On 12th and 13th November, 2011 Confucius Classroom Munich offered an elementary calligraphy class for people who are interested in it. On 19th and 20th November the second course was arranged, as many participants asked for it. The teacher was Ms. Nelly Ma.

The participants, from young teenagers to gray-haired old men, from housewives to businessmen, all concentrated all the time during class. They wetted writing brushes, grinded inkstones and then practiced the basic character strokes in the newspaper. Interestingly, they all like to write in the Chinese newspaper rather than German. And they really made a quick progress in calligraphy writing. Only after two weekends’ practicing, they could write the characters with symmetry structure and smooth strokes. At the last class, all of them carefully wrote their favorite Chinese characters on the rice paper. Then some of them would be mounted as a special ornament at home.

Calligraphy has been an important feature of the Chinese culture for the past 4000 years. The most important aspect is that it is an emotional form of art, as it carries the thoughts and feelings of the artist. Many foreigners like to learn Chinese because of its distinctive Chinese characters and Chinese calligraphy. Nowadays the globalization of economy is unstoppable, and the whole world becomes a global village. So it is extremely important to think about how to protect and pass on good Chinese culture. Diversity makes a national culture more attractive and makes the world colorful. Currently more and more foreigners are interested in Chinese traditional culture and art, which is a reflection on the saying: the national art also belongs to the world!