Reng Zhao, Guarini ’26 (MALS, Creative Writing, Nonfiction), was awarded the 2026 Byam Shaw-Brownstone Thesis Excellence Award for her thesis, The Flow of Ink: A Journey through Calligraphy, Culture, and the Self, a memoir weaving fieldwork and Chinese history into a 5,000-year exploration of Chinese calligraphy and its cultural significance.
We first met Reng Zhao when she received the Alumni Research Award for a fieldwork project exploring Chinese calligraphy as art, history, and identity. That research became the foundation for her thesis. As she wraps up her degree, we asked Zhao to reflect on the work, the program, and what comes next.
Your thesis, The Flow of Ink, weaves fieldwork, Chinese history, and personal memoir into a 5,000-year account of calligraphy. What do you want readers to understand or feel by the last page?
For decades, global audiences have encountered Chinese calligraphy through the detached lens of art history. By approaching this art through the intimate, first-person journey of an insider practitioner, focusing on my own experience of learning this art since age seven, my thesis illustrates that calligraphy is not merely an elitist museum artifact, but a living vessel of historical legacy.
Ultimately, I want readers to feel my educational and personal evolution over eight years of practice, an experience that has fostered my growth and cultivated a deep sense of cultural memory and belonging.
Writing a memoir that spans the personal and the historical is a unique challenge. Where did you struggle most, and how did you work through it?
My biggest challenge was making the dense history of Chinese scripts and my fieldwork on calligraphy tool production accessible and engaging, without sounding like a dry academic report. At first, the pressure to accurately represent my culture made my writing stiff, as I focused too heavily on factual precision.
To overcome this, instead of lecturing, I invited readers to see through my eyes, experiencing the history alongside my younger self as a little girl and joining me on field trips to share in my reactions and observations. This successfully restored the vital power of personal memory.
What does receiving the MALS thesis award mean to you as you complete your degree?
I am deeply honored, and receiving this award means the world to me. It serves as a profound validation of my academic capabilities and provides immense encouragement as I pursue my path in higher education. Moreover, it is a beautiful recognition of my two years of hard work in the MALS program.
More than a personal achievement, I view this award as a collective honor to share with my professors, friends, and family, whose unwavering guidance and support made this entire journey possible.
Looking back, what surprised you most about the MALS program – was there something you didn’t expect when you first arrived at Dartmouth?
The most surprising thing was the overwhelming level of support. As an international student, I never expected to find such a deep sense of belonging so far from home. In the MALS program, I found a community of like-minded writers, and the staff at the MALS office truly felt like family, always ready to help.
Furthermore, the professors have been incredibly nurturing; they inspired me to discover my creative and research passions and supported my ambitions far beyond anything I could have ever anticipated.
What advice would you give to someone considering the MALS program?
I would advise future students based on a lesson I learned myself: be open to trying everything. With the program’s exceptional flexibility and cross-disciplinary nature, MALS offers an invaluable platform and opportunity to fully explore yourself.
You never know exactly when or where inspiration and passion will strike, which is why embracing a broad perspective and immersing yourself in diverse experiences is so vital. Let your curiosity lead the way.
What’s next for you, and what are you most looking forward to?
I am currently preparing to apply for PhD programs in creative writing to continue my academic journey. At the same time, I am excited to begin researching and drafting a new experimental creative nonfiction project that expands on the themes of memory and cultural heritage.
