What kind of pen do common chinese people use?

[berto158]

Hello, I'm a young guy and I'm begginig to learn chinese. And I have a little doubt about it: how does the common peolpe (students, for example) write in China? do they use spacial pens or do they use the same pens that the rest of the world?

 

Thank you very much, and forgive my writting mistakes.

[JayKay]

Well, most Chinese pens run extremely thin. I'm not sure if the normal every day chinese pens are extra fine or not, but I would have to imagine so. Also, some use calligraphy nibs I would have to imagine. There are a lot of chinese brands to choose from everywhere from Hero to Pilot, Namiki, and everything in between.

[duna]

ahem I think Pilot-Namiki is a Japanese company. Anyway, people in China (in towns) commonly uses cheap ballpoints (Biro pens) or other disposables. They look the same rubbish than ours I've seen a lot of stationery products, very cheap and ogten surprisingly good, and a lot of unknown local brands. The simplest fountain pens are highly regarded, and in thepast students used fountain pens, and probably someone still does. Probably countryside is more conservative. Hero are generally considered high quality pens (in my opinion those are good to excellent pens, expecially for the price) and in the past were the brand everybody desired.

[berto158]

Ok! Thank yo very much for your fast answers. I hope that if I have more doubts I can ask you. Good bye!

[AfterMyNap]

Hi Berto, I had to wait for a reply, but a friend of mine was born and raised a "common" Chinese child. He said,

 

"Well, I am not sure if they still do this, but we have different classes...

 

we start off with pencils, then, we learn to use pens.

We also learn to use our own bamboo brushes (there are classes dedicated for caligraphy writings alone)

 

and we practice penmanship with those. We also draw with those, I did a few drawings with those brushes."

 

He didn't specify the type of pens, but like the others above, I suspect it's fountain pens.

 

Here is a video of a guy doing some:

 

Edited August 1, 2008 by AfterMyNap

[Tangelfoot]

Hello, I'm a young guy and I'm begginig to learn chinese. And I have a little doubt about it: how does the common peolpe (students, for example) write in China? do they use spacial pens or do they use the same pens that the rest of the world?

 

Thank you very much, and forgive my writting mistakes.

 

Most I saw used a uniball, Zebra or other type of ballpoint/rollerball. FPs were not used at all.

[berto158]

OK! Thank you very much again to everyone who answered!

[Shangas]

The traditional Chinese writing-instrument is a 'maobi' which is a brush made of horsehair, I think. Chinese characters are meant to be written in flowing strokes, hence the brush. But you can write Chinese with just about anything. I did it with a fountain pen.

[lucentstreak]

ahem I think Pilot-Namiki is a Japanese company. Anyway, people in China (in towns) commonly uses cheap ballpoints (Biro pens) or other disposables. They look the same rubbish than ours I've seen a lot of stationery products, very cheap and ogten surprisingly good, and a lot of unknown local brands. The simplest fountain pens are highly regarded, and in thepast students used fountain pens, and probably someone still does. Probably countryside is more conservative. Hero are generally considered high quality pens (in my opinion those are good to excellent pens, expecially for the price) and in the past were the brand everybody desired.

 

 

While on the way from dinner earlier this evening, I found myself talking to my father about pens and we spoke about fountain pens in general. Now, my father was not born or educated in China but was brought up in the Chinese school system (they followed the Confucian values and the main teaching language etc was in Mandarin) in Singapore during the 1950s -60s and when I asked him about fountain pens, he remembered using them in school and mentioned passingly that Hero was particularly prized among the students and teachers then. He also said that they used Hero solely for Chinese penmanship rather English calligraphy and felt that it did make a difference.

 

Hope it helps

[berto158]

Of course it helped, lucentstreak. Thank you!

[Idiopathos]

Hello, I'm a young guy and I'm begginig to learn chinese. And I have a little doubt about it: how does the common peolpe (students, for example) write in China? do they use spacial pens or do they use the same pens that the rest of the world?

 

Thank you very much, and forgive my writting mistakes.

 

Most I saw used a uniball, Zebra or other type of ballpoint/rollerball. FPs were not used at all.

The Chinese equivalent of eBay sometimes carries vintage Chinese fountain pens. I have bought two: well made pump-fillers with brass lined caps and good nibs. Each has a Fine nib, but not especially so. The pens appear to be post-WWII, but only just.

 

I also bought my Chinese girlfriend a Pelikan 600 for her birthday. She tried the nibs in the shop and opted for Fine. She uses the pen regularly to write English and Chinese and likes it for both.

[His Nibs]

Hello, I'm a young guy and I'm begginig to learn chinese. And I have a little doubt about it: how does the common peolpe (students, for example) write in China? do they use spacial pens or do they use the same pens that the rest of the world?

 

Thank you very much, and forgive my writting mistakes.

 

Countless millions of Chinese -- my wife included -- grew up using Hero fountain pens (such as the 329 and 330) throughout their school years. Brushes for use in Chinese calligraphy are quite different of course.

 

http://www.hisnibs.com/Hero329Burgundy2_small1.jpg

 

If interested, you can read some customer reviews of the 329 here. Having sold it for more than a decade, I still consider it the best value in 'Pendom'.

 

[Tangelfoot]

The traditional Chinese writing-instrument is a 'maobi' which is a brush made of horsehair, I think. Chinese characters are meant to be written in flowing strokes, hence the brush. But you can write Chinese with just about anything. I did it with a fountain pen.

 

I am not certian that is true as looking upon seal script and some of the older examples in the Shanghai museum did not appear to require flowing strokes.

 

[Shangas]

Calligraphy was generally large and showy, with all the different character-strokes running together, this is much different from standard Chinese writing. It's like comparing cursive script with block-letters. To achieve the affect that it did, Chinese calligraphers had to be able to write quickly and smoothly, and to my knowledge, they could only achieve this properly with a maobi.

[Renzhe]

The bristles can be of many kinds of hair:

Material: Normally the brush is made from sheep, pig, mouse, buffalo, wolf and rabbit hair, while exotic ones can be made from tiger, fowls, deer, yellow weasel (黄鼠狼) and even human baby hair (from the first haircut a baby gets, said to bring good fortune while taking the Imperial examinations).

(Wikipedia, 2008)

Brush pens can have nylon hair.

 

Calligraphy was generally large and showy, with all the different character-strokes running together, this is much different from standard Chinese writing. It's like comparing cursive script with block-letters.

 

Let us not apply generalisations to Chinese calligraphy. There are different styles and different styles within styles (including regular script, which might be what you mean by "block letters"). A sense of uninterrupted flow is but one of many characteristics of calligraphy .

It is shown in some styles, like Wang Xizhi's cursive:

http://i35.tinypic.com/t5pt21.jpg

 

...while Wen Zhengming's cursive exhibits less "flow:"

http://i33.tinypic.com/30cafec.jpg

 

One could say that Liu Gongquan's regular script:

http://i34.tinypic.com/10pyu4o.jpg

 

...is more "flowy" than Sima Guang's regular script:

http://i36.tinypic.com/9h8l09.gif

Edited August 3, 2008 by Renzhe

[AfterMyNap]

Thanks, Renzhe, that is so cool!

[ewdin]

Fountain pens are still extremely affordable, at least here in Shanghai. A Hero 616 costs 9 yuan, and Hero ink (in black, blue, or blue-black) costs 2.5 yuan. That's 11.5 RMB/$1.72 CAD/$1.68 USD for basically an entire year of writing (the Hero pens tend to lay down a pretty thin line.)

 

So while I'm fairly sure just about anyone can afford a fountain pen in China, not everyone chooses to use one.