Fruit market and calligraphy exhibition

In the morning we walked to the flower market, just opposite the jade market I visited last week.

Some European food for sale, interesting to see prosciutto, salami and mortadella from Italy, and Iberico from Spain.

Lots of flowers but also wood carvings, tableware, exotic (for me) fruits.

Afterward, it was time to head back to the Sun Yat-Sen memorial for the calligraphy exhibition we heard about would be taking place today.

As we arrive we are welcomed by a lively scene of families, elderly people, some with their carers,

A whole huge room of the memorial is reserved for this event.
first children, then high school students followed by professors and finally masters. It is amazing to see all this talent pooled together to honor and perpetuate the ancient art of Chinese calligraphy.

At 5 o'clock sharp the staff start packing everything up, seats tables...

As I see some blank paper, a brush and an inkpot that have not been packed away yet, I call my wife and she paints my Chinese name on a white scroll in beautiful calligraphy!

In addition to local calligraphers, there are many participants from Japan and the United States.

As we are about to leave we met Mr. Zheng, a slim and tall Chinese who was born in Malaysia but emigrated to California in 1980. He is an active member of the American Association for calligraphy...

His main hobby however is painting and he's also been performing Peking opera for over 30 years.

His brother lives in London, his sister in Australia but his 98-years-old mother is still in Malaysia. They try to get all together with her as often as possible!

Before parting ways he wants to take a picture together, then the official photographer of the event comes up and wants to shoot us too, what an honor!