‘Here comes the human printer’: Chinese teacher gathers hundreds of thousands of followers for his remarkable handwriting, an increasingly rare skill in China

The teacher hopes his skills act as a subtle way to inspire students to take an interest in calligraphy

98 per cent of college students said in a study they had forgotten how character handwriting works, at least a little bit

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A teacher in China has been nicknamed ‘human printer’ for his fantastic handwriting. Photo: SCMP Composite

Published: 6:00pm, 24 Sep 2022

Nicknamed the “human printer” because of his perfect Chinese handwriting, a teacher in central China has attracted hundreds of thousands of followers online and hopes to inspire the younger generations.

Zhang Shifeng, who teaches art and calligraphy in Henan province, has also gathered widespread support because his talent is becoming increasingly rare in China. Vast swathes of society primarily communicate digitally, and practising their handwriting is not necessary for most people’s day-to-day life.

Zhang, 45, has 560,000 followers and millions of likes on Douyin, China’s TikTok, and he publishes videos that explain how he makes the characters.

Zhang writes most of his posts using chalk and a chalkboard, and he tends to pick Chinese proverbs or poems and uses them as a teaching tool.

“Whenever I write on the blackboard, the kids see standardised, pretty characters. They become very interested, especially when I use fonts similar to printing fonts. They often say, ‘the printer teacher is coming’,” he said in one of his videos.

Zhang sometimes includes artwork along with his calligraphy. Photo: Toutiao

Zhang has been interested in calligraphy since he was a child, and he said that he tried to influence his students in their daily work so they could understand the charm of Chinese writing.