On the morning of January 14, there was a great deal of excitement in front of the Zhongshan Rural Commercial Bank on Zhongshan No.3 Road. In the open space in front of the bank, there were many Spring Festival couplets ready to air dry. Nearly 50 citizens surrounded around a long table with red paper they had just received. Twelve Zhongshan native calligraphers were writing Spring Festival couplets for the citizens free of charge. [Photo by Yu Zhaoyu]

Huang Yanzeng, one of the older calligraphy masters in Zhongshan, was there. As a well-known calligrapher in Zhongshan, the 73-year-old has been writing Spring Festival couplets for citizens free of charge for 10 years.

"One month before the Chinese New Year every year, I would take part in more than 20 Spring Festival couplet writing activities." Huang Yanzeng noted. In his view, Zhongshan citizens like hand-written Spring Festival couplets very much.

Because there were too many citizens coming, all of the red paper prepared at the scene had been distributed in less than 2 hours. In addition to Huang Yanzeng, such well-known calligraphers in Zhongshan as Chen Chang'er and Qin Yuda were also present to write free Spring Festival couplets.

Over the next few days, Huang Yanzeng will continue to write Spring Festival couplets in Bo'ai Hospital, Tanzhou and other places for Zhongshan people.