Chinese New Year is one of the most important festivals in Chinese culture. Through the spring couplets and paper art experience, international students not only practiced Chinese calligraphy, but also learned important Chinese characters related to Chinese New Year culture.
During Chinese New Year, Chinese people often write the words “春chūn” and “福fú”. Both of them represent wishes and expectations for the New Year. The meaning of the word “春chūn” is to hope that there’s a great start to the new year. The meaning of the word “福fú” is to hope for good fortune. In this Chinese New Year event, international students learned about the meanings of the words “春chūn” and “福fú”. They also practiced writing these characters with a brush and followed the stroke order of Chinese characters, which is an important rule of Chinese calligraphy.
In addition to writing spring couplets, the event also gave international students an opportunity to experience paper art. Students cut the word “春chūn” and a tiger pattern which contained the word “吉jí” in it. They produced their own 3-D decorations to celebrate Chinese New Year.
International students not only understood the culture of Chinese New Year through this experience, but also learned about the interesting aspects of Chinese calligraphy, Chinese characters, and paper art. Everyone who participated was able to experience what it feels like to celebrate Chinese New Year.
