<p>The stroke order is important, yes. The main reason that explains why the stroke order is so important is that the it helps to write the character correctly, with better speed and in an easier way. </p>

<p>Pick a character, and try to write it with the official stroke order, and then with another one: you'll find out that in the second case it will be sometimes harder to write it and mostly it will come out with a different shape, i.e. incorrect shape, and also ugly sometimes. This is because when using the official stroke order, the character will appear with more harmonious proportions and therefore, more beautiful.</p>

<p>Also, I'm not sure the following are "official reasons", but I suppose that:</p>

<ul>
<li>it helps to memorize the character and retain it too, because your muscles "remember" the movements and so does your brain;</li>
<li>when reading someone else's handwriting, the shape changes a lot and the movement of the pen/brush can help you to read since you know the stroke order.</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-03-05T14:43:21.073Z
@Ciaocibai I thought your point about "illiteracy" was quite interesting and valid. Here's a Google Books link to the passage you mentioned. https://goo.gl/UKFHik Like it or not, arbitrary rules one may call unnecessary or "snobbish" always were an important part of language practice. So "correct" stroke order in Chinese can be likened to "good" handwriting or "proper" spelling or "correct" pronunciation in English: the elevation of arbitrary convention into a rule that partly helps communication, and partly advertises that you are well-educated. We judge people by how they write and speak.
Kai Carver
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-05T04:04:18.137Z
Hey, would you be able to reference your first point there? I can understand that for cursive writing stroke order could influence the shape, but if you are writing 一笔一划, I can't see why it would make a difference, and surely if you can write the characters, it doesn't matter what the order is?
Ciaocibai
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-05T09:08:44.717Z
@Ciaocibai Are you referring to what I said about "illiteracy"?
Alenanno
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-05T12:29:53.793Z
Exactly - I just don't see the correlation, that's all.
Ciaocibai
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-05T13:11:55.697Z
@Ciaocibai I wasn't remembering where I "took" it from, but I have found it again. It's stated in the "Beginner's Chinese" grammar text book by Yong Ho. I can't find it on Google books so I can't link the page, but taking it verbatim, it states: *"In writing a character, it is not only important to get the end product right, but also to follow the proper stroke order. Failure to follow proper sequence is the first sign of illiteracy."*
Alenanno
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-05T22:56:31.220Z
Interesting - thanks for sharing that. Not sure I agree, but it's nice to have some more insight!
Ciaocibai
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-05T23:02:30.600Z
@Ciaocibai You're welcome. :) But if you think about it, writing with the wrong stroke order it not exactly correct. If it was, there wouldn't be a "correct stroke order", no? :)
Alenanno
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-06T14:36:13.017Z
If someone can write a character from memory when they need to, wouldn't that be a sign of LITERACY instead of illiteracy (because the stroke order is "wrong")? Sheesh, what a pointless, snobby rule! The first sign of illiteracy is when someone can't read, not when their handwriting is bad. Honestly that notion offends me so much I feel like I should learn an incorrect stroke order for every character just to stick it to the snobs who feel it's intrinsically important.
Mr. Shiny and New 安宇
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-06T14:49:35.620Z
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 You're confusing handwriting with something else. The stroke order is not handwriting, it's stroke order. And apart from that, there are also rules about the lines: vertical lines should be vertical, while horizontal lines can be a bit inclined. But again, handwriting is not the same as the stroke order. Anyway, that rule seems to be only reported by that grammar. I can't find the same info elsewhere...
Alenanno
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-06T14:50:57.390Z
@Alenanno: No, I'm talking about stroke order. It's mostly invisible after the character is on paper and thus if other people consider me to be illiterate because I write my characters differently than they do, then I consider their opinion of me to be baseless, false, and worthless, and offensive. If I produce a legible, correct character, who cares what order I wrote the strokes in?
Mr. Shiny and New 安宇
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-06T14:54:38.110Z
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Well if you say "not when their handwriting is bad", you're talking about handwriting. Anyway, I removed the parts referring to "correctness" and illiteracy. But if you think about it, there is a certain order. I'm referring about the "first horizontal lines, then vertical ones, then..." etc.
Alenanno
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-06T14:54:56.750Z
@Ciaocibai I removed the parts about the illiteracy and "correctness".
Alenanno
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-07T04:44:02.857Z
@Alenanno: Don't misunderstand me, I noticed that your answer was referencing a book, so I get it if people believe that stroke order is somehow correlated with "literacy". I just think that's insane, that's all. :)
Mr. Shiny and New 安宇
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-04T11:48:58.763Z
2013-08-24T20:32:24.330Z
2013-08-24T20:32:24.330Z
Alenanno
<p>The single most important reason for stroke order being adhered to is probably the handwriting problem:</p>

