Chongqing- On August 16, 2020, the 6th Bauhinia Cup Cross-Strait and Hong Kong-Macau Youth Painting and Calligraphy Competition was held in the ancient Huguang Guild Hall of Anju Ancient Town in Tongliang District, Chongqing.

Chinese calligraphy master Li Zhonghua demonstrates the techniques needed for painting on fans.

Thirty Students listened attentively to the famous calligrapher Li Zhonghua, who taught them how to paint characters on folded fans, before trying themselves to express nostalgia through calligraphy as part of this summer gathering event.

Anju Ancient Town has a long history of cultural heritage going back 1400 years and is rich in cultural relics and natural scenery. This attractive location is highly consistent with the aims of the Bauhinia cup, which is to promote the inheritance of Chinese traditional culture and inspire children to learn calligraphy and painting.

Students listen attentively as teacher Li Zhonghua explains fan calligraphy.

Teacher Li Zhonghua explained how the type of fan determines the content best suited in works of calligraphy, and so the size of characters and the font should be given strong consideration. As a famed educator in calligraphy, he won the highest distinction in the 4th National Fan Calligraphy Works Exhibition, the 4th China Frandin Award of Excellence, the 5th National Teachers’ Calligraphy Exhibition, and many other honors.

His works are also in the collections of numerous calligraphy and painting institutes, where people admire his accomplished works featuring regular, running, cursive, and official scripts.

Afterward, the children enjoyed a wonderful Sichuanese opera performance inside the Huguang Guild Hall. The rhythmic music and the swift mask roused them in applause. The performers also walked into the audience to interact closely with the children, hoping that they would fall in love with Sichuanese opera and Chinese traditional culture.

After the calligraphy event, students enjoyed a series of traditional performances on stage inside the Huguang Guild Hall.

As the activity reached its conclusion, the children personally wrote their sincere greetings and wishes for children in Hong Kong and Macau on postcards of Anju Ancient Town and invited them to visit the 'Dragon hometown’ of Tongliang. The postcards will be delivered to children in Hong Kong and Macau through the event organizer.

Zhou Shiqi in a third-year student of Bachuan Middle School in Tongliang. Although it was her first time write brush calligraphy, she has studied Chinese painting for many years. "Learning Chinese calligraphy in this ancient town has great charm. Thanks to the teacher's guidance, I have found that there are similar principles between Chinese painting and calligraphy. Now I have some experience, I plan to learn calligraphy systematically.’

As the Bauhinia Cup event in Anju Ancient Town reached a conclusion, students took a group photograph with master Li Zhonghua and showed off their works of calligraphy on fans.

Zhang Keyi, a second-year student at Bachuan Junior School, commented ‘I have studied calligraphy for five years, and I have been to Anju Ancient Town several times, but today I came looking for creative inspiration. Also, it’s very important to write calligraphy under the guidance of a master. I hope there will be more opportunities to communicate with famous people in the future.’