Calligraphy

This semester I am taking Chinese for the first time. Immediately I got super into writing hanzi characters. I like the order that they have and how many of them have flourishes that are satisfying to try to get right. Because I was enjoying the characters so much I enrolled in my Chinese teacher's non-credit calligraphy class. It is the most relaxing part of my week since the process of painting the characters is so meditative and gratifying.

Taking the class made me remember being in Shanghai and seeing people in the park practicing hobbies like singing, tai-chi and water calligraphy. The water calligraphy was the most interesting to me because it's a mix of visual, performance, and literary art. There was something in the temporary nature of it as well. If you watched for a while you would see the lines of writing evaporating off the slate.

I did a little googling and found out that the practice is called dishu. The hanzi for dishu 地书 translate literally as "earth book." This article gives a lot of good background information on dishu. What I found most exciting was that most of the brushes are homemade with sponges or mops. I'd like to try making some and eventually base a lesson plan on it. I think that students would like being able to leave marks all over a sidewalk or playground and it would be a good way to mess around with mark making.

I definitely want to add this book to my reading list. The pictures look beautiful and I really want to learn more about how the practice started.