Research
How Chinese Characters Are Built From Components
Most characters are assemblies of recurring parts, one hinting at meaning and one at sound. The layers, how to learn components, and what structure cannot do.
Lawrence Arya··10 min
Essays
Paper or Screen for Chinese Writing Practice?
Paper wins on proportion and stroke feel; a screen wins on hiding the character, checking order and scheduling. The division of labour that uses both.
Lawrence Arya··10 min
Essays
Chinese Character Drawing Apps, Honestly Assessed
Drawing is the right instinct and tracing is the wrong implementation. What a drawing app can do that paper cannot, and the five checks that separate the two kinds.
Lawrence Arya··10 min
Essays
Character Amnesia: Why Writing Fades First
Knowing a word and being unable to write it has a name, a mechanism and a fix. Why typing causes it, why native speakers get it too, and what reverses it.
Lawrence Arya··10 min
Research
Spaced Repetition for Hanzi Writing
Spacing works for character writing with one change: the item must ask you to produce, not recognise. Intervals, grading rules, and the load that ends most systems.
Lawrence Arya··10 min
Essays
Simplified or Traditional Characters for Writing?
A practical answer rather than a cultural one: learn the set used where you are going, expect heavy overlap, and know that switching later is easier than doing both.
Lawrence Arya··10 min
Research
Does Tracing Help You Learn Chinese Characters?
Tracing helps once per character and stops helping after. What it genuinely teaches, why repetition disappoints, and the one-trace rule that keeps the benefit.
Lawrence Arya··10 min
Playbooks
A Daily Chinese Character Writing Routine
A ten-minute routine in three fixed blocks, the rules that keep it honest, how to choose a character set, and what to do after you miss several days.
Lawrence Arya··10 min
Playbooks
Coming Back to Chinese After a Long Break
The predictable failure is opening the old review backlog. The workable route is a cold test, fifty chosen characters, ten minutes a day, and nothing new for a week.
Lawrence Arya··10 min
Research
How to Remember Chinese Characters for Good
Forgetting characters is a method problem, not a memory problem: why recognition fades, what handwriting research shows, and four techniques that build recall.
Lawrence Arya··10 min
Playbooks
Which Chinese Characters to Learn First
The best first characters are frequent, reusable as components, and usable in a sentence today. A starting fifty, grouped by what they teach, and what to skip.
Lawrence Arya··11 min
Playbooks
How to Write Chinese Characters Neatly
Neat handwriting comes from the square, component proportion and consistent stroke order, not talent. What to practise, and what to ignore for now.
Lawrence Arya··10 min