Beyond Calligraphy and Philanthropy: The Story of Dr. C. J. Huang 

"Perspectives" Staff

Perspectives, Vol. 1, No. 5

When Dr. C. J. Huang opened the back door and stepped into his backyard, he felt energized by the scene of construction.

It was a beautiful morning in spring. We sat quietly in Dr. Huang's large garden in Atherton, California, watching the construction workers busily building the third pavilion of the garden. Gentle sunshine was on our shoulders, restless goldfishes at our feet.

Dr. Huang likes to build things. He is a passionate builder. While all this busy construction of the third pavilion was going on, he was showing a contractor around for another project: an indoor pool in the backyard. The building had to be carefully designed, emphasized Dr. Huang, because it should not spoil the beauty of his garden.

The contractor left. Dr. Huang was then freed up to give us a tour of his garden. Looking up, at the entrance of the long pavilion, we saw the name of the pavilion written in elegant calligraphy: Yi Xin Ting ("heart-pleasing pavilion"). "It is my own work." Dr. Huang was proud. It was, by no means, ordinary work. It was simple, smooth, clean, and powerful.

"What is this style?"

"It is called 'Huang cao' (Huang's cursive script). I invented it."

"The Chinese calligraphy," Dr. Huang said as he handed us a calligraphy book, "is our national treasure, and it is the responsibility of Chinese not only to preserve it, but also to develop it." Modernity, however, creates some special challenges to the preservation and development of the Chinese calligraphy. For example, most styles of our traditional calligraphy are written very slowly, which does not fit the fast-paced life of the modern world. For the very few styles that we can write quickly (such as the traditional "cao," or cursive, scripts), they are very hard to recognize.

"Facing the challenges of the modern age," Dr. Huang said as he pointed to his book, "we need to think more creatively of ways to preserve and develop Chinese calligraphy." Dr. Huang found two complementary and effective ways. First, he invented a new style of Chinese calligraphy. It is called "Huang cao," which combines the speed of the traditional "cao" style with the recognizability of the traditional "kai" style (standard script). Dr. Huang's calligraphy book in hand, we saw the contrast between the readability of "Huang cao" and the illegibility of "Wang cao" (the "cao" style of Wang Xizhi) and "Yu cao" (the "cao" style of Yu Youren). We noticed the difference between the slow "kai" and the quick "Huang cao." The combination works beautifully.

Based on his research on calligrapher Mr. Yu Youren's "Standard Cursive Script," emphasizing "easy to learn, easy to write, accurate and aesthetic," Dr. Huang created "Huang cao," a style that does not change the original form of Chinese characters. He has since been advocating the use of his cursive script in parallel with the simplified characters used in China. He agrees with Mr. Yu Youren on the principle of "using standard script for printing, using cursive script for writing" and has offered a feasible approach for the unification of the traditional and the simplified Chinese character systems. Dr. Huang's system includes several parts. First, it includes 4,500 commonly used non-simplified characters of standard script that are generally accepted by both systems. Second, 1,900 simplified characters also constitute one part of the system. Third, Huang's cursive script library combined the above two categories (a total of 6,400 characters) which are close to standard script and easy to learn for students from both sides. As such, "Huang cao" is the result of a reform based on both the traditional Chinese characters and the simplified ones. "Huang cao" is created with the spirit of character reform and with an understanding of the historical trend.

The invention of a practical and beautiful style, however, is not by itself sufficient. Dr. Huang also wants to disseminate his invention. The more people who write "Huang cao," he thought, the better is the chance for the preservation and development of the Chinese calligraphy. Modernity does not only pose challenges to the Chinese calligraphy, it also presents opportunities. The information revolution and Internet boom have created unprecedented methods for preserving and developing Chinese calligraphy. Furthermore, modern technologies have changed the ways in which we think about calligraphy, language and inter-language and cross-culture communication. Thereupon came the second major initiative of Dr. Huang. Though in his 80s, Dr. Huang developed a complex language system based on the modern word processor, writing recognition technology, Internet and calligraphy. This system is called Global Language Solution. It is based on one key feature of "Huang cao," i.e., its readability. Huang's cursive script can easily become a computer word-processing font. The principles that "Huang cao" adheres to are as follows. First, the character sequence is in the order of English phonetic with the first, second, third and fourth phonetic tones differentiated. Second, the application is compatible with current typewriter system and printer usage. Third, the characters can be programmed into popularly used computer software packages. These packages would be capable of converting between traditional characters and simplified ones. In addition, "Huang cao" currently has an optical character recognition (OCR) rate of more than 95%, which permits handwritten "Huang cao" texts to be easily scanned into computer. In fact, Huang's cursive script has already been used by Beida Fangzhen as one of the standard fonts. Dr. Huang has also produced a CD ROM in which a character in Chinese "Huang cao" is instantly translated into the traditional Chinese character, the simplified Chinese character, and English. Finally, on his Web site (http://www.glshuangfont.com), Dr. Huang demonstrates his style on-line.

