On December 27, 2021, the 11-week traditional Chinese culture course offered by Phoenix School for international students — Chinese Character Aesthetics and Calligraphy — was successfully completed. The course was lectured by Professor Zhang Weijia from School of Chinese Language and Literature, covering the outline of calligraphy art, introduction to Chinese characters, teaching of calligraphy stroke decomposition and inter-frame structure.

Professor Zhang Weijia started from the fundamental writing skills of how to hold a Chinese brush, and integrated the traditional Chinese philosophical concept of "relax the palm of the hand and strengthen the fingers," and instructed students to control the brush, move the brush, and hold the ink. Through the writing process of basic strokes, international students experienced the writing skills such as “press, weigh down, hook, grid and offset” and appreciated the artistic charm of the official script — flat and square in shape, stretching left and right; left wave and right squat, silkworm head and swallow tail; square and smooth turning, distinct points and strokes; combination of dots and rises, thickness and thinness. In horizontal and vertical lines, one can appreciate the beauty of being square and upright; in left-falling and right-falling strokes, one can feel the thoughts of humanity. The knowledge of Chinese characters was explained carefully, and the calligraphy skills were taught clearly. Within eleven weeks, students not only learned the basic strokes of the official script, but also mastered the basic structure and component layout of Chinese characters. While learning the aesthetic attributes of Chinese characters, international students have also cultivated their sentiments. The course received wide acclaim from students and also attracted the active participation of foreign teachers.

This course is one of the series of Chinese traditional culture courses offered by Phoenix School to international students. Phoenix School will continue to open a series of excellent traditional Chinese culture education courses to bring more Chinese cultural influence to international students so that they can learn and understand Chinese culture while learning Chinese, improve their Chinese cultural literacy, and finally become "messengers" of spreading Chinese culture, and showing a real, three-dimensional, and comprehensive China to the world.

Translator: Yu Wanping

Proofreading: Martin Wittenberg

Layout: Yu Wanping