On 10 July 2019, the OUC, together with Tianjin RTVU, Hebei RTVU, and Baoding RTVU, launched a one-week training for primary and secondary school calligraphy teachers at Xiong County RTVU. The training took Chen Zhenlian’s Studio’s Dandelion Project at the OUC Painting and Calligraphy Art Education Research Institute as its starting point.
The event was held on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the OUC. The charity training program for calligraphy teachers in primary and middle schools in Xiong'an New District was implemented by Chen Zhenlian’s Dandelion Project under the overall planning of the Art Education Department and the Education Research Institute. It is an important way for the OUC school community to serve the national strategy, promote the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, and boost the construction of Xiong'an New District. The measures provided specific implementation plans for primary and secondary school calligraphy education in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei. The activity has won strong support from Xiong'an New District Public Service Administration, People's Government of Xiong County, and the Education Bureau of Xiong County.
The opening ceremony of the training class was held in the calligraphy class of Xiong County RTVU. The ceremony was presided over by director of Xiong County Education Bureau, Zhao Yonghong. Zhao Shan, deputy county governor of the People's Government of Xiong County; Tang Yingshan, executive vice president of the Art Education Department; Liu Zhigang, vice president of Tianjin RTVU; Duan Runbao, president of Hebei RTVU; and Chen Zhenlian, vice chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and vice chairman of the China Calligraphers Association delivered speeches at the opening ceremony.
Tang Yingshan reviewed the preparation work and attributed the success of the charity training to everyone’s shared concept of school operation. The OUC community uses IT as a form of support, aiming to building a national lifelong learning society. It takes the initiative to undertake its social responsibility, focusing on grassroots, border, and minority areas in order to promote educational equity. These are all in common with Chen Zhenlian’s school operation concept of “virtue cultivation to build soul.”
In his speech, Professor Chen Zhenlian talked about the seven-year history of the Dandelion Project and the education concept that it adheres to. He believes that one of the important missions of the Dandelion Project is to equip calligraphy teachers with a cultural heritage mission. Professor Chen said that the 100 teachers in Xiong’an New District keep in mind the sense of responsibility and mission of the times. After this training, they are bound to become model calligraphy teachers.
After the speech, Professor Chen donated Dandelion Project calligraphy textbooks to the OUC, Tianjin RTVU, Hebei RTVU, Baoding RTVU, and Xiong County.
The teaching faculty for this training is strong, made up of good quality teachers with a high level of teaching, professionalism, and morality, including Wang Yongjiang, Cursive Committee member of the China Calligraphers Association and associate researcher at Zhejiang University; Jin Xiaoming, deputy director of the Chinese Art Institute and doctoral supervisor; Wang Yougui, associate Professor of Hangzhou Normal University; Yuan Guoxia, PhD of Chinese Calligraphy at the China Academy of Art; and Xu Xijun, deputy director of the OUC Education and Research Institute and Secretary-General of the Cursive Committee of the Tianjin Calligraphers Association.
The training was themed around how to establish a new concept of "beauty first" in the basic education of primary and secondary school calligraphy in the new era and how to establish an aesthetic consciousness of the beauty of calligraphy (what is the beauty of calligraphy and where its beauty lies in) through analysis of the classic works of ancient calligraphy. The calligraphy practice class helped calligraphy teachers to quickly master calligraphy writing skills and training methods; explore the teaching methodology of calligraphy classes in primary and secondary schools through teaching method evaluation; and realise the new teaching concept of calligraphy that can be “clearly understood, explained, and written" advocated for by Chen Zhenlian.
By OUC Voice WeChat Official Account