XKIX013 Chinese character writing skills (2 cr)

Course description

As an ideogram, Chinese characters are commonly used in Chinese-speaking regions or areas. Recognizing and using characters are involved in everyday life and are especially important for written communication. This is a minor course of the introductory course package, aiming to develop students’ character writing skills. Students will begin with a full introduction to Chinese radicals, i.e. the pivotal building blocks of compound characters.

Main content

The course will

• introduce the evolution of characters and their writing regulations
• focus on the rules of Chinese writing, such as structures and stroke orders of characters
• guide the students to analyse character structures, recognize their usage in context
• include plenty of hands-on writing practices in class
• cover all single component characters and some most frequent key characters

On the completion of the course, the student is expected to

• be able to write about everyday matters in Chinese characters
• be able to write new characters and follow the correct drawing order and character structures
• be able to read Chinese characters
• be able to analyse character structures, which helps to develop the student's ability to recognise more complex characters.

• This is a minor course in the Chinese introductory course package(Chinese 1 and Chinese 2). This course is for those who are interested in learning the writing of Chinese characters and radicals. It is recommended to all levels of Chinese language students to take this course.
• This is a course also for people who have an interest in learning to write Chinese characters. It is helpful for those who might travel, work, or attend conferences, seminars, or symposiums in Chinese-speaking regions or areas to gain skills to understand Chinese words.

This course is aimed at Chinese character learners with no prerequisites.

Learning materials are provided by the teacher.