Playbooks
Can You Draw Hanzi Inside a Markdown File?
Markdown is plain text, so you cannot truly draw characters in it. Here are the real options for embedding Hanzi, and why a writing canvas beats them for recall.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
Obsidian Spaced-Repetition Plugins for Hanzi: the Limit
Obsidian has spaced-repetition plugins that can drill Hanzi, but Obsidian is a text tool, so 'tracing' is the wrong word. Here is what it can and cannot do.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
A Private, Offline-First Chinese Vocabulary Tracker
Want to track your Chinese vocabulary without an account, a cloud, or ad tracking? Here is what offline-first and privacy-focused actually mean in a writing app.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Essays
Self-Hosted Hanzi Writing Tracker? The Honest State
Self-hosting appeals to learners who want to own their data, but self-hostable character-writing tools barely exist. Here is the reality and the closest open options.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
Notion Stroke-Order Templates, and Their Limit
A Notion database of characters with animated stroke-order GIFs is a tidy reference, but watching loops is not learning to write. Here is how to use it without stalling on recall.
Lawrence Arya··5 min