Calligraphers' association surveys calligraphy teaching at Red Army primary school

A research team from the Linyi Calligraphers Association visited Huanyu Red Army Primary School in Yinan county, Linyi, East China's Shandong province, on Oct 15 to survey calligraphy education in primary and secondary schools.

The team included Sun Yanmei, vice chairman of the association, and Jiao Nianming and Sun Xixu, members of its presidium and deputy secretary-general. Officials from the Yinan county federation of literary and art circles, the county education and sports bureau and Mamuchi township accompanied the visit.

The team visited the school's calligraphy classroom to watch students from its calligraphy club write on site. The students worked with composure, practicing brush and pen calligraphy, and their solid skills drew praise from the researchers.

At a seminar, Li Wenxue, Party secretary and principal of the school, gave a report titled "Cultivating Character through Calligraphy, Nourishing the Heart with Ink." The school is located in the heart of the Yimeng old revolutionary area and traces its origins to a battlefield nursery founded in 1939 by Wang Huanyu, known as the "Yimeng Mother." In recent years the school has integrated calligraphy education with revolutionary tradition education: grades one to five have one calligraphy class a week, with daily 15-minute lunchtime practice of revolutionary poetry, weekly calligraphy club activities and a "fragrant ink Yimeng" teacher-student calligraphy exhibition each semester. The school has full-time and part-time calligraphy teachers, a dedicated classroom, and teacher chalkboards and a "revolutionary quotes calligraphy wall" in its corridors. In September 2025 it was named a third batch "Wang Xizhi calligraphy specialty school."

Sun Yanmei's team affirmed the school's "red plus calligraphy" education model, explaining the role of calligraphy education in cultivating character, passing on culture and tempering willpower, and said the association will strengthen ties and joint development with the school.

Editor：韩蒙蒙