Calligraphy

Never have I thought that my daughter would fall in love with calligraphy.  After all, she is such an “English” girl.  She grew up in an English-speaking environment.  It was a big struggle for her when she entered Standard One in a Chinese primary school.  She did not show any interest in its language nor its culture.  But now, she would trade everything to learn calligraphy, a pure Chinese art.

It started out with her Mandarin tuition teacher posing a simple question: Would you like to learn calligraphy?  It was at the end of her Standard One.  Officially all Chinese school teaches calligraphy when a child reaches Standard Three.  She came back home asking us what is calligraphy.  We didn’t support the idea at all.  I thought she was too young to pick up this ancient skill.  We gave her a few excuses, ie. time, money, and hoping that that idea would quickly diminish in her little mind.

On the other hand, the teacher thought that she was not interested.  So she too, dropped the idea and stopped asking her.  A couple of months later, in one of her conversation with Elyse, she found out that Elyse is interested but due to the conflict of time (Mommy’s DG also falls on the same time), Mommy was unable to send her for calligraphy class.  So, she suggested that Elyse stays put at her place until Mommy is done with her DG.  We really appreciate the teacher’s effort but we declined again as Mommy’s DG finishes pretty late.  This is the only time Mommy gets to mingle around and fulfill her quota in speech throughout the week. (Side Note: Do you know that scientifically a women speak about 20,000 words a day - some 13,000 more than the average men?)

We thought this was the end of discussion as so far, we as parents did not show much interest.  To our surprise, the teacher did not give up.  She took the extra mile by suggesting teaching Elyse alone for an hour extra before she starts her Chinese tuition.  We were taken aback when we heard that.  That is the determination of a dedicated teacher, bending ways so that our little girl could learn calligraphy.  Finally, we agreed. 

So, Elyse started learning calligraphy.  Initially, she came home with a book full of writing a single character, number one (一).  Subsequently, three (三), four (四) and other simple strokes.  It was rather dreary repeating the same stroke over and over again.  For weeks, I was wondering did we make the right choice.  As for her, she persevered on although I could sense the tingling of boredom seeping through in her.  Finally, the fruit of her labour begin to show.  I am glad she enjoys writing the characters.  Her progress trigged my hidden desire: I, too, have a passion for this beautiful art.  Yet, I did not have a chance to learn in those days. 

A few months later, there was a competition organized by the Confucius Association (孔教会).  The teacher encouraged Elyse to participate.  It was on a Sunday and we rushed over after the Sunday School.  Thankfully, my mom was around that weekend as hubby was outstation.  My boy stayed with my mom and I accompanied Elyse.  I have prepared her a simple lunch but none for me.  Thought I would just starve for two hours and then enjoy some home-cook food.  Little did I know that the event took longer than I expected. 

The registration started at 12 noon but we reached around 12:30pm.  I thought I was late but seems Malacca operates in a different time zone.  We waited, and waited, and waited.  Initially it was so crowded that Elyse did not even have a place.  I consulted the organizing committee but they only asked us to wait.  When the teacher saw us, she managed to find a spot for Elyse.  How thankful was I!  About one hour later, the committee called for all the adults who participated in the competition to move to another venue nearby.  Finally, some air to breathe… So we thought, it’s going to start soon right?  But it was another hour of waiting.  Excuse me, what’s the problem?  No one could answer.  Some of the committee members were just sitting on the chairs reading newspaper.  Here I am, hungry and tired… and I had been standing for the past 2 hours with my heels.  Argh…

You can imagine how happy I was when the competition finally started at 2:45pm.  The participants were given an hour to complete their writing.  Each participant was given two sets of papers.  They may write on both sets and then select the best to submit or simply focus on one.

Elyse took 40 minutes to finish the first set of paper.  She was cautious in writing every single stroke.  The words were difficult.  It was all in traditional Chinese character (繁体字), not the simplified version (简体字) that they are now learning in school.  She used the remaining time to complete the second set of paper in a hurry.  The teacher helped her to identify which was the best and submitted it to the committee.

It was another hour before they released the result.  But the teacher advised us to go home as this was just meant for Elyse to gain some exposure.  I was so happy to hear that as Elyse was determined to stay for the result.  The teacher told us later that although Elyse did not win, her paper was amongst the finalists.  She was very satisfied with her progress in such a short period of time.

Keep it up, my girl!  I love to see you enjoy Chinese culture as I was very “Chinese” before your daddy ‘converted’ me.  I am proud to confess that Elyse’s calligraphy skill is so much better than me now.