On November 13th, 2021, a cool, breezy autumn morning, students, teachers, parents, and graduated students from Yan Feng Elementary School visited Chung Tai World Museum. This time, the theme was "Calligraphy." As we aim to encourage students to work together during their visit, we prepared a brand-new worksheet that leads the students to self-learn in gallery rooms. In addition to that, there were calligraphy and stone rubbing sessions. These plans not only enriched their visit, it was also a special experimental study tour held during the difficult time of pandemic.

Gallery Missions: "Mix and Match" and "Fiery Eyes"

The stone rubbings of the famous calligraphic steles were gifted by Xi-an Beilin Museum in China, and were displayed in "The Spirit of the Brush" gallery. The first mission: "Mix and Match", is to match the five different styles of calligraphy, the title of the work, and its author! The works are all in black and white, and all in traditional Chinese characters! However, the students were not repressed! They dashed through the gallery and were eager to find the answers. The next mission: "Fiery Eyes," was a little more challenging. The students would have to observe carefully, and to categorize 30 different characters into 5 calligraphic styles. Although the mission is difficult, the students completed and excelled all the challenges!

Experimental Mission: Calligraphy and Stone Rubbing.

"So beautiful!" "So pretty!" are the praises that were heard from the calligraphy experimental corner. The third mission of the study tour was to pick one calligraphic word card, examine the styles, and try writing it down. Students could even frame their work after writing the word. All the smiley faces in the room showed how proud they are with their works! On the other hand, stone rubbing was rather new to some of the students. However, everyone followed every step carefully, and enjoyed how words appear little by little during the process.

Leaving the black ink and white papers behind, teachers guided the students to a much colorful gallery. In the "Jeweled Flower Hall" gallery, there are bloodstones in vibrant color, beautiful blue and white porcelain moon flask, many snuff-bottles in variant colors, and the old jade vessels. At the end, everyone gathered in front of the "future Buddha," Maitreya Boddhisattva. Under Bodhisattva's merciful gaze, students wrote down their wishes on cards, and hung them in the room.

At the end of the session, the breezy cool weather turned to a sunny day. The activity was successful and all the students and teachers enjoyed every second during their visit. Here, we hope that one day all their wishes will come true!