The ancient tradition of writing Chinese calligraphy combines rich culture and long history. Starting from pictorials to the adapted characters that are familiar today, Chinese calligraphy has had a lot of changes, with even individual words having a story to share.

On August 20th, the I Fly Young Taiwan (IFY) Center for Mandarin Learning (TCML) held a free Calligraphy Experience Workshop. The center and workshop are sponsored by the Overseas Community Affairs Council.

Holding regular Mandarin classes for adults, the IFY TCML held the workshop in Fremont, California. Principal Selena Shan was very excited to initiate the start of the culture classes series with the Chinese calligraphy workshop

Instructors Katy Wu and Albert Wang brought students through not only the history behind Chinese calligraphy but also taught students how to differentiate between different fonts. Students learned how to hold the calligraphy brush and got a crash course on how to write different Chinese characters.

Despite only spending two hours at the workshop, all students learned a lot and were able to practice some characters. Everyone wrote their own piece on calligraphy paper to take home as a keepsake!