On March 8 a cultural salon, jointly organized by the Jiading Party Working Committee, the University Labor Union, the University Library, the College of Arts and Media, and the School of Automotive Studies, was held in Wenquetang of the University Library, Siping Campus, Tongji University. Activities held in this cultural feast for the female faculty and staff included Shanghai-style flower arrangement, life tea ceremony, and woodblock watermark ex-libris printing.

Compared with more graphic arts such as calligraphy and painting, the art of flower arrangement is more three-dimensional. Conversely, it also offers greater vitality when compared with three-dimensional art such as sculpture and architecture. During the activity, WEI Yuxuan, the chief ikebana teacher of Four Seasons Flower Road, the non-genetic inheritor of Shanghai-style flower arrangement, and the designer of our school’s museum exhibition, held discussions with female teachers on a brief history of flower arranging, flower arranging style, basic principles, flower arranging classification, tools and utensils, and cutting skills. As well as communicating with female teachers, she carried out hands-on demonstrations, so as to teach everyone how to make exquisite flower arrangements.

GAO Ying, a national first-level tea art technologist, first-level tea appraiser, and founder of the popularization and training of "famous teas in prestigious schools", introduced a full spectrum of subjects, including tea appraisal techniques, art and manipulation techniques as well as tea tasting as a medium for appreciating a beautiful environment, within the theme of "a cup of fragrant tea". GAO presented female teachers the inexhaustible wonders of appreciating traditional tea culture as in "seeking enlightenment and discovering refinement by taking a sip of tea, refreshing the mind and pleasing the heart by appreciating the taste".

In addition, Wenquetang also involved the female faculty in experiencing printing of the "Ten Bamboo House" woodblock watermark ex-libris. This allowed teachers to experience the elegance and exquisiteness of China's traditional, intangible cultural skills by their own hand.

Written by ZHOU Liping

Photographed by WANG Lijun and FA Zixuan

Source: https://news.tongji.edu.cn/info/1003/76781.htm