Water Calligraphy
Met a young woman called Xie Chun Mei in Tuanjiehu Park. She was eager to practice her English which she had a pretty good grasp of I thought. I learnt some numbers and a few taxi directions – but the pronunciation is so difficult to get right.
On the way out of the park the water calligraphers were back practising. I think they start around 430pm each day for a few hours. It seems to be only men who do this. They walk backwards as they write, in the traditional top to bottom format of Chinese writing. One man uses two brushes and can write different characters at the same time. There are generally quite a number of appreciative bystanders watching. They seemed pleased I was interested and happy for me to take photos. Angela Zito who was in this flat before me was researching this practice for her project here.
