NCKU International Students Wielded Brushes in Writing Spring Festival Couplets
Tainan, Taiwan, February 10th, 2010
2010 is the Year of the Tiger! International students wielded their brushes for the first time and wrote the Chinese character “tiger”, twisted but comical. At noon, February 10th, nearly 100 international students of the Chinese Language Center in National Cheng Kung University gathered together to learn how to write the spring festival couplets and experience the joy in making dumplings. Celebrating Lunar New Year ahead of time, the Chinese Language Center especially invited masters Jing-Shiuan Su and Huei-Wen Fang to demonstrate their brushwork and present their couplets to the students. With food to eat and couplets to take, students were all having a pleasant time.
Lunar New Year, the Spring Festival, is an important traditional festival in Taiwan, China, Korea, Vietnam, etc. To allow its international students to have the chance to experience New Year, the Chinese Language Center in NCKU held a spring festival event, inviting every international student to write spring festival couplets and make dumplings. Out of the two hundred international students at NCKU, almost a hundred students participated, crowding at the tables and rolling up their sleeves.
It was the first time for most international students to write spring festival couplets. In the beginning, they only watched the masters raising their brushes and showing off their talents on the paper with perfect strokes. Everyone started with the preparation of the ink with the black stick, then the holding of the brush. Step by step, with repeated practice, the students eventually wrote words that were recognizable, choosing simple words such as spring, tiger, fortune, etc.
Some of the students who have better understanding of Chinese chose words that showed their creativity and emotions. For example, Ms. Shim, a Korean student at NCKU, wrote “I love my family.” It was the first time she used the brush to write spring festival couplets. Though the words were not good-looking, she will bring the couplet back to Korea as a gift for her parents. Ruslan, a Russian student, expressed that it was his first time to celebrate Lunar New Year, and also the first time to use a brush to write out his Chinese name. He said, it is common for the foreigners to celebrate New Year with their friends, drinking champagne and going wild as they wait for countdown, and the fact that the Taiwanese reunite with their family at home to celebrate New Year amazed him.
Moreover, a French student wrote a “pictograph” which symbolized the three characters of his Chinese name by drawing big circles to enclose the characters. The combination resembled an elephant with a long nose. He said, because the English pronunciation of his name was similar to “elephant”, thus he invented this style of writing. He decided to give this “pictograph” to the new friends he just made in the Chinese Language Center to commemorate the moment.
The shape of the dumplings is similar to the golden ingots, the essential food for the New Year in Northern China. In accordance with the customs of the New Year, the Chinese Language Center prepared several ingredients for making dumplings. The dumplings students made were in boat-shape, flat-shape, round-shape, and other strange forms. Even though the Center has already prepared cooked dumplings, many students insisted on waiting for their dumplings to be boiled in the pot. With face and hands covered with flour, the students were extremely happy and full of smiles.
The Chinese Language Center expressed, it was alright if the dumplings made by the students were horrifying, because they had prepared 300 raw ingredients as well as 1,000 cooked dumplings. The international students all took pleasure in writing the spring festival couplets while enjoying the hot dumplings.
2010 is the Year of the Tiger! International students wielded their brushes for the first time and wrote the Chinese character “tiger”, twisted but comical. At noon, February 10th, nearly 100 international students of the Chinese Language Center in National Cheng Kung University gathered together to learn how to write the spring festival couplets and experience the joy in making dumplings. Celebrating Lunar New Year ahead of time, the Chinese Language Center especially invited masters Jing-Shiuan Su and Huei-Wen Fang to demonstrate their brushwork and present their couplets to the students. With food to eat and couplets to take, students were all having a pleasant time.
Lunar New Year, the Spring Festival, is an important traditional festival in Taiwan, China, Korea, Vietnam, etc. To allow its international students to have the chance to experience New Year, the Chinese Language Center in NCKU held a spring festival event, inviting every international student to write spring festival couplets and make dumplings. Out of the two hundred international students at NCKU, almost a hundred students participated, crowding at the tables and rolling up their sleeves.
It was the first time for most international students to write spring festival couplets. In the beginning, they only watched the masters raising their brushes and showing off their talents on the paper with perfect strokes. Everyone started with the preparation of the ink with the black stick, then the holding of the brush. Step by step, with repeated practice, the students eventually wrote words that were recognizable, choosing simple words such as spring, tiger, fortune, etc.
Some of the students who have better understanding of Chinese chose words that showed their creativity and emotions. For example, Ms. Shim, a Korean student at NCKU, wrote “I love my family.” It was the first time she used the brush to write spring festival couplets. Though the words were not good-looking, she will bring the couplet back to Korea as a gift for her parents. Ruslan, a Russian student, expressed that it was his first time to celebrate Lunar New Year, and also the first time to use a brush to write out his Chinese name. He said, it is common for the foreigners to celebrate New Year with their friends, drinking champagne and going wild as they wait for countdown, and the fact that the Taiwanese reunite with their family at home to celebrate New Year amazed him.
Moreover, a French student wrote a “pictograph” which symbolized the three characters of his Chinese name by drawing big circles to enclose the characters. The combination resembled an elephant with a long nose. He said, because the English pronunciation of his name was similar to “elephant”, thus he invented this style of writing. He decided to give this “pictograph” to the new friends he just made in the Chinese Language Center to commemorate the moment.
The shape of the dumplings is similar to the golden ingots, the essential food for the New Year in Northern China. In accordance with the customs of the New Year, the Chinese Language Center prepared several ingredients for making dumplings. The dumplings students made were in boat-shape, flat-shape, round-shape, and other strange forms. Even though the Center has already prepared cooked dumplings, many students insisted on waiting for their dumplings to be boiled in the pot. With face and hands covered with flour, the students were extremely happy and full of smiles.
The Chinese Language Center expressed, it was alright if the dumplings made by the students were horrifying, because they had prepared 300 raw ingredients as well as 1,000 cooked dumplings. The international students all took pleasure in writing the spring festival couplets while enjoying the hot dumplings.
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