<p>Imagine, if you will, someone writing an english text in cursive, consistently crossing the t's and dotting the i's before writing the stems; and making it part of the flow of the line.</p>

<p>Now imagine that same scenario, only with each character having dozens, if not hundreds of potential cursive shapes…</p>

<p>Essentially, the stroke order allows writers to make simplifications when writing the character; and readers to understand same. (Squiggly line at the left? 水 radical, etc.)</p>

<p>Secondary to this is the use of stroke order in memorization techniques, etc.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-18T16:16:20.147Z
One should not forget that there _are_ standard stroke orders for every letter of the Latin alphabet, and that these vary from nation to nation. Such variations become very obvious in cursive script: see the [Antiqua vs Fraktur dispute](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiqua%E2%80%93Fraktur_dispute) of the early 20th century.
Michaelyus
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-09-04T04:04:17.767Z
I think this is the right answer ^_^
Stumpy Joe Pete
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-04T13:13:17.147Z
2012-01-04T13:41:18.830Z
2012-01-04T13:41:18.830Z
Williham Totland
<p>The order of strokes affects the "evolution" of the character when writing in high speed. In high speed the character shape shifts and one can often recognize the character even after extreme deformation because the general flow of the character is there. But if the stroke orders are changed, the deformation doesn't conform to the expected shape and it may be unrecognizable to other people.</p>

<p>For example, imagine the "s" in the word "best". If written in high speed the end of the "e" touches the top of the "s" and the "s" deforms to look like a "backwards C". Imagine if people wrote "s" with the "e" touching the bottom of the "s". i.e., the "s" is written from bottom-up. Now under high speed, the "s" actually looks like a well formed "s" but the "e" and "t" are deformed, make the word "best" look weird.</p>

<p>High speed writers can make characters look almost nothing like it's proper counterpart, but people have learned to recognize them and recognize other people's handwriting because the stroke order affects the form.</p>

<p>Also, following stroke order helps computers recognize characters better. Under high speed, a character will look totally different from it's proper form, but a trained computer can recognize the direction and order of the strokes and can recognize the character based off of that alone, rather than trying to recognizing the end image. I would imagine that that results in fewer false positives than recognizing by image alone.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-08-24T02:57:21.313Z
2013-08-24T02:57:21.313Z
James Rhodes
<p>My teacher says there are two main reasons for stroke order:  </p>

<ul>
<li>Depending on the stroke order, the character will look one way or another. This is mainly a matter of style from times when writing was made exclusively with paint brushes. Now in the era of computers, stroke order is definitely not important for writing.  </li>
<li>As it's been said, for systems that rely on stroke order to lookup and input characters on a computer, a standardized order is mandatory.</li>
</ul>

<p>Remember that Roman letters have also a standard (maybe more than one standard) stroke order and direction, which is taught at school, although I don't think most people is aware of this when writing (I know I'm not).  </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-06T22:21:21.967Z
+1 on the brushes answer
cburgmer
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-08-24T12:18:37.740Z
Well, today stroke order is important for handwriting, if you are writing on a computer screen for OCR, which in fact is the main way I write Chinese.  And my Chinese friends do it a lot.
Colin McLarty
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-09-14T13:35:36.607Z
Yes you are right, I meant when writing with a keyboard with a method as typing Pinyin, for example, there's absolutely no need to remember the stroke order to write successfully.
Petruza
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-04T14:12:24.460Z
2012-01-04T14:12:24.460Z
Petruza
<p>Stroke order is important, but the rigid insistence on a single correct stroke order appears to be a product of modern universal education. The Japanese and Chinese have actually standardised different stroke orders for some characters (e.g., 必).</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-08T04:12:48.733Z
2012-01-08T04:12:48.733Z
Bathrobe
<p>Stroke order is important to get the right proportions. First, it's like a picture.  A good photographer would know the law of thirds.  Similar concept in Chinese characters.  The previous stroke helps to align the next stroke on the page.</p>

<p>Take 酉 for instance.  I was always taught that you start from top left, first down then right.  Start with the 一。But then there is the mouth 口。you open the mouth 冂，fill it, 一, then close it 一 at the bottom. So do you write 儿，before opening the mouth? If you did, you would have to make sure the mouth was big enough to fill everything.  Otherwise you would have no guideline for where to stop the stroke, and the proportions for the size of what to fill the mouth with. The correct stroke order: 一，冂，儿，一，一。</p>

<p>The worst character to write nicely I find is: 美, and anything with 隹 in it, like: 謢.</p>

<p>With this stroke order is important.  It is only important in computerized typing to know the right combination of key presses to output the right character on screen.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-05-22T20:13:20.537Z
2016-05-22T20:13:20.537Z
JONETTA NG
<p>There are six basic strokes of Chinese characters, horizontal stroke, vertical stroke, left-falling stroke, right-falling stroke, dot and rising stroke. Other types of strokes are derived from the strokes mentioned above, and thus known as the derived strokes.</p>