Dr. Huang, or C. J., was born in the Liu Yang county of Hunan Province in 1916. In 1938, he graduated with a B.E. degree from the Civil Engineering Department at National Wuhan University. From 1938 to 1950, he served at the Engineering Department of the Chinese Air Force as Deputy Section Chief and Chief Engineer. From 1950 to 1951, he was an Associate Professor at the Civil Engineering Department of the National Taiwan University. After earning his Master of Engineer degree from the University of Michigan, Dr. Huang worked as a Bridge Engineer at the Michigan State Highway Department and as a Structure Engineer at J. G. White Engineering Corporation in New York. From 1955 to 1981, he was Managing Director of U.S. Summit Industrial Corporation in Bangkok and served on the Board of Director of Singapore Petroleum Corporation. From 1975 to 1981, Dr. Huang was Vice Chairman of Oceanic Petroleum Corporation. From 1993 to present, he was Chairman of H&W Enterprises, H&W Enterprises Bay village and H&W Development LLC. He was also an Associate at the Stanford Research Institute, Advisor to the U.S. Congress, and a member of the Republican Caucus. In 1993, Dr. Huang was conferred an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree by the Central Connecticut State University. Upon the celebration of his eightieth birthday, the City of San Francisco announced that December 29th, Dr. Huang's birthday, would be named the "C. J. Huang Day."

Dr. Huang's creation of "Huang cao" and the Global Language Solution was not only motivated by the desire to preserve and develop our national treasure: it is also a reflection of his artistic passion. For him, calligraphy has been a childhood passion. Son of Huang Zheng, who was a classmate and later advisor of Tan Sitong (leader and martyr of the Wuxu Reform), Dr. Huang started practicing calligraphy at a young age. When he was only in his fifth grade in elementary school, Dr. Huang was awarded a medal from the Ministry of Education of the Nationalist Government for his achievement in calligraphy. The "xing" style and the "cao" style being his favorites, Dr. Huang found enlightenment and peace of mind in calligraphy. For him, it is spirituality, family and friendship, instead of material wealth, that are worthy assets in life. Wealth is meaningful to Dr. Huang only when it can help him give back to the society, and especially to his homeland China.

If the drive to preserve and develop the Chinese calligraphy came partially out of Dr. Huang's artistic passion, his philanthropic activities in China are probably a pure reflection of his sense of responsibility as a Chinese. From 1986 to 1995, he donated a total amount of more than six million dollars to various hospitals and schools in China, including the People's Hospital in Liuyang. A firm believer in education, Dr. Huang set up his own scholarship in Wuhan University as well as foundations for both teaching and learning at various other universities and middle schools.

In 1986, Dr. Huang visited his hometown Hen Dhong. The local officials complained to him that there was not a high school in the town, and most children of the residents could not attend high school. For the few of them who could, they had to travel a long distance every day to a neighboring town for classes. Understanding the importance of education for China's future, Dr. Huang agreed on the spot to build a high school for the town.

The local officials then started to plan for a new high school. The high school, insisted Dr. Huang, has to be a first class high school. It should have good teachers, modern facilities, and a beautiful location. It should also be a boarding school: both students and teachers should live in the school, so that they can focus, so that they can interact, so that they can learn more from each other. The local government was touched by his generosity and sincerity. The government immediately allocated the best stretch of land in town, with beautiful scenes along the river, for the school. The school was named "Ouyang Yu Experimental Middle School" in memory of Dr. Huang's late wife.

The school admitted its first class of 200 students in 1986. By now, it has become one of the best high schools in Hunan province. In 1996, one of the graduates of the high school received full scholarship support from Dr. Huang to attend the Central Connecticut State University for his college education. From then on, one graduate from each class of Ouyang Yu Experimental School would receive the same scholarship support to attend the Central Connecticut State University. The scholarship recipients are required to go back to China to work for two years after graduating from the Central Connecticut State University.

We recall the theory of public goods in economics: how is the undersupply of public goods cured? The orthodox economic theory would say, by government. But is this sufficient? Probably not, because the government is constrained both by its limited financial resources and by its inevitable focus on matters with more immediate political, economic or social implications. As such, do we have other options? Dr. Huang would answer yes to this question, because he himself supplies an example of public goods provision by elites.

We then remember Ying QIAN's article on the role of elites (cf. Perspectives, Vol. 1, No. 4). How is the principal-agent problem solved between the people and the elites? Certainly, complete contracting is not a complete answer, because few contracts are complete. If Boston's public park could be created and saved by dreams and drives of the Boston elites, how about Chinese calligraphy? How about education in China? We can find some answers from Dr. Huang.

It was time to say goodbye. Before we left, we presented the most recent issue of "Perspectives" to Dr. Huang. We also shook hands with him. His hands were warm and firm. Beyond calligraphy and philanthropy, we thought to ourselves, we see an artistic, caring and patriotic heart.