For this unit, we focused on our documentary project which was all about interviewing a person and telling their story! This included the process of capturing the person’s unique perspective in their subject and gathering other primary and secondary research sources which talk about the topic as well. I put the spotlight on my grandfather, Wai-Hon Lee, and his story all about his adventure through learning and practicing Chinese calligraphy. To represent the importance of this topic, we focused on integrating it into an advertisement, an essay, a brochure, and many other assignments.

I was inspired greatly by the misrepresentation of the Chinese language and culture to speak more about this topic. Since Chinese calligraphy is barely talked about, I wanted to show more about its history with the Chinese language since the writing of the characters are more than writing. The artistic aspect of character writing is more significant that it is talked about on the media and as a piece of Chinese culture on its own. I was additionally inspired by how far my grandfather has been able to push this passion of his and keep it up with decades of years towards mastery. His inspiration to keep up this art skill made me want to share his story for this documentary project. I valued learning more about my own culture and being able to apply the skills I learned at Freestyle into creating so many different pieces.

Shown from the introduction video above was the first paragraph of my English essay about Chinese calligraphy. Written below is my full paper on my grandfather’s story. Press the button to view a PDF of my essay.

Design

Final Advertisement

Mock Advertisement

To prepare for the creation of this final calligraphy brush advertisement, we created a mock advertisement. Shown below is the moodboard and the final advertisement on my fake fish market.

Magazine Article

Photogallery

Extra Files

Below is my essay comparing the Uyghur Concentration Camps within China to George Orwell’s book 1984. This was a pre-documentary project from English class.