The inks I'm offering here are all Chinese brands that vary in their availability in the US. Vanness & The Desk Bandit stock Ancient Charm and PenBBS, and Hippo Noto stocks bookpenscom, though not the full ranges. As far as I am aware, Fangyangtan, Ostrich, Starry Ink, Since Ancient Times, and Yunjingtan are not regularly stocked by major US-based ink distributors.

Ancient Charm/Ancient Song

This line of inks is known as 古风韵 in China. 古风 can be roughly translated to ancient or antique, though when used colloquially within China, it refers to ancient Chinese culture. 韵 is more difficult for . It can be used as the second character in the phrase 风韵, which means charm (adjective, to describe the attraction that beautiful women exert on others). It can also be used as the first character in the phrase 韵律 (rhythm, cadence) or as the second character in the phrase 押韵 (rhyme). This series is inspired by ancient Chinese poetic works and I believe each ink color is named for a famous poetic work in Chinese history.

Knowledge of poetic works was and still is considered an important part of Chinese culture and is part of being considered “well-read”. Poetic works are often read aloud, in both public and private, and it is normal/expected both in Chinese history and even now to memorize many of these works word by word and be able to recite them on demand. As such, many Chinese poetic styles highly emphasize the cadence of the work and also rhyming patterns.

While U.S. retailers seem to advertise Ancient Charm or Ancient Song (AC/AS) as the brand name, based on how the inks are advertised in China, AC/AS is actually not the manufacturer or brand name, but rather just a particular series that the brand produces. Think Sailor Ink Studio - Sailor is the brand, Ink Studio is the line, but imagine if retailers are advertising the inks as just “Ink Studio”.

The current lineup of 24 inks are from the first two seasons of AC/AS. They also offer the following series: Ancient Beauty, Aurora, and the Seven Sins. I am currently in contact with the shop to understand what the overall brand name is.

bookpenscom

The Chinese name of this brand can be roughly translated as Phoenix Feather(s), although their official store uses bookpenscom as the official English name for its brand. bookpenscom was created in ???? (pending response but official page mentions being in business for 10 years) and is well known among Chinese fountain pen enthusiasts for its inks’ large volume (the most popular line of inks comes in 60ml) and reasonable pricing. Their inks draw inspiration from aspects of Chinese culture, including uncommon words, poetry, architecture, mythology, and so on.

I would describe the brand as a jack-of-all-trades type of deal - they do regular inks (as in no special properties), permanent, waterproof/water resistant, iron gall, walnut, shimmer, sheen, chromatography, you name it they’ve probably got it or will release it. They have many lines of inks and hundreds of colorways (more than Diamine even!). They also have a large variety of limited edition inks that come in special glass bottles and packaging and are much more pricy than their regular lines of ink.

Fangyangtan

This brand has been around since at least 2019 and their regular line-up of inks is on its fifth season. They are releasing their sixth season of inks in mid-April and I am super excited - the new labels the owner shared with me are gorgeous (as always) and the inks always perform beyond my expectations.

Season 1 (#1-#6) are all sheening inks. Later seasons (including the upcoming sixth) are a mix of mostly chromatography/shading inks with some sheening inks thrown in. Fangyangtan regularly releases seasonal limited edition inks and also releases one new ink a year inspired by that year’s Chinese zodiac.

I personally think their shading inks are on par with Ink Studio or Troublemaker Inks and are an inexpensive alternative if you’d like to get your feet wet with this particular ink characteristics.

Ostrich

The Ostrich brand is very old (founded in 1945) and even has a Baidu Baike (Chinese equivalent of Wikipedia) page for it! Ostrich is mainly known for its workhorse inks in black, blue, red, and blue-black, and its inks were often used by schools and students where fountain pen use was mandatory in Chinese education. However, they now produce a variety of colorful, sheen, and chromatography/shading inks to keep up with trends,