> We use the language as an art-form, just as they use beautiful handwriting in an artistic way.

Oops. You undoubtedly offended them with your familiar Western stereotypes. And odds are they'd have been too polite to do anything but pretend to agree with you.

The Chinese have been writing poetry for three thousand years.

Chinese literature is about a lot more than "beautiful handwriting," and every Chinese person knows it. In fact, Chinese techniques of using "language as an art form" were a big influence some English and American poetry of the 20th century.