Is there a specific or standard way to write “辶” on characters like ”这” or ”遮”?

Hi everyone,

Here comes our third "Monthly Handwriting Challenge" of this year. Same rules as before and feel free to write simplified Chinese characters. Our previous challenges are always open as well.

This line is taken from Wen Wang (文王):

文王孫子 / 本支百世 / 凡周之士 / 不顯亦世

Kaiti references

BT0002

I'm an adult learner, studying Mandarin with an online tutor. I have studied Japanese in the past, and I spent a lot of time practicing my kanji then, so I have some experience with handwriting characters. Back then, I used sheets of ordinary math graph paper to practice, with small-ish squares -- maybe 1/4 inch squares.

Which leads to the first of my questions: is that the best paper for practicing Chinese too? I see there are all sorts of practice books & copybooks available on Amazon, like an HSK1 character workbook. My textbook, Integrated Chinese, also has some printable graph-paper-style PDFs. For now, I'm studying simplified characters.

Also, my aging hands tolerate less hand-writing than used to be the case. For this reason I've dabbled in calligraphy, which doesn't bother my hands as much. I like it, but it's slow and potentially messy. I do like the idea of writing "pretty" characters, though, with nice pointy ends and such. Is there a compromise somewhere between calligraphy and ball-point-pen? Maybe a fountain pen? When studying Japanese, I used to buy disposable fountain pens because I kept letting "real" fountain pens dry up or whatnot. Are disposable fountain pens a good idea?

I see your rules permit submission of fountain-pen work but not nib pens or other more artsy pens. Is there a reddit sub that caters to people who want to focus on "pretty" characters short of full-on calligraphy?

Many thanks in advance.

I've been learning for about six months, and this is my handwriting at a medium-comfortable pace. The actual text is just from a recent homework assignment.

https://preview.redd.it/ip82z8kqyvpc1.jpg?width=641&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=64bccad2acab4acec5ea1f2cb7dd04bfeed57a4d

Hi everyone,

The 8th weekly challenge of the year is 公共, with the same rules as before. Also, feel free to do the previous challenges and join our Discord server for more!

Kaiti references

BT0002

Hi everyone,

here is a mega-thread that collects all our weekly and monthly "Handwriting Challenge" events, which comes in handy in case you want to binge-write them.

Weekly Challenges

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Monthly Challenges

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BT0002

Hi guys,

Asking for advice on how to improve my usual chinese handwriting. I have been writing and speaking chinese since young, but feel that there is room for improvement in my handwriting and would love to start consciously working on it. What should I do to improve my handwriting?

Thanks.

Hi everyone,

The 7th weekly challenge of the year is 不是, with the same rules as before. Also, feel free to do the previous challenges and join our Discord server for more!

Kaiti references

BT0002

Hi everyone. Apologies for not meeting the guidelines in the last post. This one is a bit special to me, as this is my second attempt at copying the poem "To My Retired Friend Wei" by the illustrious poet, Du Fu. I've tried to incorporate previous feedback in this attempt, although some characters might look cramped due to the square size, and some characters need improvement. I would appreciate feedback and tips for further improvement.

Note that the title is in blue and the poet's name is in red. The text is written in the top to bottom, right to left format. The first 13 lines are at the top with the remaining ones in the middle of the page from the right side.

https://preview.redd.it/80mxsqu432oc1.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c90bc41e1e59717cb731ea1f800d17945b96b94e

Hi everyone,

The 6th weekly challenge of the year is 月牙, with the same rules as before. Also, feel free to do the previous challenges and join our Discord server for more!

Kaiti references

BT0002

Hi everyone,

Here comes our second "Monthly Handwriting Challenge" of this year. Same rules as before and feel free to write simplified Chinese characters. Our previous challenges are always open as well.

This line is taken from He Ming (鶴鳴):

鶴鳴于九皋 / 聲聞于天 / 魚在于渚 / 或潛在淵

in Microsoft-Yi Baiti and BiauKai, respectively

Looking forward to your submissions!

BT0002

Looking to start writing in traditional Chinese cursive. I read on another post about 行书 ?

Hi everyone,

The 5th weekly challenge of the year is 甲辰, with the same rules as before. Also, feel free to do the previous challenges and join our Discord server for more!

Kaiti references

BT0002

Hi everyone,

happy year of 龍 (Chinese dragon)!

This post is writing for those who have practiced writing the basic strokes (see mega-threads of Julian's and my tutorial series here) and feel confident moving on to individual characters on their own (other options are following our tutorials and join our server for more beginner-friendly practice).

Let's say you've chosen this copybook written by Tian Yingzhang (《楷书入门 1》) and want to practice the character 家 today. Start with observation (fig. 1):

On the left, I divided the character into roughly two equal horizontal parts: the middle Dot (SD) starts from left half, the radical (宀) overall being a bit slanted; the inclined Horizontal stroke of 豕 is also largely on the left half, along with central Hook (CK), leaving the Press stroke (SP) in a tough situation to balance the 'weight' of all the left-side strokes, a good reason why it extends out of the 'roof'. Perhaps more importantly, the tip of the CK aligns with SD, while the turning of CK stands perfectly on the central line, like a ballerina dancing en pointe.

