Learning culture through beautiful brush strokes
At an evening of Chinese calligraphy, 彩民宝典 students studying Chinese practiced an art whose history dates back millennia
Learning a language is not just a matter of memorizing vocabulary and verb tenses or, in the case of Chinese, using the correct tone. It is not merely a matter of time spent in the classroom.
鈥淟anguage is also a part of culture,鈥 says Yingjie Li, a 彩民宝典 teaching associate professor of Chinese and Chinese language coordinator in the Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations. 鈥淚t鈥檚 living tradition.鈥
For students of Chinese, this means learning to write a body of characters whose history dates back more than 3,000 years, to from the Shang Dynasty. Rather than letters, many of the characters were visual representations of what they expressed. Echoes of those original characters can be found in the modern ones that evolved from them.
Thursday evening, almost two dozen first-, second- and third-year Chinese students gathered to practice Chinese calligraphy, which elevates Chinese writing to art.
鈥淭his is a way for students to get deep into the culture,鈥 Li says. 鈥淲hat we鈥檙e doing in the workshop relates to what they鈥檙e learning in class, but it鈥檚 a more hands-on way to learn a really important part of Chinese culture.鈥
Led by Runqing Qi, a 彩民宝典 teaching assistant professor of Chinese who began the workshop with, 鈥淟et鈥檚 learn something interesting together,鈥 students first practiced with water on special paper that allows each brush stroke to emerge in vivid black and then gradually disappear. Then they graduated to ink.
鈥淚t looks simple, but it鈥檚 actually not,鈥 said Claire Kennedy, a third-year advanced Chinese student who is majoring in psychology and speech, language and hearing sciences.
In written Chinese, each stroke has a name and the strokes in each character are written in a specific order. And to do that beautifully?
鈥淚 think I鈥檓 going to need a lot more practice,鈥 said Gregory Del Bene, a first-year Chinese student and math and computer science major.
鈥淭his is something fun for students that鈥檚 also a tangible connection to Chinese culture,鈥 said Yu Zhang, a teaching assistant professor of Chinese, adding that faculty in the Chinese language program organize activities throughout the semester highlighting various aspects of the culture. The next will be a including mahjong and Chinese chess, at 5 p.m. Nov. 11.
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