How Uncle Farmer Cultivated to Become a "Walking Printer"
The 54-year-old Ren Shimin has a good handwriting.
How good is it?
Without drafting or templates, he can quickly write neat calligraphy on the wall, as neat as machine printing.
He also has a unique skill - can switch more than 10 fonts at any time, he is called "walking printer" by netizens and media.
At present, reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily walked into Ren Shimin's home to visit this Internet celebrity who has conquered a large number of young fans. How did he practice fancy calligraphy at will?
Over the past 40 years of learning and practicing calligraphy, what kind of ups and downs has he written on the canvas of life with his pen?
The draft of life doesn't start smoothly
Ren Shimin's home is tidy and clean, with few furniture. He has his own study room. There are more than 200 calligraphy-related books neatly placed in the bookcase, which is full of books.
He told reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily that the word "poverty" was deeply embedded in his childhood memory.
Ren Shimin was born in an authentic peasant family in Huoqiu County, Lu'an City, Anhui Province. His parents were not highly educated and he had 7 brothers and sisters in his family.
In the late 1970s, when he was in primary and junior high schools in villages and towns, Ren Shimin was attracted by the writing class in the school.
At that time, the teaching concepts and tools were very simple, but as long as he could write square and square Chinese characters, he could always get praise and encouragement from the teacher, and his interest arose because of this.
But the family conditions are difficult, and special copybooks cannot be bought in rural areas, so he begged his parents to buy a writing brush. In his spare time after school, he dipped the brush in water and drew every stroke on the wooden table where he ate at home. to practice calligraphy.
Seeing that my younger brother was so obsessed with writing, the older brothers found an old copybook from somewhere and gave it to Ren Shimin.
Ren Shimin was overjoyed as if he had found a treasure, and sooner or later he held the copybook to copy and practice.
His handwriting has gradually become famous in the village.
After graduating from junior high school, Ren Shimin did not choose to continue his studies in high school due to his family's difficult conditions. He became a farmer and helped his parents and relatives cultivate the family's 6 mu of land, dealing with wheat, rice and sweet potatoes.
When farming is busy, Ren Shimin has to go to the field at 5 o'clock in the morning. Due to lack of experience, he often gets up early and works late all day, which is not as efficient as others for half a day.
What impressed him most was when rice was harvested in the mid-autumn season, he carried bundles of rice on his thin shoulders, walked more than two miles to the threshing ground, spread the rice flat and dried it, and then drove the oxen to pull the stone roller to grind it. Grind the rice.
He recalled that each time he had to pick at least 100 kilograms of rice, he had to use two shoulders to pick it.
After the trip, my shoulders hurt like hell, and my palms were covered with blisters.
In 1991, a flood hit and submerged most of the crops in my hometown.
Ren Shimin bid farewell to the days of carrying agricultural tools on his shoulders to the fields every day. He went to Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province to make a living with fellow villagers.
At first, they planned to grow vegetables and sell them to owners and customers of small local private workshops, but they failed to find suitable land until the autumn of that year, and the plan fell through.
He had to go to the shipyard to do temporary work.
He transports waste and materials such as oxygen tanks and iron sheets with a trolley every day, earning three to four hundred yuan a month, and he feels very satisfied.
His wife, Qi Mingxia, also came to Wenzhou with him. While working part-time, she took care of her newborn son in a rented private house.
The two live a frugal and poor life. On weekdays, they use a coal stove to cook some vegetarian dishes to fill their stomachs.
Ren Shimin also lived in the dormitory of the shipyard. Seven or eight people slept in Datong bunk, and all daily necessities were shared.
During his part-time job from 1991 to 1993, Ren Shimin had little time to practice calligraphy.
Forced by life, hobbies were put aside.
The hobby of "writing" finally became a career
According to fellow villagers, after the Spring Festival in 1993, Ren Shimin spent a week interviewing with three advertising companies in Wenzhou.
He remembered that the boss of a company gave him a brush and asked him to write an advertising banner. He showed his hand and the other party was very satisfied.
After that, he officially became associated with the "writing" profession.
When writing with pens, brushes and brushes, the pen-holding postures are different. He needs to practice from scratch and make repeated corrections to adapt to the new writing method.
After practicing while working for 3 years, he felt that "there is no fixed way to write", the key is that practice makes perfect, there is no fixed posture, as long as the tools are handy.
In the hot summer, Ren Shimin squatted on the ground to draw billboards.
