他的日本籍夫人玉村幸子也在学书法。
Reflections on my Chinese
Calligraphy Experience
Dr Lee
Kwok Cheong
I grew up
in Hong Kong in a Chinese dialect (Cantonese) speaking environment. The schools
I attended used both English and Cantonese as medium of teaching. So you can
say I was both Chinese and English-educated, or neither!
For
universities, I went to USA. I did not
plan this intentionally, but as a foreign student who did not belong, I felt
the urge to re-discover my Chinese roots, and read rapaciously everything
on Chinese. The irony was in
US, I had access to a much bigger collection of Chinese books than I could find
in Hong Kong! I spent many hours on books I borrowed from the Boston Public
Library and Harvard 燕京
Library。A fun example was uncensored 真本金瓶梅, which would not be available in
China or Hong Kong in the 1970s.
So I know
Chinese language and culture and history as well as the Chinese-educated in
Singapore, and it is a pity I cannot carry on a conversation with them in
Mandarin.
Now back
to Chinese calligraphy. I cannot remember clearly now, but I am sure I was
required to copy 顏真卿 and 柳公權大揩 in primary school. My heart was not in it (under a
bad teacher), and I was not good at it.
In
secondary school, it was not required, but in one year my Chinese teacher
insisted we practised calligraphy in class once a week. I did not like my
writing, so I “cheated” by copying on top of the 王献之小揩帖 in secret. The teacher thought my calligraphy was
very good!
In
university around 1975-77, I got into the habit of copying Chinese texts I
liked using a blue fountain pen. I would
paste them on the wall in my dormitory room so I was literally surrounded by my
own fountain pen calligraphy! I did not
learn from any teacher or master. I just wrote to capture my feelings. At that
time I thought my fountain pen calligraphy was elegant! 井底蛙！
40+ years
later, I find a few pages of 道德經 still preserved in a book, and many letters I wrote to 2 friends over the years which they kept! They might be the only people other than myself who thought my fountain pen
calligraphy beautiful.
I stopped
writing in Chinese around 1996, when I started writing everything on the
computer using English. Around 2010, SIM (where I work) Recreation Club
arranged for Mr Wong Joon Tai to conduct calligraphy class during lunch break
once a week. That was when I started to pick up a brush again after so many
decades. Most other participants could not persist due to work pressure, and
the class discontinued after a few months.
Fast forward
to late 2013 - I had an unexpected and a very major cancer surgery, and I was
in a bad state physically and emotionally.
My earlier exposure to taiji, meditation, and calligraphy made me turned
to them for therapeutic purpose.
I knew Mr
Wong when we were both at the National Computer Board in the 1980s but I did
not know Mr Wong was such a Chinese calligraphy master! The SIM class led me to
inquire whether he was still teaching in 2014. Little did I know Mr Wong was
not just teaching; he was devoting his life to raising the interest and
standard of Chinese calligraphy!
So I
started coming to Catholic High Saturday morning “class” from Apr 2014. A big
bonus is my Japanese wife Sachiko accompanied me and developed her own
interest, and is continuing the endless journey on learning Chinese calligraphy
with me.
After 4+
years, how has my experience been? The first word that comes to my mind is
“frustrating”! I thought I was quite good and would progress well and fast.
Instead, I had so many bad habits from self-taught penmanship I needed a long
time to unlearn. And I have not yet quite relearned. I struggled with ink,
paper, and brush. I found my writing
quite amateurish. I am falling behind others in the class.
But in my
heart I know (1) I am just not practising enough (as I am working more than
full-time, often the only time I can practise is during the Saturday class);
(2) I am progressing, just slowly and sometimes 2 steps forward 1 step
backward; (3) I did not focus on the fundamentals of the brush strokes at the
beginning and I need to go back to basics.
In short,
I have hope! And I am counting on after retirement (next year latest), I can
devote more time and get more visible improvements.
Back to my
2014 original intention, I certainly find Chinese calligraphy meditative and helped
my slow recovery. And for that alone, I am very happy I started the journey.
I am also
inspired by Mr Wong’s mastery and dedication. With a teacher like Mr Wong, we
just have to keep going! 同学們，加油！
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