After our APS (Aircraft Propulsion Systems) lesson today, the lecturer
told us that our China “buddies”, students from the Tianjin University, would
be mingling with us. I had felt rather pessimistic about this as (I must admit)
I am not a very sociable person.
At about 11.30am, the students came in and introduced themselves to us.
Then it was our turn to go over to them, one by one, and introduce ourselves.
Handshakes and names were exchanged, and both sides conversed briefly on trivial
matters.
Shaking hands with the China “buddies”
Once I had finished exchanging greetings with our “buddies”, I took a
few photos and returned to my seat, wondering how much longer it would be until
lunch time. Much to my surprise, one of the “buddies” came up to me and sat
beside me. It wasn’t long before we were immersed in a deep conversation about
her background.
Despite our language barriers, we still had an interesting and funny conversation
with each other. Soon, she had to take her leave and I too, had to go for
lunch.
Our IS (Interdisciplinary Studies) lesson after lunch today had changed
from Chinese Knotting, which I was looking forward to, to Chinese Calligraphy.
At first, I was cross that it had been changed- my Chinese hand-writing is
atrocious (and in turn, my Calligraphy could be much worse).
The lecturer showed us how hold the Calligraphy brush and how to write
the basic strokes in Chinese Writing- heng,
shu, pie, na and dian. After
which, he left us to our own devices. I did try to do the strokes but got bored
of writing heng, shu, pie, na and dian again and again. Hence I began
writing Chinese words (which incorporate these separate strokes together). It’s
not the best Calligraphy written, but at least it is still readable (Plus, it
didn’t turn out so bad as I thought it would be).
How to hold a Calligraphy brush
The proper way to write the Calligraphy heng, shu, pie, na and dian
After writing a few words, I decided to switch to drawing- my favourite
hobby. I must admit that the Calligraphy brush makes an excellent tool in drawing.
By holding it the right way, you can control the thickness of the lines and
create a drawing with much impact (if I do say so myself).
Appended below are some pieces of Calligraphy work done by myself
and others:
Marilyn’s Bamboo Drawing
Bamboo shoots drawn by our lecturer, Mr Wong
A dynamic bird drawn by Yi Heng
Some of my own drawings
Kun Chen’s Japanese Calligraphy
After seeing everyone’s work, I was quite glad that today’s IS lesson
had been changed because now I see that Chinese Calligraphy need not be on
writing Chinese words only. It can be drawings too (and I love drawing).
With all of us enjoying ourselves writing or drawing, we forgot all
about the time and had to quickly run to the sinks to wash the brushes before we
returned them to the lecturer.
As you can see, today was AWESOME! I made a new friend and had fun
drawing with a Calligraphy brush (even though it was a first time for me). Come
to think of it, perhaps I’ll get my own Calligraphy brush when I go back to
Singapore.
Maybe you, dear reader, might need one too, to write down all your
thoughts down at the end of the day and then frame it up on the wall because
you like the way your words look. Think about it, won’t you?
Take care and have a good day!
Best regards,
Marianne
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