楷书 - using embossed material

[Wippen (inactive)]

I recently saw my Chinese friend getting into practicing her 行楷. Thinking if a Chinese career professional still has a need and time to practice hand writing, I need to do something about it too.  I have now purchased a notebook for practicing writing pressure as well as aesthetic stroke placement. The pad has the character indentation carved out on the page which means the characters have been embossed onto thicker paper. This way your pen automatically stays in the strokes that are already carved out. I am hoping this will improve muscle memory through this extra haptic aspect.

 

Incidentally I just started using the book without reading the instructions and when I got back to my practice pad later the colour had disappeared. Now read the instructions and in fact the ink automatically does disappear by itself after 30 minutes.

 

Has anyone used this embossed approach?

 

 

[Shelley]

Interesting, did the pen come with the book? Is it a special ink?

I think the embossing is a really neat idea, I wonder what age group they are aimed at?

 

Where did you buy it, in China or online or elsewhere?

 

How many pages has it got and does say how many times you can re write the characters?

 

Sorry for so many questions but I have never seen any thing like this before.

[Wippen (inactive)]

@Shelley  I just changed the title of this thread as I had written it wrong. What I have purchased is the regular script楷书  what my Chinese friend was practicing was 行楷 which is the semi-cursive script。For Chinese script styles see here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_script_styles

 

The book is for people who can already write the hanzi. So aimed at Chinese adults. The pen comes with the book (and several refill cartridges)

 

I have copied out the key points in the explanation  from the book:

 

特制立体凹槽， 没凹槽书写，加深结构记忆

书写字迹在30分钟内自行消失，可反复使用

墨水易挥发，使用后请盖好笔帽

 

I purchased the book in China and it consists of 16 pages. The ink disappears so you can use it repeatedly. You can literally feel how you are not moving the pen correctly as it slips out of the indentations. I consider this really good practice and have already done the same page several times.

[陳德聰]

I wonder if this works as well for people like me who have many years of aesthetically displeasing handwriting practice. I am intrigued mostly by the disappearing ink.

[Wippen (inactive)]

It will make you more conscious of "wandering" strokes and inaccurate placement. The carving in the paper lets you know that when you are not writing optimally. The disappearing ink lets you have a second chance :-) and therefore  one's awful attempts are not recorded forever, which is a bonus.´.

[Shelley]

3 hours ago, 陳德聰 said:

I am intrigued mostly by the disappearing ink.

I did see sometime ago character practice sheets made of something not paper I think and you wrote with water and your attempt disappeared after awhile. It had permanent grids.

I will see if I can find it.

 

This was it https://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Writing-Water-writing-Practicing-Calligraphy/dp/B00IPD5F5E

[Geiko]

When I read this post four months ago I fell in love with this kind of notebook, but until now I hadn't been able to try one. For those of you who don't live in China, you can buy them on Amazon. This is the one I bought, but there are more options, like this one. The ink really disappears after half an hour, and I find it very relaxing to practise handwriting in Chinese. The texts in my book are 古诗词 and in simplified characters. 

[Shelley]

Thank you. Looks really interesting, will have a longer look later.

[Daniel ZHPY]

As a native Chinese I strongly question the effectiveness of the embossing copybook. I once saw an article online about some research that proved this doesn't work at all. Thus I think it's more reliable and secure to use conventional copybooks...

[mkmyers45]

Hey. Does anyone have ideas or links on where to buy these in Mainland China (probably taobao). I've tried searching but haven't found yet

[Publius]

https://www.taobao.com/list/product/凹槽练字帖.htm

 

[DavyJonesLocker]

On 7/1/2018 at 3:17 PM, Daniel ZHPY said:

As a native Chinese I strongly question the effectiveness of the embossing copybook. I once saw an article online about some research that proved this doesn't work at all. Thus I think it's more reliable and secure to use conventional copybooks...

 

 

I realise your post is from last year but I think it's important to remember that a teaching style or material which may work well for native Chinese (and by nature almost exclusively for Chinese children) may very well be unsuitable or ineffective for non native learners of Chinese  . 

I really struggled for years learning Chinese by trying to follow the Chinese methodology of teaching. Not a criticism by any means, however it just simply didn't work for me and others, despite the huge effort.

 

PS: hope you manage to post more Daniel. I really like seeing native Chinese posting on here especially in the society sections. 

[mkmyers45]

On 1/28/2019 at 10:27 AM, Publius said:

https://www.taobao.com/list/product/凹槽练字帖.htm

 

Just seen this...thanks