject in contemporary academia. Whether it can be done depends on the test of history: this determination is a unique product of calligraphy in the modern sense.