The Economist.
And so this is a single lot, lot 861.
I'm standing in Sotheby's in Hong Kong.
The remarkable calligraphy preface to the poem is composed at the orchid pavilion after Wang Xizhi...
People are registering to take part in today's auction.
And there are so many of them that the start of the sale has already been delayed.
So you'll be observing?
No, it's not quite my...as much as I wish.
I've always been interested in how China sees its own history.
The Chinese Communist Party spent decades trying to destroy the practices of the past and move into a new glorious future.
But more recently, the party has led a country wide, top down revival of many historical traditions.
And calligraphy is a big part of this.
Young people used to be expected to master the piano or violin.
Now calligraphy classes are taking over as the hobby of choice for ambitious parents at least.
Learning to write Chinese characters is so hard.
Each one can have up to 58 strokes, and each stroke has to be written in the correct order.
And there are thousands of characters.
Calligraphy means doing all that with a brush.
In the early 20th century, some people thought that China's writing system was holding it back.
But in the end, they stuck with it and found ways to make characters work in the modern world.