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Chinese ink painting of a scholar at a writing desk, illustrating choosing a Chinese handwriting practice app
Playbooks

Choosing a Chinese Handwriting Practice App

Most handwriting apps let you trace, which trains copying rather than recall. The four app types, the features that matter, and how to test one in ten minutes.

Lawrence Arya··10 min
Chinese ink painting with calligraphy, illustrating how many Chinese characters you need to know
Research

How Many Chinese Characters Do You Need to Know?

Three numbers for three goals: the official 3,500 for basic literacy, the low thousands for reading, and a much smaller set for what you write by hand.

Lawrence Arya··10 min
Chinese ink painting with calligraphy, illustrating practising hanzi from memory
Playbooks

Practising Hanzi From Memory: The Whole Method

Recall practice is the one method that rehearses writing rather than recognising. The four-step loop, why it works, how to set it up, and the three ways it fails.

Lawrence Arya··10 min
Chinese ink painting with calligraphy 字里乾坤 and a scholar by red plum blossom at sunset, illustrating whether an app can lock your phone until you write a Hanzi
Essays

Can You Lock Your Phone Until You Write a Hanzi?

A true trace-to-unlock gate is not possible under iOS sandboxing. Here is what actually works as a daily writing forcing function, and why recall is the right gate.

Lawrence Arya··7 min
Ink-wash mountains and pavilions with cranes in flight under the calligraphy 山水清音, illustrating using a Hanzi writing app in the classroom
Playbooks

Can You Use a Hanzi Writing App in the Classroom?

A smartboard is a display, not a practice surface. Character writing is individual, so here is how a class can use a from-memory app, and what it cannot do yet.

Lawrence Arya··6 min