Calligraphy
celebrated
By Yoshinori Okada
Summer On-line Forty-Niner
 Members
of Cal State Long Beach made a contribution
to the Chinese Calligraphy Exhibition held
Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Cerritos
Senior Center.
The
Cerritos Chinese American Senior Citizens
Association sponsored the exhibition of
about 50 pieces of Chinese calligraphic
artworks as part of a celebration for the
12th anniversary of the founding of the
center and the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival.
As
a member of the association, San-pao Li,
CSULB Asian and Asian American studies professor
emeritus, displayed several calligraphic
artworks from his personal collection, along
with his own artwork.
Some
of his collection showcased rare copies
of long hand scrolls, each measuring from
20 feet to 40 feet, done by such artists
as Xizhi Wan and Emperor Huizong of the
Song Dynasty.
“Calligraphy
is an inclusive form of art,” Li said. Calligraphy
represents “a microcosm of culture and an
art form par excellence. As it necessarily
encompasses language, history, poetry, philosophy
and art all at the same time.”
Also
on display were the artworks done by students
who were enrolled in Li’s calligraphy course
in the previous semester at CSULB.
Senior
graphic design major Lucia Dinh, who took
the class and whose work was on display
, said that she had always been interested
in “beautiful and stylish” Chinese calligraphy
and was delighted when she found out the
class was offered at CSULB.
Most
students had some limited knowledge of the
Chinese language and had no experience using
a Chinese brush pen at the start of the
semester, said Shu-chuen Li, University
Library assistant and a member of the association,
who serves as volunteer assistant for the
class.
Besides
these basics, Li taught the connotations
and even innuendoes contained in the message
they were producing through elegant and
powerful calligraphic strokes, he said.
He also assigned every student with no Chinese
name, one which was a phonetic equivalent
to his/ her original name. The students
made at least one personalized seal using
the names in the ancient seal style characters
for authentication of their artworks.
It
is important to “let students take pride
in their own accomplishments,” Li said.
“I keep promoting this is very important.
Each student is capable, don’t underestimate.
I have a very high expectation.”
Charles
Lee, president of the association, said
the exhibition was “very outstanding. We
had so many, well about 200 some people,
250, maybe 300 people, coming in and out
and in and out.”
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