Confronted with calligraphy’s waning importance in Taiwan, calligrapher Qiu Ye­hong established the Ya­zhai Children’s Calligraphy Association in 1973. His daughter Qiu Xuan­zhi recalls that her father believed that the study of any art is best begun in childhood. “Consequently, when my father founded the school, he boldly tried to provide children with a systematic calligraphic education. Yang ­Ching-­chiang, honorary chair of the Tai­pei Chinese Children’s Calligraphy Education Promotion Association, who has been involved in calligraphic education for more than two decades, says, “Whether learning pen or brush calligraphy, starting in second grade is ideal.”

Qiu Yehong threw himself into children’s calligraphy education more than 40 years ago when he discovered that the regular schools weren’t giving it enough attention. Back then, from the third grade there was a weekly period on ­every student’s schedule designated for calligraphy. But these classes were often commandeered by teachers in the core academic subjects on the grounds that their classes were more important. And when the elementary and junior high curriculum was revised in 2003 to add study of a “mother language” (Taiwanese, Hakka, or an Aboriginal language), calligraphy was relegated to Chinese (Mandarin) class. It no longer had its own designated spot on the schedule.

While demand for Chinese classes has been growing stronger overseas, the teaching of calligraphy in Taiwanese schools has been in decline. Consequently, in 2009 the Ministry of Education announced a plan to improve the way that calligraphy is taught in elementary schools and junior highs. The MOE plan to “raise the effectiveness of teaching calligraphy” is now in its middle stage (2014–2017). But the MOE hasn’t announced any plan to return a designated period in the public school schedule to calligraphy. Consequently, students who are interested in calligraphy have turned to the marketplace to find courses at after-school arts academies.

The teacher’s careful guidance helps children to better understand the finer points of calligraphic technique.

Many parents, when planning their children’s after-school programs, look for practical advantage, selecting supplementary classes that will help their children with the core academic curriculum. Even when choosing arts classes, they tend to select those that they perceive as most helpful for increasing their children’s chances under the new holistic school and college admissions policies. Calligraphy is not a popular choice. Yet in his many years of teaching, Yang has observed that studying calligraphy helps students to achieve the “direction, calm, peace, awareness, and achievement” described in The Great Learning, a Chinese philosophical classic. What’s more, studying calligraphy cultivates children’s patience. “All the kids who study calligraphy get good grades.”

Yet, regardless of how important calligraphy is, or how beneficial to children’s development, if it doesn’t interest children, none will want to study it. Hence, calligraphy classes need to integrate a greater diversity of content, looking to build both interest and knowledge as they lead children step by step into the world of traditional culture and history of which calligraphy is an integral part. Qiu Xuan­zhi points out that Ya­zhai classes focus both on calligraphy’s technical aspects and its character-building qualities. Over the course of the year, the students do in-depth study on one topic each term. They end up with a comprehensive and enlightened calligraphic education that includes cultural history, the historical evolution of different calligraphic styles, and so forth.

Exposed to the world of calligraphy from a young age in her father’s study, Qiu Xuan­zhi took over the reins at Ya­zhai after his passing. “I produced extensive and systematic calligraphic teaching materials, and in step with the changing times added new content and educational methods.” For instance, she designed a “calligraphic treasure hunt” activity, for which children find calligraphic characters in their daily lives, such as at shops or on inscriptions at nearby sites of significance. When the students find them, they share them with their teacher and classmates. “This teaches children that calligraphy isn’t so far removed from our lives.”

Yazhai also sets great store by social and character education. “The parents tell me how wonderful it is that as soon as their kids enroll at Ya­zhai, they turn into little scholars with an air of intellectual sophistication.” Interestingly, sometimes the children will turn around and influence the parents: “They will ask their parents to take them to see the Yu Youren Residence, where they peruse the calligraphy on the walls with great enthusiasm.”

Qiu says that many people regard calligraphy as an overly dry and serious form of study, wondering how it is possible to get highly active children in particular to calm down, sit still and actually enjoy learning it. “In fact, because calligraphy is an interesting art form with rich content, if the teachers can design teaching materials and methods properly so they can extend the children’s learning antennae and get them to engage with this visual representation of art and culture that has evolved over thousands of years, then the children will come to a completely different understanding of the art of calligraphy.”

Sometimes, when she comes across children who have been forced into studying calligraphy by their parents, Qiu will do her best to persuade them to give calligraphy a chance. “At first a child who says calligraphy is boring will write his characters with great reluctance and little enthusiasm. But a month or two later, if he picks up his earliest work to compare with his current efforts, he will refuse to acknowledge that he had created those early attempts, because they will differ so vastly from his current work that the child himself won’t believe he had created it.”