NO PENS IN CHINA

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 May 1939, Page 4

NO PENS IN CHINA

BRUSH WRITING PREFERRED. An order issued by a Shanghai Chinese high school requiring the use of the Chinese writing-brush in preparing examination papers has created a. great uproar, with opinion sharply divided into two camps. Most of the students prefer to use fountain, pens, known in Chinese as “seli-coining-water pens,” when writing either in foreign languages or Chinese. They find it more convenient and requiring less practice. The brush is an instrument of artistry and skill, with corresponding drawbacks. It requires practice. Ink from a. rubbed ink-slab must, he prepared. on each occasion, and as L. Z. Yuan remarked in discussing this vital question in a local newspaper. “When the pen-brush is taken out from the cap the bristles are often stuck together and one has to chew it tenderly with Hie front teeth.” Older and more conservative Chinese generally endorse the school order as they have long deplored the younger generation’s tendency toward short, cuts and slackness in the older rirt lies.

"Brusli and ink are pari: of our old civilisation,” they argue, ‘‘and we must uphold I hem." But. the younger generation retorts: "Why should we return to Ihe days when we printed our books on bamboo chips?" To which the oldsters patriotically retort, "Let us use the brush so that we may also use soft native paper instead of hard imported foreign paper!” The Chinese business world and officialdom generally adheres to the brush despite the student inclination toward the foreign pen. in some cases, ( iimbm-amne Chinese typev.Titers .-ire employed. Good calligraphy is still rained, and many college graduates who negelected the art of writing in their younger 1 days are flow practising i diligently.