01220nas a2200133   4500000000100000000000100001008004100002100001200043700001700055245009100072300001000163520089900173022001401072                                       d1 aLia Wei1 aMichael Long00aEntexted Heritage: Calligraphy and the (Re)Making of a Tradition in Contemporary China  a41-513 aFrom medieval times to the present, calligraphy has been theorised as a product of "spirit" rather than of the hand, and has been situated atop the Chinese aesthetic hierarchy. Recognising calligraphy as a key aspect of national identification, the People s Republic of China applied for its recognition to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Through the process of constructing calligraphy as Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), a simplified calligraphic canon emerged, which epitomises the "correct spirit of tradition." Building on art historical and anthropological questions of transmission and authentication of the classical tradition of calligraphy, this paper challenges this idealised conceptualisation by investigating how a contemporary Chinese ICH regime has worked to "entextualise" calligraphy into present social and political circumstances.  a2070-3449