Playbooks
Learning to Write Chinese Herbal Medicine Names
Chinese herbal medicine names use traditional characters that recur across formulas. Here is how to learn to write them by hand, by component and from memory.
Lawrence Arya··4 min
Essays
Hyperlapse Videos of Writing Chinese Characters
Sped-up clips of writing Hanzi are satisfying and great for sharing. Here is how to make them, and why the practice behind the video is what really counts.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
An App to Practice Chinese Handwriting With Your Kids
Practicing Chinese handwriting alongside your kids helps them and you. Here is how to make shared practice work, and why writing together beats supervising.
Lawrence Arya··4 min
Playbooks
Writing Chinese for Visa and Customs Forms
Filling in Chinese visa, immigration, and customs forms by hand needs a small, specific set of characters. Here is how to practise it, and an honest note on what an app can and cannot do.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
Practice Writing Your Chinese Address for Taobao
A return slip needs your address and name in clean Chinese, by hand. The fix is small: drill your exact, fixed set of characters from memory until you can write it cold.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Essays
Practising Xianxia and Wuxia Vocabulary by Hand
Xianxia and wuxia novels are full of evocative, character-rich vocabulary. Here is how to turn the words you love into a writing-practice set you can actually produce.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
Keeping Your Kid's Chinese Writing Alive for the Family
The real goal is not proving anything to in-laws, it is keeping a heritage kid's handwriting alive. A small daily from-memory habit does that, and the proof takes care of itself.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Essays
Showing Your Parents Your Chinese Writing Is Still There
Want to prove your Chinese writing hasn't atrophied? A tool that tracks from-memory recall gives real evidence, and rebuilds the skill if it has slipped.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Essays
Reading and Transcribing Handwritten Menus in China
OCR struggles with messy handwritten Chinese menus. Here is why reading handwriting is its own skill and how learning to write builds it.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
Can an App Turn Your Paper Handwriting Into an SRS Quiz?
Scanning your paper handwriting into a spaced-repetition quiz? The real value is being prompted to write from memory, not reviewing scans. Here is the take.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Essays
Can an App Validate Yan-Style Calligraphy?
Can software grade your calligraphy against a master's style like Yan Zhenqing's? It can check correct form, but style conformity is a connoisseur's judgment.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Essays
An App Where a Wrong Radical Kills Your Pet?
A virtual pet that dies on a wrong radical sounds fun, but punishment backfires. Here is why gentle, mastery-based motivation works better.
Lawrence Arya··5 min