Each year, Columba Chinese students participate in the New Zealand Soft-Pen and Hard-Pen Calligraphy competition organised by Confucius Institute.

The Calligraphy competition includes two categories: Soft-pen Calligraphy and Hard-pen Calligraphy. Soft-pen Calligraphy is widely known as a traditional Chinese form of writing with a brush and ink. Chinese students from Year 7-13 have learned to write a Chinese idiom in “Regular and Running Scripts” using soft-pen calligraphy in class.

Hard-pen calligraphy started to develop in the 1900s when fountain pens were imported into China from the west. Nowadays, hard-pen calligraphy is the writing art of making beautiful or elegant handwriting by pen. Year 7-Year 13 Chinese students have written a piece of Chinese poem in Hard-pen to participate in the Hard-pen calligraphy competition. 

Well done to all Year 7-Year 13 Chinese students. Their writings will be sent to Confucius Institute in Canterbury University to participate in the “2024 NZ Chinese Calligraphy Writing Competition”. All the best for your competition. The winners will be announced at Chinese Prize Giving at Columba College in October.