Professional Training Workshop
Teacher Chih-lung’s creative calligraphy lesson
How the lesson started
It was past five o’clock on a Friday afternoon when two persons walking to the teachers’ lounge at the same time for photocopying started their interaction. The conversation began with Ruo-cih’s calligraphy learning and competitions, slowly switched to the sequence of the 12-year compulsory education, and returned to reasons why we were both at work at such a late time. After maneuvering myself into the history of Teacher Chih-lung’s involvement with calligraphy, I got to know that Teacher Chih-lung’s, who had been an avid and diligent calligraphy lover for over 20 years, is an expert in “lishu” (Chinese calligraphy in official script) and a former winner at a teaching plan competition for creative calligraphy lessons. Teacher Chih-lung mentioned about deconstructing Chinese characters in calligraphy through a scientific and creative method, which wonderfully solved my predicament and struggle for a way to advocate “creative calligraphy”. It made me realize that my staying at my job was the God’s intention for me and my students to meet up with Teacher Chih-lung.
It was past five o’clock on a Friday afternoon when two persons walking to the teachers’ lounge at the same time for photocopying started their interaction. The conversation began with Ruo-cih’s calligraphy learning and competitions, slowly switched to the sequence of the 12-year compulsory education, and returned to reasons why we were both at work at such a late time. After maneuvering myself into the history of Teacher Chih-lung’s involvement with calligraphy, I got to know that Teacher Chih-lung’s, who had been an avid and diligent calligraphy lover for over 20 years, is an expert in “lishu” (Chinese calligraphy in official script) and a former winner at a teaching plan competition for creative calligraphy lessons. Teacher Chih-lung mentioned about deconstructing Chinese characters in calligraphy through a scientific and creative method, which wonderfully solved my predicament and struggle for a way to advocate “creative calligraphy”. It made me realize that my staying at my job was the God’s intention for me and my students to meet up with Teacher Chih-lung.
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Have fun in classification of Chinese characters
On the day of class, Teacher Chih-lung began with teaching students the classification of Chinese characterss. Unlike English words, which are formed by the English alphabet, Chinese characters, which involve s more complex morphological, phonetic and semantic systems, are especially difficult to learn and even more difficult to write with soft writing brushes. Therefore, “practicing calligraphy by imitating some recognized model calligraphy works” is a very important phase in the process of learning calligraphy.
However, how can students remember hundreds and thousands of Chinese characters? Therefore, categorizing Chinese characters scientifically and explaining the strokes and structure of each character is of great assistance for calligraphy learners. First of all, Teacher Chih-lung taught all students to divide Chinese characters into seven categories, which were namely rhombus, equilateral triangle, inverted equilateral triangle, horizontal rectangle, vertical rectangle, and circle.
On the day of class, Teacher Chih-lung began with teaching students the classification of Chinese characterss. Unlike English words, which are formed by the English alphabet, Chinese characters, which involve s more complex morphological, phonetic and semantic systems, are especially difficult to learn and even more difficult to write with soft writing brushes. Therefore, “practicing calligraphy by imitating some recognized model calligraphy works” is a very important phase in the process of learning calligraphy.
However, how can students remember hundreds and thousands of Chinese characters? Therefore, categorizing Chinese characters scientifically and explaining the strokes and structure of each character is of great assistance for calligraphy learners. First of all, Teacher Chih-lung taught all students to divide Chinese characters into seven categories, which were namely rhombus, equilateral triangle, inverted equilateral triangle, horizontal rectangle, vertical rectangle, and circle.
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Decomposition of Chinese charater
The lesson today was about Chinese characters which were formed by putting together the right part and the left part of the characters. Such Chinese characters could be further divided into the three categories: characters with equal-sized right and left parts, characters with a larger-sized right part, or characters with a larger-sized left part. Using the four Chinese characters min (明), ban (般), yin (飲), long(龍) as examples, Teacher Chih-lung sequentially expounded on the nine aspects of these Chinese characters: morphology, evenly-distributed space, strokes which emphasized on length and breadth, balance between the upper and lower space, alignment of the right and left parts, variation, parallel, and facing upward. Amazed by Teacher Chih-lung’s eloquent reasoning and explication, students all came to admire the profound mystery and complexity of Chinese characters.
The lesson today was about Chinese characters which were formed by putting together the right part and the left part of the characters. Such Chinese characters could be further divided into the three categories: characters with equal-sized right and left parts, characters with a larger-sized right part, or characters with a larger-sized left part. Using the four Chinese characters min (明), ban (般), yin (飲), long(龍) as examples, Teacher Chih-lung sequentially expounded on the nine aspects of these Chinese characters: morphology, evenly-distributed space, strokes which emphasized on length and breadth, balance between the upper and lower space, alignment of the right and left parts, variation, parallel, and facing upward. Amazed by Teacher Chih-lung’s eloquent reasoning and explication, students all came to admire the profound mystery and complexity of Chinese characters.
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Activity Afterthoughts
The time in the two calligraphy classes was fleeting. Although students did not get to use their writing brushes in the two classes, the classes introduced to us a new perspective to appreciate the beauty of Chinese characters. Therefore, we all look forward to Teacher Chih-lung’s teaching in the creative calligraphy lesson “Part 2 – Let’s Find Faults” and “Part 3- Are Your Eyes Bedazzled?”
The time in the two calligraphy classes was fleeting. Although students did not get to use their writing brushes in the two classes, the classes introduced to us a new perspective to appreciate the beauty of Chinese characters. Therefore, we all look forward to Teacher Chih-lung’s teaching in the creative calligraphy lesson “Part 2 – Let’s Find Faults” and “Part 3- Are Your Eyes Bedazzled?”