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Greetings from China

Matt

By Matt
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Matt Rare

Matt

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Hello from China. I am currently here in Mainland China for the semester, but I live in Utah where I teach (at the University level). The fountain pen scene here is quite amazing. Lots of people here still use fountain pens, from little kindergarten children all the way up. There are some really good deals to be had on Chinese brand pens (primarily Hero and Duke).

 

I have been into fountain pens for a long time, but started collecting more seriously about 2-3 years ago. I have just recently (the past year) acquired some vintage pens, and I am particularly attracted to Sheaffers. When I get home I hope to get some basic tools and try my hand at restoring some pens that need new sacs.

 

This looks like a great forum for fountain pen enthusiasts. I'm glad I came across this site. It makes for good reading in the evenings.

 

Matt

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Roger Vintage

Roger

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Greetings Matt,

 

Is it your first trip to China? I see in another of your posts that you teach Chinese in Utah. Are you able to wade through the various dialects or is where you are served well by what? Mandarin?

 

Regardless, enjoy your stay there, and pop in here when and if...

Roger

Southern Arizona, USA

Fountain Pen Talk Mailing List

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Matt Rare

Matt

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Roger,

 

I have been to China many times as I am a professor of Chinese. Currently I am leading a study abroad program.

 

I mostly teach Mandarin, but also occasionally teach Cantonese as well. The local dialect here in Nanjing is quite close to Mandarin.

 

Matt

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Mannenhitsu Vintage

Mannenhitsu

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Hi Matt and welcome to the FPN! :D

 

When I lived in Singapore for a while back in 1998, I was amazed that all the stores in town carried ink bottles from Hero. Likewise, some of finer stationery stores also carried even more brands of ink, but I could find Hero blue anywhere I went to. Just try that here in the U.S., and people will look at you like, "you want a bottle of what?"

 

I know several linguists who love to study various Chinese dialects, and I read someplace there several different different ones, and even more spoken by Chinese people living in Southeast Asia as well. I had enough trouble trying to learn Cantonese as a kid from my neighbors who were from Hong Kong, but I love the style of cooking from that part of China.

 

I am curious, how do you say "fountain pen" in Mandarin?

Sincerely yours,

 

Ronnie Banks

"Like a prized watch, a good fountain pen is a trusted companion for life."

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youngpenlove New

youngpenlove

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Ron,

 

The name "fountain pen" took on new meanings when it was translated into Chinese and Japanese. The chinese translation for fountain pen is "steel pen" (pronounced Gon Bi) and the Japanese call it the "ten thousand year pen." When you compared fountain pens to the traditional brushes used in writing Chinese characters, the metal nib was picked up by Chinese in the translation and the longlasting nature of fountain pen was used by Japanese in their translation.

 

Writing Chinese scripts with fountainpens is popular in China because the shape of nib and the ink flow can create strokes and lines closest to the traditional brush can produce. This is particularly true with the smallest brushes. There are many Chinese websites devoted to Chinese calligraphy done with fountain pens. Fountain pens are also considered an effective training tool for good handwriting, which is still highly praised in China.

 

I am testing my daily writers (Pelikan M800, MB 146 M, and Waterman Carene F) in both English and Chinese. Both PK and Carene perform great with Chinese writing. MB in medium nib produces a smooth flow but the lines tend to be too uniform in width to reflect the variation needed in Chinese writing. I once tried a MB Chopin (145) in medium and it writes a lot better than the 146 I have now. The 14K nib on the 145 seems to be more flexible than the 14K nib on the 146.

 

I am new to this board too and I found it very informative and friendly. Thank you all.

 

Mike

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Maja Donor Pen

Maja

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Hello there Matt, and welcome to FPN :D

 

Glad you found the site and hope you are enjoying browsing through the various forums (fora?) here. There's a lot of info but it's all archived so you can search for the topics in which you are interested...or you can read 'em all!

 

I hope you bring back some interesting pens from China as the prices (as you noted) must be much cheaper than they are here. If you don't want to keep them all, you can sell them when you return to the U.S!

 

As for vintage Sheaffers, we have a Sheaffer forum here on FPN where you can post info and ask questions about vintage or modern writing instruments by that venerable company.

 

Enjoy! :)

Vancouver (Canada) Pen Club (our website)

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southpaw Donor Pen

southpaw

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Welcome aboard! Nice to see you made it here all the way from Utah/China. Looking forward to getting to know you. See ya around!

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Rom. 5:8, NKJV)
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krz Vintage

krz

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Hi Matt.

 

I have several Chinese pens in my Art-Pack.They tend to have a finer nib than Fountain pens of the west. I have a couple Hero pens, a Wing Sung <sp> Pen and a cool little Lanbo fountain pen that has a Med. pt. on one side and a fine point on the other. Great for drawing.

 

All the best,

How can you tell when you're out of invisible ink?

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KDW Near Mint

KDW

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Hi Matt,

 

I have friends visiting China as I write. I sent $40 with them to buy me the best pen they could find for the money. I already have a Hero 329, so I told them about that company but I don't know about Duke. Any recommendations for my $40? (We can communicate with them thru email.)

Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.

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