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Chinese writing is an art â and I donât just mean brush calligraphy. Just like the history of the language itself, learning to write in Chinese is an intricate process. For the beginner whoâs just learning to write, your handwriting might look like a bunch of unrefined scribbled lines.
However, donât be discouraged, even native speakers like myself need time to hone our Chinese handwriting. To help you out, Iâve come up with a list of 10 key tips to help you improve your Chinese handwriting. Check them out!
Resources to learn how to write in Chinese
Before we discuss how to improve your Chinese handwriting, you need to learn how to write in the language first! There are several Chinese learning resources available that you can use to get started, such as Chinese textbooks and Chinese learning apps like Skritter. These Chinese writing apps should come in handy too!
Peking University also offers beginner-friendly Chinese characters courses on Coursera. The courses teach around 1,200 basic Chinese words composed of 240 commonly used Chinese characters. You can enroll for free and purchase a certificate after completing the courses.
You can also sign up for a Chinese language course like Rocket Chinese for a more holistic learning experience. Not only will you be exposed to the basics of writing in Chinese, but youâll also pick up useful pronunciation and grammar lessons along the way!
And with that, letâs dive into the colorful world of Chinese handwriting!
The difference between Chinese handwriting and Chinese calligraphy
First thingâs first, I need to get this out in the open: Chinese handwriting is not the same as Chinese calligraphy. Let me explain.
While Chinese calligraphy IS the most traditional form of writing in the Chinese culture, most people just use a pen and paper (or their mobile phones) these days. Calligraphy is now more like a cultural art that is mainly only used for festivals and during the Lunar New Year.
Despite calligraphy essentially being the foundation of Chinese writing, what constitutes beautiful calligraphy isnât the same as âgoodâ handwriting. With Chinese calligraphy, you have greater freedom of expression. Your strokes can be slightly muddled as long as the overall look evokes a sense of awe.
éŸéŁć€è (flying dragon, dancing phoenix) is an idiom thatâs often used to describe flamboyant calligraphy, but when used to describe Chinese handwriting using a pen, thatâs not good. Instead, âgood Chinese handwritingâ is simply one that is neat, devoid of mistakes, and easy to read.
If you manage to add a little flair using calligraphy techniques, great! But like cursive writing in English, itâs not entirely necessary to do that. Instead, just stick to some of these simple tips below to improve your Chinese handwriting!
Tips to improve your Chinese handwriting
1. Master the concept of radicals and strokes
One of the key tips to improving your Chinese handwriting actually has nothing to do with writing at all! Instead, itâs making sure you fully understand the concept of radicals and strokes.
As a quick revision, Chinese characters are made up of radicals (bushou â 214 of them) and components, which are themselves often made up of just eight basic strokes. Getting familiar with Chinese radicals, components, and strokes is like learning to crawl before you walk.
As long as you can recognize these, youâll have a much easier time identifying Chinese characters and what makes each of them stand out, which is essential if you want to improve your Chinese handwriting.
2. Start with practicing strokes, then radicals, and finally, characters
On that note, one rudimentary way to improve your Chinese handwriting is simply to start by practicing writing strokes, followed by radicals before finally writing proper characters. Itâs like learning how to play proper single notes on a piano before learning how to play a melody.
I understand that repeated âwritingâ radicals and strokes that look no more than squiggly lines can be quite a boring and repetitive exercise but as a native speaker, I can tell you that this is one fundamental stage that all Chinese learners need to go through.
While strokes and radicals look simple on the surface (anyone can draw a horizontal line, for example), itâs only through constant practice that you pick up on the hidden nuances of writing in Chinese, such as subtle curves and indents. This will ultimately help you write Chinese characters in a more aesthetically-pleasing manner.
3. Understand and follow stroke sequences
If you manage to peek into Chinese handwriting books for elementary students, youâll often see Chinese characters with numbered sequences used as examples.
While it doesnât really matter in the long run how you write a Chinese character, learning how to follow proper stroke sequences (which stroke comes first) is a fundamental exercise to help you improve your Chinese handwriting.
Consider words like ć¶ (fierce) which have strokes enclosed within more strokes. By using the proper sequence (in this case, writing the inside first), you can roughly estimate the size of the outer strokes to ensure the characters looks balanced, making your Chinese handwriting neater.
4. Constantly read and commit characters to memory
Leading on from that, another tip to improve your Chinese handwriting is simply to read more. Whether it be Chinese textbooks, online articles, or other publications, just consume more Chinese media.
As you do so, pay attention to the characters on the page (or screen), and note how each of them is written. As mentioned earlier, if you want to write elegantly in Chinese, you need to ensure that the size proportions are just right!
Radicals are always smaller than the rest of the parts of the character. If the radicals are on top, they are smaller; if the radical is on the side of the character, it should be thinner. Another general rule of Chinese handwriting is that for most (not all) characters without a side radical, the bottom portion is wider than the top. Here are some examples: 性ïŒäșșïŒæŽïŒæ°ïŒćŠ.
5. Be very careful with horizontal strokes
This tip to improve your Chinese handwriting really links back to the previous point of noting how Chinese characters are written. However, I decided to highlight this point on its own.
The reason is that in the point above, if you accidentally write a character where the radical is larger than the rest of the character, it would simply look ugly. However, people would likely still understand what youâre writing. However, if you write a horizontal stroke wrongly, it could alter the meaning of the character.
