Writing in Water follows two generations of Chinese calligraphy teachers, Wang Tongxing and Liu Lanbo, through the eyes of an American anthropologist who learned to write with them in Tuanjiehu Park, Beijing, where they practice writing on the plaza every day. The program introduces viewers to these funny, philosophically inclined teachers and their community of retired students who have been left behind by China's get-rich quick reforms. With their students, Wang and Liu connect past to present, master to pupil, friend to friend, while building community and making Chinese characters that slowly materialize, and that last long after the water has evanesced into air. The film explores essential questions about tradition, contemporary culture, and human connection such as; what does it mean to take up calligraphy in a fast-moving world where people often no longer recall the stroke order of unusual words, but can look them up on cellphones?How does it feel to spend long hours training your body to write while slowly mulling over your life with others? How do cultural traditions take shape and acquire value-in the writing hand or on the thin, crackling paper in ink? Where does the joy of the body end, and the materiality of the calligraphy begin? Writing in Water has been screened on numerous campuses including Haverford College; NYU Cinema Studies; James Madison University; Yale; Rice; Duke, Harvard and Princeton.