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Chinese painting and calligraphy
Pepin, WI
Accomplished: (sounds like, a-KOM-plished) skilled; expert
Ancestors: (sounds like, ANN-ses-ters) Earlier generations of a family.
Ancestry: (sounds like, ANN-cess-tree) Earlier generations of a family
Calligrapher: (sounds like ka-LIG-rah-fer) An artist who does
calligraphy.
Calligraphy: (sounds like ka-LIG-rah-fee) The art of beautiful handwriting.
Chop: A Chinese signature seal.
Communicate: To express oneself; to tell other people.
Communist: The political party that has controlled Chinese government
since 1949.
Descent: (sounds like de-SENT) How someone comes down through the
generations related to an ancestor.
Dynasty: (sounds like, DIE-na-stee) A family that is in power for several
generations.
Eight Basic Strokes: These are a horizontal line, vertical line, dot,
downward to the left, downward to the right, hook, down slant, and up slant.
Elite: (sounds like, e-LEET) A small group with superior status.
Eternity: (sounds like, e-TUR-ni-tee) All of time with no beginning or
end.
Excess: More than what is needed.
Feudal: (sounds like, FEW-dull) An economic and political system that in
China lasted about 2,500 years until the 19th century.
Fibrous: (sounds like, FI-brus) Made from fibers.
Goatee: The small chin beard on men named after the beard of a goat.
Immigrants: People who move from one country or region to another.
Lamp Black: Soot left from burning oils.
Lineage: (sounds like, LIN-e-ij) Descent from an ancestor.
Mao Tse-tung: The powerful political leader who was Chairman of the
Chinese Communist Party from 1949 until his death in 1976.
Order: Arrangement.
Oriental: (sounds like, or-e-EN-til) From Eastern Asia
Philosophy: (sounds like, fi-LOS-oh-fee) A system of values to live
by.
Rosemaling: Decorative painting from Norway that uses flowing lines,
flower designs and subtle colors.
Simplicity: (sounds like, sim-PLI-si-tee) Being simple, minimal, not
fancy or complex.
Soot: The black powdery material left over from burning carbon-based fuel
without enough oxygen.
Studio: The workspace of an artist.
Women's Conference: The United Nations' Fourth World Conference on Women
in Beijing, China in September 1995. Yem Han attended as a delegate from
Wisconsin.
What different names do you have? When do you use them?
What is Chinese calligraphy and how does Yem Han do it?
What kinds of fibers are in the paper you use?
Why
does Yem Han have so many brushes?
What do you look at to find
peace within yourself?
Who is
your cultural role model?
The
Chop, Relief Print and Ink Drawing is a 4-5 day lesson plan for 8th grade by
Sue Lindemulder.
Chinese
Scroll Painting is a one day lesson plan for 6th grade by
Sue Lindemulder.
Learning
Chinese Online is a portal website to endless resources for learning the
language. Look through the “Characters” section especially for on-line
games your students can do.
A
Window into Asian Art: Chinese Calligraphy is a course for teachers through
UW-Platteville taught by Madison-based Chinese calligrapher Yong Pu.
Eight
Kinds of Brush Strokes gives lots of good details on each of the eight basic
strokes in Chinese calligraphy.
Real Chinese
has ten fun lessons on Mandarin Chinese. Hear pronunciations and see slide
shows of people in China too.
How to Write
Chinese Characters is rich with animations of each Chinese character.
Chinese
Calligraphy. Scroll down this page to the “Practice Makes Perfect”
section to get detailed instruction on the eight basic strokes in Chinese
calligraphy. On the way, look at six different styles of Chinese writing.
Listen
to Yem Han's story of deciding to stay with writing the traditional Chinese
characters instead of switching to the simplified style. You can read along here.
Want
to take a class? Chinese
Language and Chinese Calligraphy with Pu Yong is a profile of a
Madison-based Chinese calligrapher who teaches a course at MATC.
China
the Beautiful lets you explore Chinese calligraphy, poetry, words, sayings
and more, and lets you listen too.
Text written by Nicole Saylor, edited by Anne Pryor.
Sources consulted include audio recorded interviews with Kwong Yem Han by Nicole Saylor (9/20/03) with materials housed at the Wisconsin Arts Board, “Soo Yuen Benevolent Association” with transcription by James Louie (8/1968), “Chinese Characters: Their Origin, Etymology, History, Classification and Signification” by L. Wieger (1965), “Chinese Written Characters: Their Wit and Wisdom” by Rose Quong (1968), “Analysis of Chinese Characters” by G.D. Wilder and J.H. Ingram (1964), Examples of Chinese Characters, and Wikipedia: Simplified Chinese Characters.
For Educators:
Resources/
Credits
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