For example, take the characters æȘ (wei) and æ« (mo). Do you notice the difference? In the first character, the horizontal stroke on top is shorter than the one beneath while the second character features the opposite. The first character means ânot yetâ while the latter means âendâ. In addition, a good tip is to always angle your horizontal strokes slightly upward.
6. Use tianzige (grid paper) to improve your Chinese handwriting
To help with improving your Chinese handwriting, especially in the aspect of making your characters look more balanced, I recommend using tianzige to practice.
Ask anyone whoâs studied Chinese in their youth and theyâll all remember these paper sheets. Theyâre basically sheets of paper (or pages in a book) that feature squares with grid lines in them that separated the inside into four distinct sections.
The grid lines act as a guide to help you position your strokes and radicals, as well as adjust the size proportions of each character.
7. There is no shame in using trace paper and practice books
For language learners who are just starting to learn how to write Chinese (props to you!), this is arguably one of the most practical tips I can give you to improve your Chinese handwriting. And donât worry, many native speakers used to do this too!
Some Chinese workbooks that help with Chinese writing sometimes feature model characters within a tianzige box with outlines and number sequences. Simply follow the sequence and stay within the outline of the character to get a feel of how to write specific words in Chinese.
You can also do this using trace paper. Just lay it over the word you want to try writing, and write it, being careful to mimic every stroke and subtle curve whilst staying without the outline. Keep doing this until your muscle memory kicks in and youâre able to write the character without help.
8. Thick gel-based pens make it easier to write Chinese characters
As mentioned earlier, thereâs a distinction between writing using a pen and Chinese brush calligraphy. That said, calligraphy is arguably the gold standard when it comes to the aesthetic sense of Chinese characters.
While you obviously canât do calligraphy using a ballpoint pen, using thick gel-based pens allow you to mimic the subtle curvatures and lifts of a brush, allowing you to write Chinese characters in a more elegant way. In fact, there are even special calligraphy pens you can buy to practice traditional Chinese handwriting using modern tools!
9. Practice writing daily in a diary or journal
This one is quite an obvious tip to improve your Chinese handwriting. Just write! As language learners all know, the Chinese language is one that relies heavily on memorization, be it learning new words, or writing Chinese characters from scratch.
The more you write, the better you get at remembering how to write certain characters, and how to write them well. When I was studying Mandarin in school, we had weekly writing assignments where all we had to do, was simply think of idioms to write into empty tianzige boxes. It didnât matter what they were, as long as we practiced writing them.
You can do the same. Better yet, try writing in a diary or journal on a daily basis in Chinese. Not only does this help improve your Chinese handwriting, but you can also revise Chinese sentence structure and level up your Chinese proficiency by using new vocabulary daily.
10. Find your own aesthetic style of writing
Finally, donât beat yourself up if you realize your style of handwriting doesnât quite match what you see in books. Just like when writing in English, everyone has their own writing style that they are most familiar with.
I daresay my own handwriting is nothing to shout about either, but itâs certainly one that Iâm comfortable with and that allows me to communicate effectively. Chinese handwriting is a complex skill and might I say, an art form in its own right.
As long as you avoid writing errors like miswritten characters, you have all the time in the world to refine and hone your own writing style. Who knows, maybe one day you might be a master calligrapher yourself!
Bonus: Learn how to grip a calligraphy brush
Speaking of calligraphy, if youâre interested in this therapeutic form of Chinese handwriting, the one additional tip I can give you (all the others above apply to calligraphy too) is to learn how to properly hold a calligraphy brush.
First thingâs first, do NOT hold it like a paintbrush! Thatâs because certain strokes require precise wrist movements so you need to be able to freely rotate your wrist. I will try my best to explain it in writing.
Hold it towards the middle of the brush, with your index finger slightly bent and wrapped halfway around the brush, and your middle, ring, and pinky fingers supporting the back. The thumb rests on the front of the brush just beneath the index. Try it out yourself! And donât worry if you get a cramp, itâs normal for first-timers!
Why you need to improve your Chinese handwriting
So, after all that, whatâs the fuss with needing to have good Chinese handwriting? If, as I said, people will likely still understand what youâre saying even if you donât have neat handwriting, why should you dedicate time to writing more elegantly in Chinese?
For one, as mentioned in the example above, bad handwriting in Chinese can sometimes inadvertently change the meaning of certain characters. Improving your Chinese handwriting isnât just a case of beautifying your writing, it also helps you to avoid making unintended mistakes while communicating.
Secondly, improving your Chinese handwriting isnât a task that exists in a vacuum. As you continually work on improving this skill, youâll also immerse yourself more comprehensively in the Chinese language. Youâll read more, write more, and most importantly, learn more, helping you to attain fluency much more quickly as a result.
Finally, improving your Chinese writing is simply a therapeutic process. As mentioned, Chinese calligraphy is an art in and of itself. So is honing your handwriting. As your handwriting becomes more elegant and aesthetically pleasing, youâll feel a great sense of pride and accomplishment, especially since writing in Chinese isnât an easy feat at all!
Wrap up
And there you have it: 10 tips to improve your Chinese handwriting quickly so that you, too, can start writing elegantly in Chinese. Want to improve your proficiency even more? Check out these tips and tricks to learn Mandarin, as well as some recommended Chinese podcasts to improve your listening skills!