Tanjong Pagar Calligraphy Class: Two Scripts, Eight Mondays

Tanjong Pagar Community Club, at 101 Cantonment Road, Singapore 089774, runs a Monday-evening Chinese calligraphy course that goes further than most beginner classes: over eight 90-minute sessions, Jillian Ong teaches both kaishu, the upright regular script, and xingshu, the running hand. The current run is 5 October to 30 November 2026, 7pm to 8:30pm, in English and Chinese, for ages 15 and up, with fees listed from S$180 to S$190 before materials.

Most community-club classes stop at regular script for the whole term. The Tanjong Pagar listing, course code C027241194, names two in its requirements: "Kaishu and Xingshu". That makes it a good fit for someone who has already done an introductory class elsewhere and wants to see how the careful, separated strokes of kaishu loosen into the connected rhythm of semi-cursive writing.

The course description itself is the standard People's Association wording, emphasising correct brush handling and writing technique so that participants understand Chinese calligraphy as an art. In practice, with only eight evenings, expect the early weeks on regular-script strokes and structure, and the later weeks on how the same characters are written faster in xingshu.

The trainer profile is brief: Jillian Ong took up Chinese calligraphy in 1998 and has been teaching it at residents' committees and the Art Society since 2003. On onePA she is listed under her full name, Ong Chin Eng, and the course remarks refer to her as Mdm Ong.

More than two decades of teaching at RCs means she is used to adult learners who come after work, with mixed Chinese reading ability. The course is offered in both English and Chinese, so a student who cannot read a classical poem can still follow the stroke-by-stroke instruction.

Sessions are held in the club's TPCC Annex 1 Art Studio, according to the session schedule on onePA, rather than a general multi-purpose room. Each meeting runs from 7pm to 8:30pm on a Monday, and the session list includes dates such as 19 October, 2 November and 16 November, ending on 30 November 2026.

Ninety minutes is shorter than the two-hour slots at some other clubs, which suits people coming from offices in the CBD, a short walk away. It also means arriving on time matters: by the time the ink is ready and the demonstration is done, there is about an hour of writing left in each session.

The listed course fee starts at S$180 for the eight sessions. Materials are not included. The remarks say participants need to purchase their own items for the course, and they give Mdm Ong's mobile number for anyone who wants the list of required materials before the first lesson; the class details add that the trainer collects any material fee.

Buying your own set has an upside here. Because the course moves into xingshu, a brush you choose with the teacher's guidance, rather than a generic school brush, will make the running script easier to control. Ask her what she recommends before you buy rather than after the first session.

The age requirement is printed as "For ages 15 and above", which keeps the class to teenagers and adults. Registration closed on 5 October 2026, the day the run began, and the onePA page now says to contact the CC for any queries.

Counter services run from 10am to 6pm. When a new run appears on onePA under Tanjong Pagar CC, booking and payment both go through the site, and colleagues who want to learn together can sign up in one go, since onePA lets a single transaction register up to five participants.

The club's own directions list Tanjong Pagar MRT station on the East-West Line, a walk of about half a kilometre. Buses 75, 196 and 167 stop on Cantonment Road opposite Maritime House, and services 80 and 145 stop on Tanjong Pagar Road at Tanjong Pagar Plaza.

Outram Park station, on the East-West, North East and Thomson-East Coast lines, is a similar distance away in the other direction, which gives three lines to choose from for the trip home after 8:30pm.

The Pinnacle@Duxton, the public housing towers joined by sky bridges at 1 Cantonment Road, stand almost next door to the club. From there, Duxton Hill and Tanjong Pagar Road lead past restored shophouses towards Chinatown, an easy evening route before class.

Maxwell Food Centre, at 1 Kadayanallur Street, is the obvious dinner stop on the way in. A few minutes beyond it, the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple at 288 South Bridge Road is a good place to look at Chinese characters carved and painted on a monumental scale, once you have spent a few Mondays learning how they are built stroke by stroke.

Working through the numbers helps decide whether this is the right course. At the lower listed fee, eight 90-minute sessions come to S$22.50 an evening, or S$15 an hour of tuition, before you buy materials. That is more per hour than some suburban clubs charge, but the course covers two scripts and keeps the room to teenagers and adults.

By comparison, Hougang CC's autumn class runs eight two-hour Thursday sessions for ages above ten, and Buangkok CC runs ten Monday sessions that welcome children from seven with a parent. If you want a quieter adult room close to the CBD, with running script on the syllabus, Tanjong Pagar is the one of the three to pick.

Address: Tanjong Pagar Community Club, 101 Cantonment Road, Singapore 089774; class in TPCC Annex 1 Art Studio. Email: pa_tanjongpagarcc@pa.gov.sg. Counter services: 10am to 6pm. Current run: Mondays, 5 October to 30 November 2026, 7pm to 8:30pm, eight sessions. Fee: from S$180 to S$190; materials bought separately. Scripts: kaishu and xingshu. Ages: 15 and above. Languages: English and Chinese. Trainer: Jillian Ong (Ong Chin Eng). Course code: C027241194.