On the right, I divided the character by its two components, 宀 & 豕, and guess what? The ratio (~3:5) is shockingly close to the Golden ratio. Obviously it doesn't make sense to measure each part of a character but you will probably gain a sense if the upper/lower half is too big/small with time.

fig. 1. Ratio analysis of 家

Let's look into the stroke details (fig. 2):

On the left, the arrows mark the starting or connecting point of the stroke. For example, the dot of 冖 (HD) shouldn't be too far from the SD so the hook (HK) would have longer segment on its right side. Same, the CK starts from the lower half of the first Throw (ST) of 豕, as indicated by the lower blue arrow. The green lines denote the how inclined or curved are strokes. As you see, the three Throws (ST) of 豕 are not strictly parallel, nor are they with the Throw on the right of the central hook (CK).

On the right, the red dashes indicate the length of the Throws. Interestingly, the tip of CK points right at the tip of the first ST of the three. I drew two pairs of identical red circles between some strokes too, suggesting the equal spacing between the components.

fig. 2. Stroke analysis of 家

With all these in mind, we can finally start practicing. Here I give you my personal rendition and fifteen repeats (fig. 3). The biggest difference between mine and Tian's is the central hook. I tend to play it safe and start it from the upper half of the first Throw of 豕 so it doesn't need to be so curving. We have minor differences like I prefer the top Dot resides in the center of 宀; the 'foot' of Press ends much lower than that in Tian's 家. All in all, his rendition is much more lively and pleasing, while mine is relatively dull.

Learning how to self-critique is equally, if not more, important than practice. In fact, some people complaining about not making progress over years of handwriting is because they have been mostly repeating their own way of writing, hence building the 'wrong' muscle memory. If this character is new to you, try to stop every now and then and compare yours with the model as critically as possible.

fig. 3. My practice (No. 1-16) in 15x15mm squares

As you see above, while I still cling to my old habit, my rendition of the central hook is getting closer to Tian's model. The first three strokes of 豕 (esp. ST & CK) are particularly tricky. Messing up their length, inclination and curvature, or starting each stroke slight off could render the whole character unbalanced, as you see in No. 12 & 15.

At last, I'd like to remind you that handwriting practice is never a sprint. It won't do you any good if you fill up pages merely repeating yourself (bad example). Calligraphers used to spend decades to perfect their skills, so should you take some time with it. Try to compare yours with the reference after each copy before moving on, particularly when you are a beginner. To build muscle memory, you might need a few weeks for each character.

I would not to write more than 100 copies per day (1-1,5 hr) and no more than three different characters, esp. difficult ones like 家, per week. But of course, everyone has different aims and progresses at a different pace, so just take my words with a grain of salt.

Do share your progress here or on our Discord server (link) and let us know how we could be of help. Thank you.

AD1989

Hi everyone,

The 4th weekly challenge of the year is 方向. Same rules as before. Also, feel free to do the previous challenges.

Kaiti references

Join our Discord server for more events!

BT0002

Hi all, Do you know any font that resembles the character 永 (yǒng) shown in the photo? Particularly, such font should:

• be in simplified Chinese, kaiti;
• look handwritten;
• have sharp contrast between thick & thin strokes. (If all the criteria cannot be satisfied then this is the prioritized characteristics)

Thanks in advance.

I’ve been studying Chinese since October 2023 (but I’ve been studying Japanese since 2020) and I’ve tried to go for something that looks very natural (although I know that it’s still too stiff for that). I’d appreciate any advice on how to improve my handwriting :)

https://preview.redd.it/l636cza045gc1.jpg?width=3846&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5d4660386a1999b05ac103ac162ba86d1cdd2683

其實我已經學了中文幾年，但很少用手寫。你覺得怎麼樣？ 哈哈看起來很糟糕

歌： 橄欖樹

I’m actually already studying Chinese for a few years but am rarely writing by hand. What do you guys think about my handwriting. quite terrible isn’t it?

song: 橄欖樹

Hi everyone! Thank you for your valuable feedback on my previous post. This time, I've tried copying the Imperial Edict of Abdication dated 1912. It's a bit long, so I had to use two pages for it. I would love to get some feedback on my writing, and any suggestions for improvements will be deeply appreciated.
P.S. Couldn't find calligraphy sheets, so I had to make do with a math notebook. Also, there are some characters which I messed up, so I've marked them with a small cross at the top corner of their respective squares.

https://preview.redd.it/uduif0a9vxfc1.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=305e301572c6986e0c946f0e47e71687da80eca8

https://preview.redd.it/5kiouy99vxfc1.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=61f1345d4abe0e7707535b5099868682642cd427

Hi everyone,

The 3rd weekly challenge of the year is 高升. Same rules as before. Also, feel free to do the previous challenges.

Kaiti references

Join our Discord server for more events!

BT0002

Hi everyone. I have tried copying one of the paragraphs of Chiang Kai-Shek's speech on the 10 of July 1937 regarding the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. The text is translated from its English source, so apologies for any errors. I would love to have some feedback on my handwriting as well as any suggestions for improvement.

P.S. Apologies for the paper background. I didn't have a better choice available😅

Hi everyone,

Here comes our first "Monthly Handwriting Challenge" of this year. Same rules as before and feel free to write simplified Chinese characters. Our previous challenges are always open as well.

This line is taken from Feng Yu (風雨):

風雨如晦 / 雞鳴不已 / 既見君子 / 云胡不喜

in Microsoft-Yi Baiti and BiauKai, respectively

Looking forward to your submissions!

BT0002