(Ecns.cn)--A 27 year old Canadian guy has been getting a lot of attention recently by practicing calligraphy with a pedicab on the hutong lanes (a type of narrow street or alleyway) of Dongcheng District, Beijing.
Nicolas told reporters from the Legal Evening News yesterday that he came to China in 2009 and initially worked in digital media. "I was living in Dongzhimen then and always saw the aged practicing calligraphy with water on the stones in Beihai Park. Inspired by them, I invented the pedicab method," he explained.
His pedicab is equipped with a computer, two buckets of water and an electromagnetic valve. The young innovator spent nearly six months programming the computer to make the pedicab write his English name. However, since they understood no English, none of the traditional practitioners of calligraphy paid any attention to him while he tested the vehicle in Beihai Park.
Nicolas then asked his colleagues who knew Chinese for some help, and together they spent another three months programming the pedicab to produce Chinese characters.
As expected, the bi-lingual pedicab created a huge sensation in the park. Even those who practiced traditional calligraphy tried their hand at the new gadget, which greatly delighted Nicolas.
The tricked-out pedicab adventure rekindled his interest in digital design, which he intends to major in when he starts school at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) in November.
At the moment Nicolas is struggling to check his pedicab invention through to his US destination. "I couldn't have invented it had I not been in Beijing, so if I lack inspiration in the future, I'll return there and hang out in the hutongs," he promised.
