Students display their calligraphy at a Han Calligraphy Education training session.[Photo by ZOU HONG/CHINA DAILY]

Benefits of calligraphy

Jia Jia was one of them. His mother, Li Li, believes that practicing calligraphy will help improve her son's knowledge, handwriting, learning habits and state of mind.

"Calligraphy, as a type of traditional Chinese culture, contains a lot of philosophy and wisdom," she said. "My son can learn many things during the whole process, whether it's a lecture on traditional Chinese culture or holding and wielding the writing brush."

Liu Chen, a teacher at HCE who has been practicing calligraphy since he was a first-grader, said learning traditional writing styles can help with young people's development.

"It can make children who are mischievous more calm and composed. Also, because learning calligraphy requires observation skills, children will become more attentive to details in daily life," the 26-year-old said.

"In addition, as calligraphy has its own standards and emphasizes self-discipline, children will become more self-restrained after practicing it for a period of time."

Liu has also noticed that children require a different teaching approach than would be used with adults.

"You need to be more patient and caring, and use simple words that they can understand," he said.