【Colorful Interest Class-Special Edition】Pass on the Chinese Tradition in BRFLS Class
Looking back to China’s two thousand years history, music, chess, calligraphy and painting are the four basic standards for Determining whether he or she is a gentleman or a lady.
In RFLS interest class, passing on the Chinese traditions to students is the main goal. For this semester, zen-painting, Interesting traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy are the three good examples that adhere to the traditional Chinese culture.
“Zen-painting” is a very special way to perform Chinese culture. It specializes in expressing aesthetic and artistic meaning through simple and clear painting.
According to Xiao Nan, who is the teacher of Zen-painting interest class, the focus of teaching arts should be in the development of the appreciation for art rather than the improvement of their painting skills. In detail, knowing how to appreciate art includes inspiring children’s innovation skills, helping them to maintain strong curiosity to the outside world and cultivate independent thinking skill.
On the aspect of setting curriculum, it is a challenge for teachers to do it especially for the children from Grade 1 to Grade 3, as they are too young to understand the deep meaning of the zen-paintings. Thus, Ms. Xiao Nan decided to review the art history together with her students to help them know how artworks show Chinese people’s spirits.
As learning abstract knowledge can be boring, Ms. Xiao Nan tried to attract students’ five senses to let them take part in the class actively.
By learning Chinese arts history and appreciating art works, students can understand the moral of zen-paintings better than before. Thus, they can start to learn the basic skills in zen-painting to get prepared for next semester’s learning. For next semester, students will try to do their own zen-paintings. And there is no doubt that they are all looking forward to doing it.
Ms. Xiao Nan graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Her art work “LuoHantu” series zen paintings have received praise around the world. She has won a multiple of prizes in China and overseas.
Traditional Chinese paintings is a unique national art which only uses black ink and rick papers. In RFLS interest class, students from Grade 2 and Grade 6 are busy with doing their own traditional Chinese paintings in the picture below.
Since students from Grade 2 are too young to hold the paintbrush properly, Ms. Li Rui let the students use their fingers instead the brushes. According to Ms. Li, young children will not be frustrated by the challenges at the beginning stage of the painting.
After a few lessons, students would know the basic skills of doing traditional Chinese paintings. Then, Ms. Li encourages them to use the Chinese painting brush. Young students will not feel pressured, as they have already fallen in love with the traditional Chinese paintings.
Inspired by Ms. Li’s idea, all the painting works from the interest classes will be presented in the hall at the end of this semester. Also, these painting works might be showed with Chinese classic dancing on the New Years’ gala.
Li Rui graduated from Sichuan Normal University, with a K-12 training certificate from the USA. Her painting works have been published on domestic and international magazines. Ms. Li has been teaching children for more than 7 years. Her student has won many prizes as well.
Good handwriting will leave a good first impression to people. In addition, practicing traditional Chinese handwriting is a way to relax. This semester, in RFLS, students have had the chance to learn the traditional Chinese soft brush handwriting.
For the traditional Chinese soft brush handwriting, the way of holding the brush and the sitting gesture are the first things to practice.
Ms. Li Min expressed that practicing Chinese soft brush handwriting is not only a method to improve children’s handwriting, but also a way to develop children’s fine qualities such as persistence.
The initial task for young children in the soft brush handwriting class is to practice holding the brush and sitting properly. Next, , students need to know how to copy the characters. According to Ms. Li “the more time they use on copying, the better their handwriting will be”.
Chinese traditional soft brush handwriting is an art which has a long history. Yet, an art needs self cultivation or self discipline. Thus, students who chose this lesson will also learn how to discipline themselves. As this quality is one of the most important learning dispositions, students can benefit from it even until they grow up.
Li Min, who was supervised by Professor Yan Ping, graduated with a Master’s degree from the Institute of Arts in the Remin University of China. Ms. Li has taken part in many TV programmes teaching children how to paint. A multiple of her works were displayed in galleries in China and the USA.
