Teacher Han Meilin taught the children to draw.
Reporter Charlene Sun Leyi Correspondent Zhou Jie
Today, it is the 36th Teacher's Day, respecting teachers and re-teaching is a Chinese tradition, as early as the Western Zhou Dynasty in the 11th century BC, it was proposed that "disciples serve teachers, respect the same as the Father". Have you ever practiced writing and learned to draw at the Children's Palace, but have you ever lined up to ride that little rocket and Ferris wheel? Why do so many people obsess over this place? Because it is related to the childlike heart of Hangzhou city, it has inspired a large group of children's artistic buds, and the profession of calligraphy and painting teacher is sacred and ordinary, and they carry the artistic dreams of generations of people.
Parents of the 70s, 80s and 90s are familiar with the Hangzhou Youth Activity Center. Dating back to the last century, the predecessor of the center was established in 1958, formerly known as the Hangzhou Children's Palace, compared with the current Hangzhou Youth Activity Center's hot training, the early days of the Municipal Children's Palace calligraphy and painting training only three courses, namely brush calligraphy, drawing, Chinese painting. In the past sixty years, a large number of calligraphy and painting seedlings have been cultivated.
The "old bottom" of calligraphy and painting teaching, they are on the front line
According to statistics, there are more than 800 classroom teachers in the database of the Art Department of Hangzhou Youth Activity Center, including in-service teachers from schools, graduates from art colleges and universities, and some experts who are enthusiastic about off-campus education. This team of teachers has a strong cohesion, they dedicate their weekend breaks to their posts, and support the largest off-campus art education in Hangzhou with love and professionalism.
Speaking of the earliest art teacher of the Children's Palace, she was Wang Hanying. She is the wife of the famous painter Mr. Zhou Changgu. In 1958, nearly 20 years old, she served as an art teacher at the Municipal Children's Palace, and according to the first batch of students, the famous painter Mr. He Shuifa recalled, Teacher Wang took him to The Six Parks in the winter to enjoy snow sketching, bringing him a deep and beautiful memory of learning to paint at a young age. Nowadays, outside the art building of Hangzhou Youth Activity Center, you can still see the scene of the teacher taking the students to sketch outdoors, different periods, different teachers, the same is the experience of the students happily learning to paint.
In 2019, the interest training of the Ministry of Fine Arts opened a total of 2787 classes, the number of enrollment reached 58580 person-times, over the years, the Hangzhou Youth Activity Center Art Department has two of the most popular projects, namely children's art and calligraphy, practicing calligraphy from ancient times to the present is an important lesson for students, in the 1970s, brush calligraphy as the most popular project in Hangzhou Children's Palace, a large number of professional calligraphy teachers emerged, these teachers are superior, including the famous artists in the field of calligraphy and painting, such as: Zhu Guantian, Min Xuelin, Jiang Dongshu, Wu Hangsheng and others, in 1972, also photocopied and published the first children's palace brush calligraphy textbook, this "how to learn to write brush characters" calligraphy training textbook co-edited by the Hangzhou Children's Palace and the Hangzhou Calligraphy and Painting Society can be described as heavyweight, "the first person of the contemporary small seal" Li Fuyu, well-known calligraphers Ge Derui, Shi Feng, Shen Bing, etc. all participated in the compilation of the textbook, these teachers have passed away one after another, leaving behind this heavy memory.
