Greeks introduced to Chinese writing, culture at Athens museum

Greeks queued at the Herakleidon museum opposite the Acropolis hill in Athens over the weekend to participate in a workshop aimed to introduce them to Chinese writing and culture.

“Let’s write Chinese” read the museum’s open invitation to visitors. Hundreds of people of all ages and professions took up the invitation to pick up brush and ink and try their hand at writing Chinese characters on rice paper.

Professor of history Jing Ling, a Chinese living in Greece who speaks fluent Greek, taught the participants some of the basic strokes and guided them through the history of the Chinese writing system and calligraphy.

The goal of the free educational workshop, which was held for first time at the Herakleidon museum on Saturday, was to provide more opportunities for Greeks to get to know a different way of thinking, another philosophy and culture and search for similarities between the two ancient civilizations, Jing Ling told the Xinhua News Agency.

“It is the first time I am doing this kind of workshop. It is not to teach Greeks the art of calligraphy or give a Chinese language lesson. Through the Chinese characters and the brush I want to help people understand that the two countries are different, but there is fertile ground for communication,” she explained.

The “students,” teenagers and whitehaired museum visitors alike, bombarded Jing Ling with questions, asking her to show them how to write the characters for “man,” “woman,” “sun,” “tiger,” “beauty” and “love.”

Stratos Diamantis, a musician, and Fani Kalogeropoulou, were initially discouraged by the complexity of some characters and writing with the brush, but by the end of the workshop they were eager to learn more.

“It was a great experience. It is the first time I tried something like this. It was very difficult trying to control the ink. It was exciting hearing about the symbolisms and the meanings behind the characters and ideograms,” Diamantis told Xinhua.

“It was marvelous. We discovered another mentality. We realized how other people are seeing the world. It was very interesting,” Kalogeropoulou said.

Loukia Konstantinou, a visual artist, was also among the participants in Saturday’s event. Later in March she will assume the role of “teacher” for a similar workshop that while introduce Greeks to Chinese painting.

“It was a unique experience as people were introduced to Chinese philosophy through the characters,” she said.

The Herakleidon Museum, a privatelyfunded and non-profit organization, has organized a series of similar events to introduce Greeks to Chinese culture this spring, according to Maria Romaniou, the museum’s head of educational programs.

These activities are being held as the museum hosts from September 23, 2017 to April 29 the exhibition Ancient Chinese Science and Technology as part of the Greece-China 2017 Year of Cultural Exchanges and Cooperation in Creative Industries.