Waterloo Street Calligraphy Class: Nine Lessons for S$240

The Singapore Calligraphy Centre, run by the Chinese Calligraphy Society of Singapore at 48 Waterloo Street, Singapore 187952, is taking enrolments now for its 2027 Term 1 classes. A term is nine lessons. Adults pay S$240 for two-hour sessions and children pay S$220 for lessons of an hour and a half, according to the society's press release of 7 October 2026. Paper, ink, ink bowls, paperweights, water dishes and felt mats are provided at no charge, so this calligraphy class needs nothing from you except a free weekly slot.

The Chinese Calligraphy Society of Singapore, known in Chinese as 书协, was founded on 13 December 1968 and describes itself as the country's earliest national calligraphy organisation. Its three founders were Tan Siah Kwee, 朱碧妹 and 杨应春, and Tan is still the society's president. The society opened its classes to the public in 1974, and its own history estimates that more than 30,000 calligraphy learners have passed through them over four decades. Four of its leading figures, Pan Shou, Wang Sui Pick, Tan Siah Kwee and 许梦丰, received the Cultural Medallion in 1986, 1992, 2000 and 2016.

The centre itself is a story of fundraising. The society rebuilt the old detached house at 48 Waterloo Street into the Singapore Calligraphy Centre, raising S$1.1 million from supporters and adding S$250,000 from the government, for a total of S$1.35 million. The building now holds five classrooms of different sizes and a broad ground-floor gallery, the Lee Kong Chian Hall, with room to hang 60 works of calligraphy and painting. Since 2005 it has also been the home of the Senior Citizen Calligraphy University.

The society runs about 50 classes in a term. Alongside the four Senior Citizen Calligraphy University classes, the October 2026 notice lists adult calligraphy, women's calligraphy, youth calligraphy, Chinese colour-ink painting, children's colour-ink painting, Western sketching and children's holiday calligraphy. Classes stay at around 15 students and are held in air-conditioned lecture rooms. Seventeen tutors teach this term, Tan Siah Kwee among them, which tells you how deep the bench is for a single building on a quiet street.

The structure rewards patience. Nine lessons of two hours give an adult beginner about 18 hours of supervised brushwork per term, enough to move from holding the brush upright to writing clean regular-script characters on a full sheet. The society pitches the classes at parents who want their children to recognise more Chinese characters and speak more Mandarin, and at adults who want closer contact with the essence of Chinese culture and a calmer state of mind. Expect a room of retirees, working adults and teenagers, all bent over the same felt.

If you have a school-age child, the society's second October press release is the more urgent one. A five-day youth calligraphy course runs from 24 to 28 November 2026 during the school holidays, with a choice of two sessions: 9am to 11am, or 11:05am to 1:05pm. It costs S$120 per person, and the notice adds that there are no miscellaneous fees, since paper, ink and the rest of the kit are supplied. Five straight mornings is a sensible format for children, who forget strokes quickly between weekly classes.

The society is also the organiser behind Singapore's National Huichun competition, the Lunar New Year contest in which people brush auspicious couplets and phrases on red paper. When the first edition was held in 1983 it drew only about 70 participants; by 2003 the entry had passed a thousand. If you start a term in January, you will be practising just as the city gears up for the new year, and the red Huichun scrolls that appear in shops and homes will suddenly look like homework you can read.

The press releases list the centre's phone number, and the email address ccss1968@singnet.com.sg, and enrolment for both the 2027 Term 1 classes and the November holiday course runs through the society. The society's website at ccss.org.sg posts each notice as a PDF, mostly in Chinese, so if you do not read the language, phoning is the faster route. The weekday times for each term class are not printed in the notices, so ask which slots suit you when you call.

An honest note: this is a traditional society, not a lifestyle studio. You will not get a matcha latte, a branded tote or an English-first welcome pack, and much of the paperwork is in Chinese. What you get is a serious teaching tradition, small classes and free materials at a price that works out to about S$27 per lesson for adults. If you want a single two-hour taster rather than a nine-week term, look at the one-off beginner workshops run by smaller studios in Chinatown instead.

The centre lists two MRT stations, Bras Basah on the Circle Line and Bencoolen on the Downtown Line, and both are a short walk away. Waterloo Street is part of the Bras Basah and Bugis arts district, where the National Library and several arts schools sit within a few blocks. If you are driving, note that much of Waterloo Street is pedestrianised near the temples, so it is easier to arrive by train and walk the last few hundred metres.

Walk north along Waterloo Street after class and you reach the Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple, a few minutes away, where worshippers shake fortune sticks and the air is thick with joss smoke. Right beside it stands the Sri Krishnan Temple, a Hindu shrine where many visitors also stop to pray, which makes this one of the city's most striking streets for living religious practice. Fresh from an afternoon spent forming characters by hand, you will read the Chinese characters on the temple signboards with fresh eyes, noticing where each stroke starts and stops.

Address: Singapore Calligraphy Centre, 48 Waterloo Street, Singapore 187952. Email: ccss1968@singnet.com.sg. MRT: Bras Basah (CC2) or Bencoolen (DT21). Adult term: nine two-hour lessons, S$240. Children's term: nine lessons of 1.5 hours, S$220. Holiday youth class: 24 to 28 November 2026, 9am to 11am or 11:05am to 1:05pm, S$120. Class size: about 15. Materials: paper, ink, ink bowls, paperweights, water dishes and felt mats supplied free of charge.