In those years, he was a calligraphy and painting teacher who led students to pursue their dreams
Gao Eryi, who taught in the 1970s, served as deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee, secretary of the Party Group of the Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and vice president of the China Academy of Art. According to Gao Eryi, the art class and calligraphy class run by the Hangzhou Children's Palace at that time were very famous, "because there were too many students enrolled, they had to be divided into long-term classes, short-term classes, senior classes and lower grade classes, and the teachers were only Xiao Zhengzhong, Wang Xiaoming and me." The students change every six months, and although they all know the only few teachers, it is difficult for us to recognize all the students. In May 1999, Gao Eryi was invited to the United Nations Headquarters in New York to hold a painting exhibition and give lectures, during which he met more than 10 students who had studied in the Children's Palace, many of whom were "double-material students" who had stayed in the Children's Palace and the Academy of Fine Arts, such as Charlie, Pan Yihang, Wang Yibo, Xu Jin, Wang Tong, etc. "The memories of that time brought everyone back to the Children's Palace 20 years ago, back to the happy times of children and teenagers, and I really did not expect that the Children's Palace would leave such a deep impression on the children." And this brief gathering of former Children's Palace students living in New York, USA, made him feel the importance of youth's extracurricular education work. Growing seedlings need to be nourished by sunshine and rain and dew, and more importantly, they need the careful cultivation and care of gardeners, so that they can grow into towering trees and become useful materials for society. These children, who were eager for knowledge, diligent in studying and a little naughty, were the Children's Palace that gave wings to their ideals, so that they could freely soar in the blue sky, fly over the ocean, and display their talents around the world. Today, students have become outstanding talents in the field of fine arts and calligraphy, many of whom are famous painters, designers, calligraphers, art theorists, and professors. Their achievements are, of course, the supreme glory and pride of our Hangzhou Children's Palace. In Gao's view, the best learning opportunity in a person's life is in the adolescent period, during which the most important thing is that children can choose the direction of development according to their own interests and abilities.
Yang Xihu, who taught in the 1980s, was a director of the Chinese Calligraphers Association, vice chairman and secretary general of the Zhejiang Calligraphers Association: In an interview, Mr. Yang talked about the memories of teaching at the Children's Palace, full of appreciation for the students. Around 1983, he used his spare time to work as a calligraphy teacher at the Municipal Children's Palace, and the curriculum was arranged every weekend afternoon, mostly for the second grade of primary school, with nearly 40 students in a class. Teacher Yang said that at that time, although the conditions were difficult, the students were very hard, for the assignment of homework will be actively completed, this group of students are also very competitive, through the professional training in the Children's Palace, many students finally embarked on the road of calligraphy and painting research, at that time this group of outstanding students in today's calligraphy and painting education, creative research played an important role.
Xia Yipeng, who taught in the 1990s, is a professor at Hangzhou Normal University and a master tutor. He is a member of Xiling Printing Society, and the deputy secretary-general of the Art Education Committee of the Department of Education of Zhejiang Province. From 1994 to 1997, Xia Yipeng taught at the Children's Palace, and he recalled those times and sighed: Time is indeed a magician, all these memories seem to be just yesterday, vividly remembered, but it is already the end of the last century, "there are memories of my youth in the Children's Palace." Xia Yipeng was the earliest hard pen calligraphy teacher in the Children's Palace, when hard pen calligraphy was just starting out, and he was a rescue soldier moved from the China Hard Pen Calligraphers Association by Xu Zhongde, a disciplined teacher. When the class was long, he took 25 classes a week by himself, and later Mo Xiaobu, Xia Youliang, and Xia Youxiang came to the Children's Palace, and the four of them supported the hard pen project of the Children's Palace, and they had a very high reputation in the field of hard pen calligraphy education in Hangzhou, known as "three summers and one Mo". Xia Yipeng said that the classroom at that time was next to the Children's Palace hydropower station, there was no air conditioning in the classroom, it was very hot in the summer, only the squeaky old electric fan brought some coolness, the students often sweated, but their enthusiasm for learning did not diminish. At that time, there was no projection, the explanation was all based on the board book and personal demonstration, and Teacher Xia attracted many students with the beautiful board book and the spirit of the spirit. Teacher Xia is the best at encouraging students, remember that there was a child named Wang Xizhi who could not always write "points" well, so he cried his nose, and Teacher Xia told him the story of the great calligrapher Wang Xizhi and told him that every "point" of his was progressing. The child was very happy, he really wrote slowly, and everyone liked the teacher who would encourage people, so his classroom was always full. At that time, the hard pen calligraphy project began to slowly explode, from the first few classes to dozens of classes, getting bigger and bigger, but what he never expected was that many years later, the number of students to be accepted by hard pen calligraphy every year was as high as 12,000 people.
