The founder of Rainbow Calligraphy, Yip
Man Kit, lives a dramatic and legendary life.
He was born in 1934 and has shown his talent in art at his young age.
In his early twenties, he started to learn traditional calligraphy on
his own. At the same time, he worked in the World Wide Publishing Company
Ltd editorial department and built up his interest in writing. Although
without a formal teacher, he won several calligraphy competitions which
lead him to meet other famous artists and exploded his view in arts.
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In the late 50s, he went to mainland China
and studied in the Beijing School of Arts and the Guangzhou School of
Music. Unfortunately, the Chinese Cultural Revolution broke out and few
years later, millions of educated people and artists were captured and
accused of counterrevolution. He was arrested and sent to remote area
in western China to open up mines. Many of his friends were dead during
the time, and he experienced several times of nearly dead because of accidents
and tortured. He struggled to survive in the terrible environment and
harsh work for twenty year from 1960-1980.
As the Cultural Revolution ended, he was released and sent back to Hong
Kong. He and his brother opened an art store which sold glass paintings
and traditional calligraphy drawings. But since the business was not good
enough, they were planning to give up and close the store. One night in
1982, when Yip was very worried about the future, his friend showed him
a book which introduces calligraphy of the Tang Dynasty. One of the empresses
loved to write the Chinese characters into dragon and phoenix, which inspired
Yip of designing the Rainbow Calligraphy.
Yip started to use different symbols and colors to design and rewrite
the Chinese characters, for example using cranes, birds, butterflies and
lotus flowers. The response was very positive and customers loved it.
His business was saved and this also built up his reputation as a calligraphy
artist.
Many magazines & televisions interviewed him and some publishing companies
would like to publish books for him to introduce his life and art works,
but he refused them all because he wanted to live a simple life.
Now he lets his brothers & nephews to carry on this Yipˇ¦s calligraphy
as family business. His fame & his calligraphy have spread into Japan,
Singapore & even USA.
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- "Yip in Chinese" is the trade mark of Yip's calligraphy. He is living
a retire life and only responsible for writing calligraphy and drawings
in Stanley Market, Hong Kong. In his free time, he likes to read Buddhist
Scriptures and does simple cookery. His life is full of ups and downs
which made him a simple and happy elderly now.
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