This morning in Chinese, we all gathered with paper, ink, fans, lanterns, and calligraphy brushes to embark on a fun way to practice writing our characters. I had to borrow a brush from a friend in the class, but it was really neat to pick up the newer version of a brush that’s been used for hundreds upon hundreds of years and try to write simplified versions of traditional characters with it.
It’s a lot more difficult than it looks. The brush has to move a certain way on the paper or the desired effect doesn’t happen, and the brush itself has to be held in hand a certain way. It wasn’t too bad at it, I don’t think, but I wouldn’t exactly call myself “good,” either.
We practice writing “I love Chinese” (wo ai zhongwen/我愛中文) and our names, and some practiced other things. I put my name, Fèi dà níng, on my fan, but didn’t line it up correctly and had the girl sitting next to me draw a heart on it.
I have three lanterns I’ll be writing something on when I figure out what I want to put on them.
Leave a Reply