You are invited to the cultivation of the self and community through practice of "calligraphy and tea" at Teance. This bi-weekly group will be a shared space for calligraphy practitioners and the new, calligraphy curious alike.
Joined by an openness to the unfolding of things, Chinese calligraphy helps create attention and presence through the ritual of embodied practice.
- Please sign up direct with the instructor - (The sign up links will come soon!)
- $25 per person per session (tea will be severed without extra charge!)
- Intimate class size - limit to 10 people.
- All materials provided for additional $5, or bring your own.
Group will be led by Dr. Peiting C. Li, PhD - instructor of Chinese Calligraphy at the UC Berkeley Art Studio.
Bio
Peiting C. Li is a practitioner of Chinese calligraphy whose journey has spanned nearly two decades, including studying with teachers in Shanghai, Taipei, and the Bay Area. She currently teaches calligraphy at the
UC Berkeley Art Studio. She received a PhD in history of modern China, and is working on a book about healing and art from a cross-cultural perspective. Recently, her essay on calligraphy practice,
“Speak, Ink” was published in the Seattle design magazine,
Arcade.
March
This month we focus on two fundamental, constitutive elements of Chinese calligraphy: the strokes 點 （点）dian dot and 橫 heng horizontal line. In essence every stroke and character contain qualities of both dot and line; similar perhaps to the discovery that light is both wave and particle. We cover basic types of these forms and their arrangements in different characters. Focus will be on mastering basic techniques and small adjustments that yield outsize effects to create beautiful forms with good energy.
February 15
Horse 馬 Ma
We will do a deeper dive into various versions of 馬 ma horse and some resonant sayings, including a personal favorite of the instructor:
路遙知馬力 日久見人心 lu yao zhi ma li ri jiu jian ren xin just as distance determines the stamina of a horse, so does time reveal a person’s true heart.
February 01
Spring 春 | Fortune 福
At the start of the Lunar New Year, we summon good luck and conjure the vitality and dynamic energy of the horse.
The Feb 1 class will cover the auspicious characters 福 fu good fortune and 春 chun spring (for lunar new year, also called spring festival 春節 chunjie).
December 7 & 21
As Desired: 如意 ruyi
To close out the year 2025, we’ll conjure the fulfillment of all, or at least some, of our wishes as embodied in the notion of ruyi 如意 “as desired” or “as you wish.”
Such a sentiment is often invoked by the popular phrase 萬事如意 wan shi ru yi - “may ten thousand things go according to your wishes” (may everything turn out as you wish; may all your wishes come true).
The persimmon (柿 shi), that red-orange, strikingly beautiful, antioxidant-rich winter fruit, is also a surprising poetic powerhouse because it shares the same pronunciation with 事 shi “matters, things” in that aforementioned aspirational phrase. Its depiction in Chinese art is, thus, a visual pun or symbol for good luck and prosperity…and the fulfillment of all one’s wishes.
Instructor will bring dried persimmons, known as 柿餅 shibing or, more commonly, as 干し柿 hoshigaki, in Japanese. Each year she picks several hundred from a single tree at her childhood home and hand peels and hangs them to dry in her Berkeley kitchen.
Low-caffeine and herbal teas will be provided upon request.
