On Saturday 14 January afternoon, 22 volunteers from the Macao Community Youth Volunteers Development Association participated in a calligraphy session at the Ilha Verde Community Centre in Macau to create fai chun for Chinese New Year.
Fai chun, which has no direct translation in English, are the traditional red Chinese calligraphy blessings hung decoratively around doorways and entrances to create a festive and positive atmosphere at Chinese New Year.
Macao Community Youth Volunteers Development Association Chairman Aini Leong told Macau CSR that major objectives of the event were to encourage association members’ interest in Chinese culture and to promote inter-personal connections after nearly three years of the pandemic.
“During the pandemic many people, especially young people, spent a lot of time staying at home and learning online, so we wanted to use this activity to encourage young people to come out and interact with each other again,” Leong said.
“With this in mind, instead of sending an electronic message to remind our members of the activity, we made phone calls to them to promote personal communication.”
The Macao Community Youth Volunteers Development Association members are aged 14 to 45. The Association provided all necessary equipment for the event including brushes, ink and paper, and printed a range of four-character Chinese idioms for its members to practice transcribing.
Some of the fai chun was kept by the Association members, and some given to members of the Ilha Verde Community Centre.
