Where there is 'quill', there is a way

Nevertheless, a nostalgia by many for handwritten letters does not mean people necessarily want to turn back the clock, and traditional letters can barely fulfill today's communication needs as they used to, says Xu Mintong, a cultural scholar who regularly comments on cultural and social issues on media.

On the other hand, while digital communications can speed up communications, they reduce people's investment emotionally and in time, and communication is often done with fragmented information, he says.

The nostalgia phenomenon can be understood as a desire for a return to a more slow-paced life, waiting and a feeling that in seeing someone's handwritten words the recipient is in fact meeting the sender.

"The art of letters represents a more 'serious' age, and its demise means the dying of certain traditional cultural spirit," Xu says. "Now there is a collective call for such a cultural spirit, and that's a good thing."

In addition to the impact of modern tools, the decline of public infrastructure to support private exchange is another factor that has contributed to the decrease of personal letters.