Chinese Calligraphy

At HBA, on Mondays after class, we can sign up to take a calligraphy class (书法）.  Since I want to make the most of my time here in Beijing, I enthusiastically signed up for this wonderful opportunity.  (Also, my mom thinks that this stuff is really cool!)

It was kind of difficult at first: holding the brush felt kind of awkward, and you're supposed to hold the brush perpendicular to the table at all times.  There are also special ways to make the strokes by following various patterns and applying varying amounts of pressure, so now I realize how much practice it's going to take to be able to control the brush well enough to draw beautiful Chinese calligraphy.

The first class, we practiced writing 福.  At first, they were really ugly, but after practicing writing only 福 for an hour, I think I was able to make some progress!

The fruits of my labor!

It was really fun, so I decided to join again the following week.  This time we wrote a real phrase!

NOTE: It reads from right to left!