Character building

Appreciating veterans' calligraphy art in exhibitions. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The popularity of calligraphy has grown rapidly with the central government's promotion of traditional Chinese culture, and Hanxiang has expanded rapidly. In 2015, Li had eight calligraphy training schools in China. Now the number has nearly tripled.

Li recalls that in 2009 when she opened her first calligraphy training school with several teachers, many of her friends tried to advise her against it as calligraphy was such a "marginalized subject". But the once unpopular subject is now hot.

Besides letting their children learn history and culture, many also hope to help build their children's personalities, so they become more focused and persistent.

Fu Yankai, a 9-year-old boy who started learning calligraphy two years ago, sat quietly in the noisy exhibition room in the 798 Art District where his calligraphy was displayed, taking his time to carefully write a scroll. His mother says he is quite different from the naughty boy he used to be.

"He can now sit down for hours concentrating on one thing," says his mother.

Yankai took part in a culture tour for children earlier this year to explore an ancient city, Suzhou of Jiangsu province, with traditional Chinese gardens and architecture where many well-known poets and calligraphers of the past wrote their poems.

The kids played a game in which they let cups float down a stream and when the cup stopped, the person next to it on the bank had to sing a song or recite an ancient poem. It is a game the ancient poets were fond of playing.