Calligraphy

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

When Professor Yang was discussing the variations in the different emperors' calligraphy styles, I was struck by how important these distinctions still are, especially when you consider font philosophy in terms of marketing and advertising. Today, brand identity is signified not only by a logo or a mascot, but by a whole culture, which is expressed using text. For example, if you were designing the box for a cel phone, you probably wouldn't use boxy letters with lots of serifs.

Didja ever notice how Coca-Cola and Diet Coke are written in entirely different typefaces?

[Anonymous]

I never saw chinese writing system the way Dr. Ye opened it up for us. Every time I attend a class I leave knowing so much more, and looking at China and Chinese so differently.Now I know There has been so much about China that I was never taught to appreciate. I will definitely do a better job teaching about china now.
I have been practicing callighraphy since early childhood.But I always tried to learn to do a good job by copying masters of callighraphy. Once you master Persian calligraphy, only a master can differentiate your work. But with Chinese calligraphy even us students could tell the individuality of different strokes. This is something I never knew or thought about till dr. Ye mentioned it. Amazing ha?

[Anonymous]

http://www.chinapage.org/calligraphy.html

Try the above site. It shows you all kinds of styles of calligraphy.

There are sites where you can order any decorative calligraphy that you wish. You give them whatever you want to wite in English, and they will send you the art work translated in chinese.
Check it out. http://www.chinapage.org/calligraphy.html if the link does not work, try it manually.

[Anonymous]

I agree with Reza. Dr. Ye's presentation on calligraphy was amazing. I am stunned by the different styles. To be honest, I didn't know much about calligraphy before Saturday but I have an appreciation and respect for it now. I glided over calligraphy when I taught my Chinese unit before but not this year. I'm trying to figure out how I am going to introduce it in the unit as an activity. Already I feel more confident about teaching the China unit this year. Bring on Japan........

Karen

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to gather information to add to the website that we have to create. My focus will be on Ancient China: writing, rulers, and one more topic (which I haven't settled on just yet).
However, I am not sure what aspect of writing I would like to cover, perhaps the development of writing in Ancient Chinese culture. These are just ideas that I am throwing out. If anyone has additional topics they would like to share, please feel free.

jem

[Anonymous]

Calligraphy has always fascinated me - unfortunately, I don't do it well. Two of my kids were lucky enough to have a Jr. H.S. class in calligraphy. I still use them to do posters and things for my class. I too found Dr. Ye's presentation interesting. It's a different style of calligraphy than I am used to but the techniques have some similarity. Calligraphy pens have "brush" tips. Interesting!

[Anonymous]

I remember thinking there was more to it than I understood when watching the movie "Hero" and it's depiction of a calligraphy school. It talked about how the brush strokes showed the essence of a man. And that the use of larger brushes shows this skill and character to an even greater extent. Is there someplace to learn more about the philosophy of Chinese calligraphy?

[Anonymous]

Karen, if you can get some calligrphy brushes and the ink, you can have your students to try to write Chinese letters. I am sure they will have fun doing that. It takes more than your hand to do it right.

[Anonymous]

I am rereading a novel, CHINESE CINDERELLA, and thought it's appropriate to quote the author's note about Chinese language.

"Chinese is a pictorial language. Every word is a different picture and has to be memorized separately. There is no alphabet and no connection between the written and spoken language. A person can learn to read and write Chinese without knowing how to speak one word. Because each word is a pictograph, Chinese calligraphy evokes a greater emotional response than the same word lettered in alphabet. The art of calligraphy is highly revered in China. Poetry written in calligraphy by ancient masters is prized and passed on from generation to generation."

[Anonymous]

We are reading about Chinese script right now in my class as we study Ancient China and I'm having a hard time explaining to the students how the characters are the same but the language is different. A Mandarin-speaking and Cantonese-speaking person cannot understand each other but they write the same way. Am I not correct?

How does one get this concept across to 6th graders.

Also, just curious, How does the internet and typing work in Chinese if there are over 50,000 characters. That must be a REALLY big keyboard.

[Author]

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