"It is just a part of China, it's tradition" Ms Wu said."
Modern Chinese writing, called a Han character, is a more evolved, refined form of early pictographs, transformed into ideographs to represent abstract concepts.
Chinese writing serves a greater purpose than most other languages since it is the only common form of communication between all Chinese people. The language is fragmented since there are hundreds of different dialects, whether local or official languages.
“You cannot understand each other by speaking, but you can write to each other. Each different region has its own way of speaking. The writing system unifies them all so that they can communicate with each other,” Mandarin teacher Mrs. Hai-Ming Wu said.
A recent addition to the Chinese language is a learning style named Pinyin. It is a phonetically based system made for foreigners to learn Chinese more easily. Street signs written in pinyin, however, are not going to be found anywhere in China.
"You will only find it in textbooks, never outside,” Ms Wu said. She stresses how pinyin is not a replacement to the language, but an aid for learning.
"It is just a part of China, its tradition" Ms Wu said.
Inside the Calligraphy Workshop
DHS Students learn ways of Chinese writing
By Nic Correa- 09/11
NEIRAD enilno edition | printer friendly
China's greatest mystery to some in the Western world may not be its culture or lifestyle. A curious person can just Google or look it up on Wikipedia. The intimidating list of more than 10,000 Chinese characters is what stops most people in their tracks. For a student to learn Mandarin from scratch, it can take up to 20 years to master this tonal language and written form of communication.
“We actually had to split the textbook in two to fit it into two years,” Mandarin teacher Ms Hai-Ming Wu said about the Mandarin I curriculum.
Student got to experience a piece of this written language at a recent calligraphy workshop. Students, both new and experienced with Chinese writing, were given brushes, inks and paper, and told how to make the necessary lines and flicks to draw the correct order of strokes. Simple characters, such as 字 or 也 have specific stroke orders, such as horizontal before vertical, or top to bottom.
“It is really hard to make each stroke. It made me impatient,” sophomore Katie Donovan said.
Knowing what is predominant, or what stroke comes after the other, is just a matter of practice and instinct. But as the writer gets get further along and finds characters like 依 and 翅 instinct can be misleading. 'Writing' it in the right order is the key of getting the final flick to the end of the line that makes it what it should, as Chinese writing is not so much just providing information carrier but also a form of art.
Hai-Ming Wu teaches calligraphy with passion.
Paige Gasparino learns the art.
Photos by Mikel Marku and Connor McCarthy
