A principal at Jhongping Elementary School in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢) hopes to calm students’ minds with daily Chinese calligraphy practice.
School principal Liu Yun-chieh (劉雲傑) teaches half-hour-long classes on weekdays to prepare students to learn calligraphy and help them to calm their minds, he said.
“Modern people are too focused on their mobile devices, to the extent that they find no time for anything else,” Liu said.
Photo: Hsu Cho-hsun, Taipei Times
This has led to sloppy handwriting, even when writing in print with ballpoint pens, he said.
It is sad that schools have phased out the art of calligraphy, which used to be mandatory for elementary-school students, he said.
Another reason he instituted the program was to keep the most unruly students occupied, so that they can learn to calm their minds, if only for a brief moment, by observing, copying and, hopefully, learning to appreciate calligraphy, Liu said.
The program eventually gained a reputation among parents, who began asking if their children could enroll in the class, he said.
“Every stroke of the brush, regardless of what action you make with it, reflects the calligrapher’s nature and emotions,” he said.
Liu, a student of renowned calligrapher Chiang Yu-min (江育民), is proficient in the regular script of Chinese calligraphy and uses Tang Dynasty regular script master Ouyang Xun’s (歐陽詢) Sweet Water Ode at Jioucheng Palace (九成宮醴泉銘) as part of his teaching materials.
Ouyang’s work features many core concepts of the regular script, which could also express other ideas on how to comport oneself in life, Liu said.
“Ouyang’s script is orderly, eschewing flowery script and bearing with it an inner strength, the likes of which can only be recreated through diligence and concentration,” he said.
Many students do not truly appreciate the meaning of “giving it their all” until they try copying Ouyang’s scripts, he said.
A student surnamed Lin (林) said that he was impatient and usually wrote sloppily, as he often could not wait to leave the classroom.
After the course, he said that not only was his handwriting much more legible, but he was also much calmer.
A parent surnamed Lo (羅) said that Liu’s requirements for the class — to put everything in order before they are allowed to begin writing — has encouraged her child to adopt orderly habits.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and