Chinese characters under threat in digital age (2)

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A student takes part in a calligraphy competition in Jiashan county, Zhejiang province, in August. Ten of the 50 participants will go to Jiaxing for a follow-up competition. Hu Lingxiang / for China Daily

Early education

Parents are also beginning to realize the importance of teaching children calligraphy at an early age, said Ji Jiejing, who is head of ancient Chinese civilization studies at the Beijing Confucian Temple and Imperial College.

"Mostly it is those who are really into Chinese traditional culture," she said. "Generally, people send their children to calligraphy classes far less than to English or Math Olympiad classes."

The college, which was the central institute of learning for ancient Chinese dynasties, has run calligraphy courses for children aged 5 to 16 since 2007.

The classrooms are in an institute emperors frequently visited to read Confucian classics, which is meant to bring children back to ancient times and appreciate traditional culture, Ji said.

Gao Tianchen, a calligraphy teacher at the Imperial College, said in his class, children write characters with soft brushes to the sounds of the guqin, a traditional seven-stringed instrument.

"Before teaching a Chinese character, I show students every major change on its pattern and structure in history and tell children the stories behind the changes," he said.

His teaching focuses on helping children memorize the structure of a character and understand its meaning, rather than studying in pinyin.

"That way the students can better remember Chinese characters when they grow up, even though they are using a keyboard every day," he added.

Yang Fei said the improvement of her 8-year-old son's handwriting after the class was far beyond her expectations.

"My son wrote the character shou, meaning longevity, as a birthday gift for his grandmother last year," she said. "I realized then that he'd come to understand filial piety through the characters.

"The meaning would have been lost if he'd just typed it in pinyin," she added.

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