Chinese Handwriting: Learning to Read and Write Characters

Chinese character writing is the oldest form of writing still in use today, with a history of at least 3,500 years. Moreover, it is one of the most widespread writing systems in the world by the number of users, since... Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world. Chinese characters are used in writing not only in Chinese but also in Japanese. In the past, other languages, such as Korean and Vietnamese, also used Chinese characters. Chinese characters are an important part of East Asian culture. Chinese calligraphy can be considered a form of painting - it impresses the viewer with its aesthetics, variety of styles, and richness of forms. Character writing is significantly different from the familiar alphabetic writing. Each character represents a specific concept, corresponding to a whole syllable rather than a sound. Modern Chinese uses about 5,000 characters. How to remember them? In fact, there are about 300 basic Chinese characters that trace back to pictographic representations. They can combine with each other to create the vast diversity of complex characters. Knowing the basic characters makes it easy to memorize the complex ones. In this guide, we have compiled 35 of the simplest characters for writing and memorization. They have a small number of strokes and are easy to learn, as most of them are intuitive. In addition to handwriting practice, you will find a detailed etymology of each character, a list of key complex characters in which they appear as components, as well as a list of key phrases using them, which will provide insight into the logic of Chinese writing. May these characters be your starting point in learning the Chinese language. I wish you good luck!