A Hubei University professor has given a special assignment to his students for the winter vacation: improving their handwriting. Though university students normally don't have homework over Spring Festival, many support the move.

According to a report by the Chutian Metropolis Daily, Liao Shengwu, who teaches journalism and communications at the university, was troubled by his students' poor handwriting and decided to ask his graduate students to practice the skill over the long vacation.

"As a tool to communicate with people, beautiful handwriting can increase one's confidence and facilitate communication," Liao was quoted by the daily as saying.

"It's quite common to see students writing terribly, which sometimes makes them feel embarrassed," Wang Hongcai, an education professor at Xiamen University, told the Global Times.

While the students learned calligraphy during childhood, few have had the chance to keep up the skill, focusing instead on other subjects. In the meantime, said Liao, the keyboard has dominated throughout their lives, and they seldom write with a pen, further deteriorating their skills. The professor added that in some cases, penmanship may be used to judge the quality of a person.

"Practicing calligraphy can help enhance students' understanding of traditional culture. But given that they may have lots of social obligations, it's questionable whether they will be able to complete the assignment," said Wang.

Many of Liao's students have embraced the novel assignment.

A student named Huang Jun plans to practice for 30 minutes every day during the vacation, reasoning that plenty of occasions require writing by hand, and that good penmanship could serve as a plus on the job market.

A survey by the Wuhan-based South-Central University for Nationalities found that 12 of the 143 college student participants could write 10 difficult Chinese characters without error, and 72 percent of participants said they had written nothing by hand in more than a day.

Global Times