"All Men Are Brothers" (a lengthy and famous Chinese novel) carved on a finger nail? Huang Lao-fen of Malaysia may not be able to write the Chinese characters that small, but with a steel pen and magnifying glass, he has engraved a 400-word statement on liberty by Franklin Delano Roosevelt on a piece of ivory the size of a sesame seed. He is a calligrapher in miniature.
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Huang Lao-fen's tiny calligraphy has won a citation from the King of Malaysia. He makes his own tools and carves the characters in different calligraphic styles. The size of figurines may be judged from thumb of the hand holding one of them (left). Size of the characters may then be judged from the magnified section at left. At right is the head of a walking stick held by a figure representing the god of longevity. The whole figurine is no higher than a water glass. The script running down the stick is taken from a famous text on Chinese history.
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Chinese ivory carving was begun centuries ago and reached such perfection of the miniature that a boat the size of a walnut had moving parts and figures inside. These pictures (left) are a biography of the figurine on the heart of the flower he wears and Kuan Kung (god of war and merchants) from the Three Kingdoms period (221-228). He holds a tablet filled with calligraphy.
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Text of the tablet in the hand of the god Kuan Kung is shown at left. The text is the Ch'ao K'uo (on war) from a commentary in the Spring and Autumn Annals. Width is half a fingernail. There is a two-inch figure holding the p'i p'a. Width of the four strings is only one-quarter inch but Huang has represented each string with hundreds of tightly carved words.
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Horse is the famous steed which could cover a thousand li in a day. Po Lo of the Han dynasty (206 B.C.—221 A.D.) cared for this magnificent animal. Enlargement at top shows the calligraphy. Size of the figurine may be judged from the magnifying glass in the picture below. The ivory figure is another version of Kuan Kung, the god of war. He is shown reading by light of the moon. The calligraphy is fine and in script. It would have to be, considering that the width of the text is third of a finger for the six row of characters.