Ma Xiaoping was born in April, 1958 and came from Longqi County, Sichuan province. After graduated from senior high school in 1976, he became a literate youngster in the sixth detachment of the sixth brigade in Xinhua commune in Longchang County, Sichuan Province. Ma Xiaoping joint the PLA in 1978 and served as a secretary in the individual installation company of Army Corps of Engineers of Shenyang military region in Yingkou City, Liaoning Province. Since he loved calligraphy when he was a child, he practiced it when he was free in the army. He felt very pity that the wasted newspaper was used to light a fire by the cookhouse squad, so after asked the commander’s permission, he practiced calligraphy on those newspapers before the cookhouse squad used it to light a fire. His comrade-in-arms couldn’t understand why he did like so. After practicing for a period of time, a calligrapher said that his calligraphy was lack of strength of strokes and he felt very confused at that time. Sometimes later, Ma Xiaoping came across with a piece of finger calligraphy called A Night Anchorage near the Feng Bridge written by a calligrapher in Qing dynasty, which is full of forceful strokes and graceful. Ma was fully enlightened and he thought why I don’t try to practice finger calligraphy? Since then, he began his journey of finger calligraphy.
The key for finger calligraphy is to master the skill of “dipping ink”, in other words, it’s to use one’s finger to dip ink and balance the pace that the ink flowing down from the hand and use the ink properly. If the ink flows too quickly, the ink cannot write in the paper. Without any instruction, the only thing he could do is keeping practice and tried to figure out. Sometimes he use water to practice instead of ink and gradually figured out the amount of ink that should be used in writing a character and understood the skill of writing on the “processed xuan paper”.
It’s said that if you work hard and stick to your goal, you will finally be successful. Ma’s painstaking work of practicing calligraphy finally brought him the pleasure of success. In 1982, Ma Xiaoping won the third prize in the “China Coal Mine Painting and Calligraphy Exhibition” in Beijing, which greatly encouraged his determination to stick to calligraphy. Zhang Caiqin , who was considered as “The Three Zhang in Mid-Shu Area” together with Zhang Daqian, Zhang Shanzi appreciated that Ma’s finger calligraphy had the style of inscriptions on ancient bronzes and stone tablets”.
Later, after painstaking work, Ma mastered the skill of writing with both hands at the same time and with a writing brush in his mouth. He got higher and higher prizes and enjoyed more and more reputation, but Ma still thought that his is still in a long journey to become a calligrapher.
Ma Xiaoping, the finger calligrapher, wrote and fulfilled his dream with his fingers. Ma said he will keep striving for finger calligraphy, since the scene on that side is unique and beautiful and endless scenery just can be seen on the abrupt peak.