Overseas students brush up their calligraphy skills
A visitor takes photos at the exhibition of work by international students.
Students from about 20 countries, including Nigeria, South Korea, Russia, and Uzbekistan, showed off their calligraphy at an exhibition at the Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press on Friday.
The students are all enrolled at Shanghai International Studies University and learn calligraphy from Yang Jianwen, a professor at the university.
Jiang Feng, university Party Secretary, said Chinese calligraphy is "not only a kind of ancient art for writing Chinese characters, but also a symbol of Chinese aesthetics and spirit.”
Yang said calligraphy reflect the writer's personality and the Chinese people’s spirits of self-development.
Mary Elui Ogechukwu from Nigeria, with the Chinese name Qin Ge, had her characters Zhong Guo Yuan, Connection with China, selected as the theme of the exhibition.
“As an international student majoring in Chinese language, I should also know about some Chinese culture,” she said. “I used to think of calligraphy as writing freely with a brush and ink when I looked at it, but I found it was not as casual as I thought before after attending the calligraphy course. Calligraphy also has rules.”
She added: “China has a long history and profound culture. Calligraphy is rather interesting and meaningful and I would like to continue to learn it if there is still an opportunity in the future.”
The exhibition is also part of the university’s celebration of its own 70th birthday and the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
Visitors are impressed by the calligraphy of the International students.
