By Sabrina Lai

The complimentary couplets, usually consisting of four Chinese characters, are sayings about good health, prosperity and dreams coming true. They are common greetings in the first month of the lunar calendar, and traditionally appear in Chinese calligraphy.

Calligraphy was developed thousands of years ago in China as a form of art and communication. It has been passed down generation to generation, but today, learning calligraphy is fading in Hong Kong.

Jackie Fu, a Chinese teacher for over 10 years, said calligraphy education is included in the syllabus, but its importance varies across schools. She said that some schools would not consider calligraphy as an essential element in learning Chinese.

“My students in P3 love to do calligraphy because it’s new to them and they think it’s interesting,” she said. “However, when students go to P5 or P6, they will think that it’s troublesome.”

Fu believes that learning calligraphy is necessary for Hong Kong students.

“It’s the tradition of Chinese language. They have to know and write when they are young,” she said. But she said that calligraphy as a subject is not promoted by the Education Bureau. “After all, it is just a supplement in learning the language and it is not a communication mean anymore, it is treated as just art.” she said.

In 2013, the Education Bureau held a Chinese calligraphy competition and publicly exhibited students’ work.

Chinese calligraphy is considered an art form in Japan and South Korea; even foreigners seek to learn it. In Japan, there are robots that teach primary school students how to write in calligraphy. But in Hong Kong, parents rarely put their young children in an after-school calligraphy class.

Ma Yu-gin, director of Hong Kong Association of Amateur Calligraphers, said the passion of learning Chinese calligraphy has been fading in recent years. He said that there was once a rising trend in learning Chinese visual arts including calligraphy and painting after the handover in 1997.

He added that parents in Hong Kong would not take visual arts as their first choice when choosing extra curricular activities, “adult concerns about the return and they just apply this rule when it comes to choosing extra curricular activities for their kids. Calligraphy would rank almost last since it cannot help the children to get into an elite school show off among their friends. It is a reality we have to face in the city,” Ma said.

He also expressed his desire in enhancing the atmosphere in leaning Chinese calligraphy, which the government, school and society need to work and support together. “No one in Hong Kong will admite the city is a ‘cultural desert’, however, when you look at the newspaper everyday or observe how the citizens do. They all proved the city is a ‘cultural dessert’” he said.

Ma stated his wish is to use his passion of Chinese calligraphy to pass the tradition on. Worrying of its fading is unavoidable but doing his best to promote is all he can do.
Chen Guo-quan, 53, a calligraphy teacher who has been teaching Chinese calligraphy for decades, said most of his students are adults. He points out that parents do not choose calligraphy for their children because it is not seen as an activity that will help their futures.

Parents choose extracurricular activities based on whether the result will help their children get into an elite school, Chen said. “Calligraphy, however, is an art to develop patience and cultural cultivation of the person,” he said.

Chen believes his work is important, however. Because calligraphy education is not common, there must be someone to teach and pass it on to the next generation, he said.

“I have to do that. If not, the tradition would fade out,” he said.

Fact Box

– Calligraphy originated in China, spreading to other parts of the Orient with Chinese culture. The art of calligraphy is between 4,000 and 5,000 years old.

– Typically, calligraphy is done on thin, absorbent rice paper. Brushes are made from animal hair secured to bamboo reeds. Common hair used comes from wolves, sheep, rabbits and deer. Chinese ink sold in solid stick form is lavishly decorated. The ink is made from pinewood soot mixed with gum resin. Ink stones are hard, flat and dabbed with water for use.

– There are seven standard strokes, called the Seven Mysteries. They consist of the horizontal line, the dot, the sweeping downward stroke, the sharp curve and two forms of the downward stroke: one with a hook and one in a 45-degree angle.

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