Youth brush up on Chinese culture

ST28122013-1336173769/aucalligraphy29/Neo Xiaobin/Audrey Tan /A child peeps into a youth calligraphy class held at the Chinese Calligraphy Society of Singapore, as (from left) brothers Ian and Joshua Poh, 5 & 7 years old respectively, Ajay Bhattarai, 7, and Kody Ronald Kwok, 5, practise their chinese calligraphy on Dec 28, 2013. /Calligraphy classes for youths recommence this Saturday, on Dec 28. The Chinese Calligraphy Society of Singapore, which has offered such classes for 6-17-year-olds since more than 20 years ago, said they have noticed a growing pool of youths who are taking the classes. Numbers have gone up from less than 10 to more than 200 over the years. For story on surging popularity of Chinese calligraphy, an ancient art, among youths in Singapore. /Location: 48 Waterloo Street, Singapore 187952

WITH his back straight and arm poised over a sheet of rice paper, seven-year-old Joshua Poh diligently traced out Chinese characters like “sheng”, which means life, with a writing brush known as the mao bi.

He did this repeatedly during a 90-minute session under the guidance of his Chinese calligraphy teacher, Chang Ong Ying, 65, who taught him the strokes and how to hold the brush.