Dai Guanglei
(Netherlands)
He is a scholar at the School of Humanities, Shanghai Jiaotong University
A skimming, a pinch, and a degree of relaxation; Yin and yang, rigidity and softness, black and white.
Chinese culture has a long history, and if Chinese characters are the source of this great river, then calligraphy is the shining pearl of it. From the ancient oracle bone inscriptions, golden scripts, to seal scripts, official scripts, and then to the evolution of regular script, line script, cursive script and other scripts, the small square characters reflect the social style, record the changes of the times, and continue the soul of culture.
"Chinese characters are particularly interesting." Dai Guanglei, a 2023 Chinese scholar at the School of Humanities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said, "Whenever I pick up a pen and write, I feel that my heart will naturally calm down, and I enjoy the process. "Is it difficult to write calligraphy for foreign friends who have no foundation? What is the meaning of the square word in the eyes of this young man? Obsessed with strokes, Dai Guanglei opens up a whole new world through his calligraphy works.
Writing calligraphy fosters patience, concentration, and meditation
"I'm a dragon!" Born in 2000, Dai Guanglei, formerly known as Stanley Graafsma, is accustomed to introducing himself in a Chinese-style opening line to the camera. His father is Netherlands and his mother is Chinese in Malaysia, and his understanding and affection for China began with "a mother who loves to speak Chinese". "When I was a child, my mother taught me Chinese, told me about China's history and present, and told me what a vast place it was." He cites his Chinese name Dai Guanglei as an example: "My mother wanted me to be a person who stood up to the sky and was bright, so I chose the word 'Guanglei'. ”
It is said that people are as their name suggests, and the bond between Dai Guanglei and China may be fate. "A few years ago, I left Netherlands to study at the University of Leuven in Belgium, initially majoring in engineering, but I found that I was not interested and chose Sinology." Learning Chinese and exploring Sinology became the most important topics for him at the university. In September last year, he came to the School of Humanities of Shanghai Jiaotong University as a scholar to continue his studies, and set foot on the land of his dreams, which Dai Guanglei felt was both familiar and novel - familiar that the history here is as thick and broad as his mother's words, and the novelty is that the development here is beyond his expectations and imagination.
Studying calligraphy was the choice he made after coming to Shanghai Jiaotong University. "In my opinion, calligraphy is very similar to painting." Like the "hometown" painter Van Gogh, Dai Guanglei loves to sketch and will use his brush to paint his favorite scenery in his hometown. "In Netherlands, people are used to painting as a hobby, and in China, I want to also practice calligraphy with a pen as a hobby, so I took a calligraphy course. I found that there were students from more than 10 countries, including France, Germany, Romania, and Japan, who were like-minded and wanted to experience the culture of calligraphy. ”
Of course, the process of learning calligraphy is not all smooth sailing. During the interview, the School of Humanities of Shanghai Jiaotong University held the first calligraphy exhibition for international students, and Dai Guanglei demonstrated his learning results to us. "You can see that I tend to shake when I hold a pen in my right hand, but I have to be steady when I write calligraphy." To this end, he racked his brains and showed his original method on the spot, "I will use my left hand to hold down the pen with my right hand, especially when I am not used to holding the pen at first, this method is very effective." You can't do it without patience. With a stroke of the stroke, he wrote his name according to the regular script font he found on his mobile phone.
"Actually, my favorite is cursive, which looks ethereal and feels like water." Limited by his practice time and cultural foundation, Dai Guanglei first learned calligraphy skills in regular script, and in the process, he personally realized that Chinese characters are not only neat and beautiful, but also full of profound meaning. He lamented: "Unlike letters, the beauty of hieroglyphs is more and more evident the more I write. ”
How can I write calligraphy well? He concluded that first of all, patience is required, and the second thing is to concentrate, to think about what the word means, and to understand the meaning of the word in order to become familiar with the strokes and structure of the word, and in the process people will calm down.
Through the writing of Chinese characters, we can explore Chinese culture
"Interesting" is a high-frequency word when Dai Guanglei mentions Chinese culture. "It's fun to travel around China", "Delicious Chinese food is fun", "Rich poems are fun to read...... Behind the interesting evaluation is his curiosity and exploration of Chinese culture.
Standing in front of the Tang poems he wrote, he talked eloquently about the "beauty of artistic conception": "This is written by Wang Wei, 'The bright moon shines among the pines, and the clear spring stone flows upstream', which is a simple picture, and the quiet atmosphere appears in front of me after reading it." Poetry is painting, and there is a bright moon, pine trees, springs, and stones in the paintings. "Through practicing calligraphy day after day, Dai Guanglei has not only improved his writing skills, but also improved his ability to appreciate Chinese semantics, especially poetry and songs. By writing Chinese characters, this Netherlands guy has gained the most reliable grip when exploring Chinese culture.
"Another example is the sentence written by a classmate - threesome, there must be my teacher." He said frankly that in his own words, he translated that there must be my teacher among the three people, "Isn't this sentence interesting?" Why do I say this, I guess I want to tell you that people should be humble, there are people who are better than themselves everywhere, and everyone has something worth learning. ”
In addition to calligraphy, Dai Guanglei also strives to delve into more Chinese history. When the college launched an elective course to work as a trainee docent at the Shanghai History Museum, he signed up as soon as possible. What kind of Chinese culture can international student docents talk about? "For many historical relics, the views of Chinese audiences are mostly fixed, and I can provide a different perspective, some of my views after tasting Chinese culture." For example, he gave an example, such as the scepter from the Liangzhu era, which is somewhat similar to the ornament of the Mayan civilization, "In the process of explanation, I will also have omissions. But when I interpret Chinese and foreign civilizations together, I feel that the audience has been inspired a little bit, and I feel very happy. ”
After 10 months of studying and living in China, Dai Guanglei can now chat freely with his mother in Chinese on WeChat. His family was pleased with the change, and his handwriting surprised his classmates in Belgium. As he was about to leave for KU Leuven, he had already packed and sent back brushes, rice paper, inkstones, etc., "In the future, of course, I will practice calligraphy, read poetry, and read Chinese history." He assured us that he would be a good propagandist of Chinese culture in the future, "I want to pass on the art and deep meaning of square characters to my classmates, and I want to tell the people around me what I have seen and heard in China, the beautiful scenery, delicious food, and rapid development!" ”