<p>One should be aware that in writing Chinese characters each stroke must go in a certain direction. It is important to understand this point and get oneself familiar with strokes. There are about 20-30 types of strokes that Chinese characters are composed of. The following is but a brief list:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.hanbridgemandarin.com/article/chinese-characters-learning-tips/chinese-character-stroke-order/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">chinese character stroke</a> </p>

<p>The great majority of Chinese characters are formed by more than two strokes. The stroke can only be written in certain directions. For example, the horizontal stroke should only go from left to right. the vertical stroke can only be written from top to bottom, never from bottom to top.
check here and learn the chinese stroke order <a href="http://www.hanbridgemandarin.com/article/chinese-characters-learning-tips/chinese-character-stroke-order/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.hanbridgemandarin.com/article/chinese-characters-learning-tips/chinese-character-stroke-order/</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-19T12:15:10.947Z
2017-07-19T12:15:10.947Z
katherine li
<p>Besides easier-to-guess-your-intended-character hand-writing knowing how to write characters "correctly" gives a Mandarin learner:</p>

<ol>
<li>Better character lookup ability in dictionaries when using the "hand-write" character lookup in Pleco and other modern electronic dictionaries.  Especially useful when the scan lookup isn't working (because of a weird font or hand-written character).  The order you hand-write strokes on your smartphone will affect which characters the dictionary thinks you are writing.</li>
<li>If you know the right number of strokes added to the radical then better character lookup in paper dictionaries that organize characters by radical and number of strokes (also can be used to look-up characters with some electronic dictionaries like MDBG).</li>
<li>Better ability to guess the correct character meant when reading (somewhat sloppy) hand-written Chinese.</li>
<li>Ability to use Character input methods that depend on knowing how to write the character "properly".</li>
</ol>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-19T00:59:33.450Z
2017-07-19T00:59:33.450Z
Trevor
<p>Very important as It's a part of the learning process, learning <a href="http://www.hanbridgemandarin.com/course/chinese-language-course/chinese-characters" rel="nofollow"><strong>Chinese characters</strong></a> without the strokes order makes things more difficult. I believe nowadays schools in China still teach stroke orders, but many people write purely on computers now using PinYin, making it less important. For people typing with WuBi the stroke order is crucial. If you want to know more about Chinese writing.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-09-21T06:22:11.420Z
2015-09-21T06:22:11.420Z
meisonliu
<p>I am a half Chinese.I love my Chinese grandma. This is the reason why it made me so eager to learn her language. And it all started when she held my hand and taught me the right strokes and suddenly I came to remember on how to write it properly and nicely. I believe it is very important to learn the strokes, It creates a clear direction on how to write it in an easy manner. at first, I thought it was difficult. As time goes by, It made me to yearn for more. Practice makes perfect. When you learn the strokes by heart. I also have taught kids "The Chinese Language" Read and write, As a Tutor. I felt good after seeing them writing just like my handwriting. For My grandma left a legacy for me, And I want to continue it. So I also pass that legacy to my students. It created an impact on the lives of other people.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-18T04:12:57.310Z
2017-07-18T04:12:57.310Z
Shouen
<p>I'm a chinese. For my point that stroke order is necessary but not very important.It's a way to write them just like we write English. And the last question, I think less people could know</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-04T14:43:56.573Z
2012-01-04T14:43:56.573Z
TH.Wang
<p>I could think of some reasons why the stroke order is important.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>In modern times, especially in the digital times, there should be a standard of the stroke order, so that when people input characters with "stroke order" method, it's useful to program the input method consistently.</p></li>
<li><p>We have some general rules of the stroke order, such as "from up to down, from left to right". I think this is reasonable, because you will feel comfortable when writing that way.</p></li>
<li><p>Remember, you are not a machine or computer, you can't precisely control the positions of each stroke, so you can't write the strokes here and there to get a beautiful character.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Also, I want to say that there are really official standards of stroke orders. In mainland, it's 《现代汉语通用字笔顺规范》,and in Taiwan, it's 《常用国字标准字体笔顺》.However, I know 《现代汉语通用字笔顺规范》is a recommended, not a mandatory standard.</p>

