Bending the structural rules
Graffiti artist balances street writing with traditional calligraphy in his newly released Chinese typeface, in which he sees a future in cultural collaborations, Li Yingxue reports.
By Li Yingxue | China Daily | Updated: 2026-07-23 07:44
Built on the use of broad-edged markers and flat-nib dip pens, the typeface gives Chinese characters a strong sense of movement and tension without sacrificing legibility. It also represents an exploration of how Western lettering traditions can be adapted to the structural logic of Chinese characters.
Xu, 38, is a co-founder of ABS Crew and an early practitioner of graffiti in China. He first encountered graffiti in 2005 while in high school, when the art form remained a niche culture largely introduced through foreign documentaries, magazines and hip-hop culture.
Xu and his classmates began writing their names on walls near their school. For them, graffiti was not simply drawing but a way of expressing identity through writing.
"The simplest way to describe graffiti is writing your own name," Xu says. "In essence, it is writing — and making that writing visually appealing."
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