Pictographic Character Illustration for a creative education

Yu-Heng Deng1,a, Giacomo Bruni2,b
 
1School of Fine Arts & Design, Guangzhou University, 230 Wai Huan Xi Road,Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center,
Guangzhou, China
2College of Liberal Arts, Jinan University, 601 West Huangpu Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, China.

 

Abstract: 

The purpose of this article is to explain a new teaching method through the insertion of a new class in Chinese primary schools to teach Chinese characters in a creative and more leisurely way. Our support class will use the learning of the pictographic characters from their origin. Chinese culture, and its evolution, is deeply linked to the Chinese writing system; thus, the Chinese characters are a rich store of Chinese culture, yet at the same time, they are one of the most difficult tasks for new learners. With a reforming of the teaching method in a creative way, students not only memorize the Chinese characters, but also learn their own history, the evolution of the culture, and the customs through creative practice, aesthetics and, in general, the art skills. These combine with illustration and drawing techniques, stressing creative and interesting learning, and a number of skills that too often are not taught in Chinese schools, such as cooperation, interactivity, critical skills and so on. Our purpose is to stress the cultural and artistic field of learning; the teaching method should be balanced between learning new knowledge, not just in mnemonic way, and exercising the creative side of the brain to build a healthy mind, learn how to use their own mental capacity and their own skills, with the added benefit of an improvement in their critical thinking skills. The Chinese teaching system is more open and flexible. Every school decides its own study program independently. Consequently, this situation is particularity favorable for our will. In each school, we can build a suitable study program based on the connection of our class with all the other classes in the school to create a system of cooperation and communication between the teachers. So far, this teaching is based on the teachings of Chinese characters, but we feel it can also be an effective and useful source of inspiration for the teachers of standard classes of Chinese language to avoid a dull and ineffective way of teaching. In the Chinese educational system and, in general, in Chinese ideology, Chinese language classes are the key for the education of Chinese children.

 

Keywords: 

Illustration, Chinese pictograph, new teaching method, language and aesthetic learning.

pages: 

57-60

Year: 

2019

Published in: 

2nd Eurasian Conference on Educational Innovation 2019

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