university taught me Chinese calligraphy. We only did the numbers, for
about an hour, but believe me, doing the strokes properly is much,
much harder than it looks. Back in the day, when I was maybe ages
8-12? I had a Chinese calligraphy kit with an instructional book and
brushes and stuff. It was a pretty decent set and a pretty quality
book, I realize now. I mostly did bamboo and flowers and stuff. But it
did teach my some basics about strokes. Like the number 1 (yi) may
just look like one line. It's so much more than that though. You have
to get used to holding the brush straight up, rather than slanted. and
applying the right amount of pressure at the right angle. Plus, it's
all really quite mathematical- the placement of the strokes within a
box. So I definitely appreciate the beauty in good calligraphy.
Especially the script-ish version that Haiying's friend was able to
do. Who knew though, when I was a weird kid who taught herself Chinese
calligraphy when she was 8, that I would be doing it in China now?
It's really fun though. I have to admit, I enjoy it a lot more than
speaking. Plus practicing speaking takes a lot of guts, where
calligraphy just takes lots of concentration. So hopefully I will do
some more next week.
Otherwise, it's my last full day off before the work weekend. And it's
still freezing. It makes it difficult not to stay in bed all day,
curled up with my space heater and a book/laptop. Alas, I must do all
my lesson plans.
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