Li Guansheng, who served from 1972 to 2004, is a full-time senior art teacher at the Municipal Children's Palace and a general art counselor. Teacher Li has made a lot of efforts in the art department of Hangzhou Youth Activity Center, as a senior teacher, for more than 30 years, he has been committed to the cause of art education outside the school, and has trained many outstanding students. Recalling the scene of working in the art department, Teacher Li is simple and humble, but his words are happy from the heart.
Famous calligraphers and painters, walking into the activity center to applaud the children
The students of the Fine Arts Department of Hangzhou Youth Activity Center are happy, the children sign up with the interest in learning, the teachers around them have built a stage for the students to display, and more than 100 calligraphy and painting activities are held every year, and more calligraphy and painting masters guard the artistic dreams of the students and let them set sail. In the early years, Pan Tianshou, Sha Menghai, Lu Yushao, Liu Jiang and other old gentlemen all went to the Children's Palace to interact with the children. The famous arts and crafts master Han Meilin came to the hall of the Fine Arts Building during the 2006 Animation Festival and personally taught the students of the Chinese painting project, and wrote the inscription "Applause for the Children". Teachers Wu Shanming and Pan Honghai carefully prepared calligraphy and painting works, gave paintings to the award-winning children, and the masters used their own bodies to take the students to feel the art of calligraphy and painting and experience the charm of traditional culture, and the young students also buried the seeds of art in their hearts when they were young. It is reported that one of the students who received the donated works last year was admitted to the Image and Media Major of the China Academy of Art, fulfilling his childhood dream.
The inheritance and development of calligraphy and painting, the new generation of teachers dare to chase dreams
After 60 years of development, the Art Interest Group of the Activity Center has become a comprehensive art department, with 14 projects such as children's painting, hard pen calligraphy, drawing, cartoon, and Chinese painting. Every year, the thirty full-time teachers of the Art Department always maintain their enthusiasm for the creation of art, dare to chase their dreams, and they use their spare time to create, and put their feelings about life in one work after another.
"In order for art and culture to be passed on by children, as a teacher, it is important to have dreams." Teacher Chen Yao, director of the Western Painting Project of Hangzhou Youth Activity Center, took over the baton of the project from the predecessors Li Guansheng, Bu Yanping and Chen Fengyuan, and led several young teachers to make the Western painting project detailed and solid, in addition to the conventional sketch project, the sketch figure painting and landscape painting were refined, and the supporting teaching materials of the Children's Palace were rewritten. Not only Western painting projects, children's art, calligraphy, cartoons, Chinese painting, pottery projects, etc., each team is coordinated by the project team leader to coordinate the syllabus, the purpose is to promote calligraphy and painting training to the development of specialization and personalization. In the first half of this year, due to the impact of the epidemic, the training course was suspended, and in the summer vacation, the teachers of the Ministry of Fine Arts opened an online course, combining traditional teaching with the Internet, and the development and implementation of the course achieved excellent results. In the fall, most of the places in the online classes have been sold out.
"There are so many parents and students who are willing to come to the Children's Palace to learn calligraphy and painting, the key is the training characteristics and professional basic skills that the Art Department of the Children's Palace pays attention to." Gao Yongchun, director of the Art Department of the Hangzhou Youth Activity Center, said. Since Minister Gao entered the Center in 1997, he has led the teacher team of the Ministry of Fine Arts to explore continuously over the years, and has also cultivated a large number of art professionals. For calligraphy and painting training, Minister Gao has three dream-chasing experiences to share with parents and students, first, learning calligraphy and painting, to start with interest, interest is the best teacher; second, learning calligraphy and painting is mainly to enhance aesthetic ability, not necessarily to take the road of professional painters, so we must see more and learn to appreciate; third, parents should choose for the age and preferences of their children when they sign up, and must not blindly follow the trend. For example, the children's art project, the starting age of four and a half years old, it is divided into eight semesters, each semester to learn the technique is different, the tools and materials are not the same, parents in the registration can be based on the child's existing level of the class, the art department carefully divided each project has enlightenment, junior, middle, high four levels, hope that through the degree of ladder and project progression, so that children in the art learning process to learn not only techniques, but also a persistent attitude towards art.
Teachers are ingenious, educating people to chase dreams, and sincerely wish every teacher: Happy Teacher's Day!