In an effort of promoting the interest in and level of calligraphy in Taiwan, the Carrie Chang Fine Arts Center (CCFAC) jointly organized the 2005 Collegiate Calligraphy Contest with the ROC Chinese Calligraphy Association not long ago. Even though the no. 1 and first two runners-up are not from Tamkang University, six of TKU students nonetheless made it to the finals. Among them, Chou Chih-peng, a senior of the Accounting Department, won a Very Good Work for his writing.

If we look at the number of quality works entering for the contest, it will become clear instantly that Chou’s achievement was a hard-won one. All in all, there were 72 works from 40 colleges and universities selected for the final evaluation, from which, 3 were voted for the Gold, Silver and Bronze awards, whereas 8 Very Good Works and 16 Good Works were selected, too.

Chou started practicing calligraphy very early on as a schoolboy. He is pleased with the result, yet, not entirely satisfied with his performance. He put it down as his nervousness during the contest. However, he feels that it is something he can improve on easily by practicing more and gaining more experience by participating in contests so that he can get used to writing under great pressure.

The Director of the Research Office for Chinese Calligraphy of the CCFAC, Chang Ben-hang, the co-organizer and also one of the judges of this event, commented on the high quality of works he witnessed at the finals. Quality apart, he also noticed an abundant exhibition of creativity from the artists in the presentation and format of their works. However, he pointed out that focus of the evaluation was still on the power and delicacy of strokes in calligraphy and the overall aesthetic effect.

He has devoted for years to the promotion of Chinese calligraphy in Taiwan by all kinds of measures. One of the measures is to encourage his friends and colleagues to give him money instead of flowers whenever he opens an exhibition. Therefore, this time, he was able to raise a handsome amount of money as the prize money for the awardees. For instance, the top three winners were rewarded with a total of NT$ 35,000, and even the winners of two other categories were awarded with the ink stone he had been collecting for years. He also bought quality brushes for every participant in this event. (~ Ying-hsueh Hu )