海華中文學校 青少年領導才能營 
Hai-Hwa Overseas Chinese School

http://overseaschineseschool.com/
Chinese Youth Leadership Camp (CYLC) 
@ Austin College, Sherman, Texas

(July 19, 2006)


Many thanks to Ms. Shannon Chen, the President of the Hai-Hwa Chinese School, Ms. Irene Yeh, and all other teachers for including Chinese calligraphy classes in their 2006 camp program. We had introductory classes for about 120 students. This year we had students from Texas, California, Taiwan, and China.

海華中文學校於 1988 年在德州的李察遜市 (Richardson, Texas) 創立,創立的宗旨為提供在達拉斯北部地區的中國家庭孩子學習中國語言及文化的場所。目前學生來自李察遜市及布蘭諾市 (Plano) 各地區的中國家庭及非華人家庭。

 

 


Group 1 (10:20 - 11:30 AM)

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Among the first group, there were about 40% students that have had some experience of Chinese calligraphy. An American student volunteered to grind the ink stick on the inkstone.

 

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After handing out the lecture notes and giving a brief introduction on the evolutions and styles of Chinese characters, we went on to the correct posture of brush writing and the correct ways to hold a brush. 

 

However, we did not have enough time to emphasize the following points about holding the brush, which are often neglected by most people and result in less satisfactory progress for beginners. (So the points are included here on the Internet.)

 

How to hold a Chinese calligraphy brush?  
(We use different methods to hold Chinese painting brushes.)

  • Use "fingertips" of the first three fingers to hold the brush. (Using fingertips instead of knuckles is more effective in turning the brush tip for details of smaller strokes. However, many resources and pictures in books use the first knuckles of the 2nd and 3rd fingers to hold the brush, which is sometimes “less effective” and prone to “unstable” results when writing detailed calligraphy strokes or small-size calligraphy.)
  • The 4th and 5th fingers serve as a “cushion” or “buffer” to neutralize the forces of the first three fingers.

Points for sitting posture:

  • Keep your head straight in a natural position. Do not tilt or strain your neck. Keep head and neck in a naturally bent curve but not too forward. 
  • Relax your shoulders. Place left palm under your right wrist to stabilize and smooth the paper.

Make both “unnatural” and “natural” natural. Having a good posture in writing is advantageous to our daily work and study.

A more detailed tutorial is located at www.art-virtue.com/tutorial/index.htm with video clips and guides. By using this, you may learn by yourself.


Then the students began to copy from the samples. The teachers and counselors went over to each table and helped each student.

 

 

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Pictures of the first group:

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Group 2 (1:30 - 2:40 PM)

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Group 3 (2:50 - 4:00 PM)

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A few students today showed their talents and really impressed both the teachers and me! One of the girls' grandmother is living in Nanjing, China and practices calligraphy very often. She had been observing her grandma practice for a while. She was pretty gifted on her first day's try! We may encourage both the parents and students to continue to promote our national treasure and cultural heritage.

We are looking for future opportunities to help those young students enjoy their happy experience in practicing Chinese calligraphy - one of the most glorious arts throughout the Chinese history. 

Luckily, we have three bookstores in the Chinatown of Dallas and ForbiddenCity2008 in Plano that sell Chinese calligraphy and painting supplies. http://www.art-virtue.com/class/index.htm#6 

We missed a lot of pictures from groups 1, 2 and 3. If you would like to share your pictures, please email art.virtue@live.com. Thanks.


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Last modified: 03/31/2012