A Yichang college displays the Twenty-four Solar Terms through chalk drawings to promote Chinese tradition

A Faculty member, Huang Xinyi, and 50 students from Hubei Three Gorges Polytechnic, Yichang, recently cooperated on depicting the Twenty-four Solar Termsby hand on the campus grounds to enrich the environment and recall Chinese tradition.

Huang and the students are all from the School of Architecture and Engineering and have proved to be passionate about the project. They started working on the chalk drawings of the Twenty-four Solar Terms on Oct. 11 and finished on Oct. 15, by making use of their spare time between classes and in the evenings.

The idea of drawing the Twenty-four Solar Termscame fromadiscussiononnewpainting themes which was held on Oct. 8, coincidentally the day of Cold Dew.

To create vivid depictions, students searched ancient poetry and relevant information via the Internet, gradually forming a deep understanding of the solar terms and their deep culture.

The students were also forced to stay in a squat position during the time working on the project due to it being displayed on the ground.

“It was really uncomfortable to keep such a position during one-hour painting at noon,” said Wei Rao, one of the students who worked on drawing the Twenty-four Solar Terms.

Despite these difficulties, teachers and students have been rewarded with a sense of accomplishment. Since the completion of the project, the illustrations have attracted a lot of attention around the campus.

“(It is) new, cultural, and creative,” said Xie Yuting, a student from the College.

“I think itis especially important for peoplewho do not know much about the Twenty-four Solar Terms. More people canknow about this tradition through our painting,”Mu Ting, a student from the College,said.

The Twenty-four Solar Terms are traditional indicators of seasonal change created by the ancient Chinese to guide agricultural production, which was the theme of the countdown videoused in the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics.It has now become an important part of Chinese traditional culture and is celebrated nationwide.

Huang said that more hand-drawn works displaying Chinese traditional culture will be created on campus in the future.