At that time, the billboards were made of wood and iron sheets. The iron sheets were scalded by the sun, and they would be burned if they were not careful. However, no matter how hot or tiring they were, they had to be completed within the specified time.
Sometimes, in order to earn more money, he and his wife also take on the job of hanging banners.
The banners were written during the day, and at night, the two used a simple ladder made of moso bamboo to hang the banners in designated places such as buildings and streets.
After working hard in Wenzhou for three years, Ren Shimin began to contract advertising companies for banners, street signs, door signs, recruitment signs, signage, etc., and his income improved slightly.
In the process of working, he laid down the basic skills and his skills improved by leaps and bounds.
When encountering new fonts, he always teaches himself at the fastest speed.
He has mastered more than 10 types of fonts, including HeiTi, FangSongTi, Variety, Xingkai, Lishu, Chinese Xingkai, and Youyuan.
He thinks the most difficult thing to practice is the Wei Bei font, which took him nearly 4 years to master.
"The brushwork should be square inside and round outside. It should be strong, and the visual effect of the font should be as hard and powerful as a knife carving."
In 2000, Ren Shimin went to Hangzhou to contact and learn the work of wall advertisement drawing.
In 2014, his son Ren Kejia got married in Hefei City. Ren Shimin and his wife, who had been wandering for half their lives, also came to settle in Dinggang Community, Nanqi Street, Shushan District, Hefei City, and lived a stable life.
In those few years, he wanted to add more income to his family, and even went to the factory to work in the packaging of thermos cups, but he always felt that this was not his "business" and he couldn't adapt. He still wanted to find his favorite career.
So, he began to volunteer to draw artistic characters (wall characters) for advertising companies.
Writing on the wall is different from paper. It is equivalent to writing on a three-dimensional surface. The amount of paint should be adjusted in advance to avoid too thick or thin.
The support point and angle when writing is also a problem. After some experiments and practice, he finally wrote the wall art calligraphy with the effect of inkjet printing.
He is also often invited to villages and communities to write propaganda slogans for the cultural wall, adding a touch of color to the construction of beautiful countryside.
Over the years, his family has also unconditionally supported his hobbies and work, and specially packed a south-facing room for him as a study, which made him very gratified.
"No competition with the world, writing well is my goal in life"
In 2018, during a trip to other places to write artistic calligraphy, Ren Shimin's son made a short video of his father's writing process and posted it on the Internet.
At the beginning, Ren Shimin didn't care about the effects and feedback, and just uploaded two or three videos regularly for entertainment.
During the epidemic at the beginning of 2020, while he was idle at home, he uploaded the video stock on his mobile phone all at once, unexpectedly attracting countless likes and reposts from netizens.
In Ren Shimin's view, when a hobby becomes a profession, the income may be limited, but the harvest is unlimited. Doing what you like makes you tired and happy.
"Writing can support yourself and support your family. This is the harvest."
Whenever he calms down to write, he can often sit for a day without being disturbed by external affairs.
He said that writing makes him no longer impetuous, and even creates a feeling of "recognition".
"No competition with the world, writing well is my biggest goal in life."
Over the years, he has begun to systematically study calligraphy theory and historical and cultural knowledge. When he usually visits bookstores, he buys copybooks the most.
Although he has not received higher education or training related to calligraphy, he loves and respects calligraphy culture from the bottom of his heart after decades of practice.
Over the past two years, more and more netizens praised and encouraged him to become more confident, and he decided to spread and pass on the skills and techniques he has mastered.
A year ago, with the encouragement of his family, Ren Shimin bought a simple mobile phone stand and tried to live broadcast on Douyin, explaining to netizens how to write calligraphy well. Each live broadcast lasts at least one and a half hours.
In the live broadcast room, he explained to netizens the skills and skills of writing bold characters quickly. In the video camera, there is no need to trace or draw reference grid lines. With one stroke, "Teacher Ren" can write smoothly and neatly.
Some netizens asked in the comment area: "How did you manage to write so well?"
"There is nothing difficult in the world. Without so many years of persistence, there would be no skill and interest today." In Ren Shimin's view, Chinese characters are unique cultural cards and treasures. It is nothing to write well by one person. Persistence drives more young people. It is the source of his happiness that he inherits the art of calligraphy.
China Youth Daily China Youth Daily reporter Wang Haihan Wang Lei Source: China Youth Daily