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

This year, there were 64 schools and over 2,000 pieces of calligraphy submitted nationally. Columba College had 165 students (totaling more than 300 pieces) entered in the the 12th New Zealand Chinese Calligraphy Competition in both hard pen and soft brush divisions.

Chinese students in Year 4 to 12 have been trained to write Chinese Characters in hard-pen every lesson at daily vocabulary time. They have written a section of a Chinese poem to participate in the hard-pen calligraphy competition. Year 5 to 13 Chinese students have learned seal script Chinese calligraphy writing with Miss Yang. They have written a piece of Chinese idiom in seal scripts on Chinese rice paper with a calligraphy brush pen.

In the NZ ​​​​Hard Pen Calligraphy Non-Native Intermediate & Secondary Category, Year 9 Frankie McAuliffe won 1st place, Year 10 Rin Ueda and Year 11 Noa Kuroki won 2nd place, Year 7 Zoe Mackenzie, Year 8 Scarlett Wilson, Zuzanna Kochan and Emily Roy, Year 9 Kaja Maciaczyk and Year 11 Koh Miyamichi won 3rd place. Year 10 Rin Ueda also won 2nd place in the Brush Pen Calligraphy Non-Native Intermediate & Secondary Category.

In the NZ Hard Pen Calligraphy Native Intermediate & Secondary Category, Year 11 Mabel Lee and Ruoshui Zhang won 2nd place, Year 8 Hebe Song and Year 12 Charlene Chan won 3rd place. Ruoshui Zhang also won 2nd place in the Brush Pen Calligraphy Native Secondary Category.

In the New Zealand Hard Pen Calligraphy Non-Native Primary Category, Year 4 Méabh Russell, Year 5 Frances Jones and Year 6 Bilal Ahmad won 3rd place. In the NZ Brush Pen Calligraphy Non-Native Primary Category, Year 5 Ruby Tilyard won 2nd place and Year 6 Charlotte Bloxham won 3rd place.

Columba College was awarded ‘The Best School’ for The 12th New Zealand Chinese Calligraphy Competition 2021. Ms Ding and Miss Yang were awarded ‘The Best Coach’ award.