A few days ago, the teaching video programme series Stepping into Inkstone Culture, co-shot and produced by the Open University of China (OUC) and the Federation of Ink-stone Culture (FISC) under the Association of China Yan Huang Culture Research (ACYHCR), was launched online.

The launch ceremony for the Stepping into Inkstone Culture programme was held in the morning of April 27, 2016 in the OUC. President of the FISC under ACYHCR, Liu Hongjun, Executive Vice President Zhang Weiye and Vice President Zhang Guoxing, Vice Presidents of the OUC, Li Ling and Liu Chen, Chief expert of FISC, Zhang Shufen, and Director of the Department of Art Education of the OUC, Tang Yingshan, attended the meeting.

Vice President Li Ling presents CDs of Stepping into Inkstone Culture programme to FISC.

The teaching video programme Stepping into Inkstone Culture is a co-production of the OUC and FISC under the ACYHCR. In March 2014, after several discussions and exchanges between the OUC and ACYHCR’s FISC, the two sides signed a strategic cooperation agreement on promoting Chinese ink-stone culture by incorporating inkstone cultural knowledge into the courses of the OUC and working to promote their dissemination. After joint efforts over two years, the filming and production of the teaching programme Stepping into Inkstone Culture was completed. The programme will bring inkstone cultural knowledge to a mass audience through the digital, information, and network based teaching methods, so that the general public can enjoy, understand, appreciate, and pass on Chinese inkstone culture.

Over nine months, the crew of Stepping into Inkstone Culture traveled to five locations in three provinces including Beijing, Shandong, etc; interviewed twenty-one experts who make and collect inkstones; and completed the 200-minute teaching TV programme after final editing. Keynote speakers and experts included in the programme combined their studies of inkstone culture and engraving experience, delivered wonderful explanations on the essential elements, like the type, shape, engraving, and appreciation of inkstones, while giving in-depth professional interpretations on topics such as inkstone discipline and its rules, appreciation of inkstones, and the cultural value of new inkstones, in simple terms. The Stepping into Inkstone Culture video programme series is the first large-scale art course of its kind, recording expert comments in great detail ,and covering all aspects of inkstone culture.

Stepping into Inkstone Culture presents the Chinese inkstone cultural heritage via a unique teaching video programme, which is an effective format to popularize and pass on inkstone culture to the public, as well as an exemplary representation of serving society and benefiting the people via excellent traditional culture education, which is an innovative endeavor undertaken by the OUC, and which can capitalize on its diversified education service as a good and creative means to popularize and spread inkstone culture among the general population.

The programme will be broadcast through the OUC Five Minute Microlecture network (www.fiveminutes.com.cn) and the OUC Your Art network (http://www.urart.cc/) for free. We warmly welcome you to visit us.

http://www.5minutes.com.cn/Web/Course/CourseDetail.aspx?id=f30472e6-6138-4c1f-b672-159707632ea1

By Department of Art Education, OUC