<p>When I was a student, my teacher taught me the correct order for some characeters, but not all characters. I just reviewed the standard, and found I had some mistakes in the order against the standard.E.g. the standard says that “heart" radical(left part of 情) is written: /，、，|， but my order is:|, /, 、.<br> I think minor "mistakes" are acceptable, because the stroke order is not something like math, you can't set up a definite system to specify everything. I think that's why the standard is not mandatory.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-04T14:26:41.377Z
Oh, I write 忄 in the same order as you do.
fefe
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-06T02:53:39.240Z
very interesting, I tend to write it as /，|，、. Personally I feel the standard should only be regarded as a guideline and not something to be strictly adhered to. Calligraphy experts may feel otherwise
prusswan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-06T14:57:57.447Z
@fefe Me as well.
Alenanno
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2012-01-06T16:00:28.203Z
@Alenanno That's why I can't input such radical on my phone by using "stoke input method" :)
Huang
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-07T04:45:51.000Z
If a computer requires the operator to memorize pointless lists of facts (such as stroke orders for thousands of characters) then the computer isn't doing its job properly.
Mr. Shiny and New 安宇
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-08-24T12:12:39.450Z
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇  When you design a program to do what you think it should, let me know.  For now, handwriting OCR on my cell phone gets substantially better results with the correct stroke order.
Colin McLarty
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-08-25T02:19:06.763Z
@ColinMcLarty Just because your phone's software is unable to recognize arbitrary stroke orders doesn't mean it shouldn't. Don't blame me if your software forces you to memorize stuff you shouldn't have to.
Mr. Shiny and New 安宇
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-08-25T03:19:06.137Z
@fefe Guess this could help understand the order of 忄: 忄 evolves by putting 心 from button to left. e.g. 慯 in seal script (column 7th from left, row 3rd from top, at http://www.art-child.com/school/UploadFiles_3672/201110/2011101410131422.jpg) and 忘 in seal script (column 2nd from left, row 2nd from top, at http://img2.ph.126.net/0LWVT2wQ6Ig0nKiuJOc03w==/2503719917858404952.jpg)
George
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-08-26T02:41:57.780Z
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I think the order is important at least for the stroke input method. Take 情 for exmaple, it consists of 11 strokes. If the software is designed without the restriction on the order of strokes, it has to deal with 11!=39916800 possibilities.In that case, the workload is huge and the software may display many many possible characters for you to choose. For touch screens, the order might be less important when recoginizing the character since positions of the strokes are extra info/restrictions for the it to recognize characters.
Huang
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-01-04T13:04:08.267Z
2012-01-04T13:04:08.267Z
Huang
<p>I often see people having a big focus on correct stroke order for writing Chinese characters. </p>

<p>My question is, for most learners, is it important to know the stroke order, and if so, why is it important? Where does the rigid adherence to stroke order stem from?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-09-21T06:40:52.530Z
Big deal. In Chinese calligraphy art, many stroke order are different than casual for better vision effect. If the final result is recognizable, not a big problem.
sfy
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-08-25T02:40:44.087Z
Well I can tell you that many native people either don't know or forget or don't bother to follow the standard order when they're writing on paper and typing in computers using Pinyin or 注音, doesn't rely on order neither. So if you can't do it well on remembering order for all of characters, don't worry. Yes it's GOOD to know the order and the theory backing it (e.g. @Petruza's answer), but that's optional to people (who presumably just wanna get it going) in the early times of learning. That's the recommended priority from me, based on my experience. Cheers!
George
<history><stroke-order>
Why is stroke order important when writing Chinese characters?
# Why is stroke order important when writing Chinese characters?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-01-04)

I often see people having a big focus on correct stroke order for writing Chinese characters.

My question is, for most learners, is it important to know the stroke order, and if so, why is it important? Where does the rigid adherence to stroke order stem from?

**Tags:** history, stroke-order

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: Well I can tell you that many native people either don't know or forget or don't bother to follow the standard order when they're writing on paper and typing in computers using Pinyin or 注音, doesn't rely on order neither. So if you can't do it well on remembering order for all of characters, don't worry. Yes it's GOOD to know the order and the theory backing it (e.g. @username_10's answer), but that's optional to people (who presumably just wanna get it going) in the early times of learning. That's the recommended priority from me, based on my experience. Cheers!  
> **username_1**: Big deal. In Chinese calligraphy art, many stroke order are different than casual for better vision effect. If the final result is recognizable, not a big problem.  

---

## 12 answers

### Answer by username_20 on 2012-01-04. Score: 17 | Accepted answer

I could think of some reasons why the stroke order is important.

1. In modern times, especially in the digital times, there should be a standard of the stroke order, so that when people input characters with "stroke order" method, it's useful to program the input method consistently.
2. We have some general rules of the stroke order, such as "from up to down, from left to right". I think this is reasonable, because you will feel comfortable when writing that way.
3. Remember, you are not a machine or computer, you can't precisely control the positions of each stroke, so you can't write the strokes here and there to get a beautiful character.

Also, I want to say that there are really official standards of stroke orders. In mainland, it's 《现代汉语通用字笔顺规范》,and in Taiwan, it's 《常用国字标准字体笔顺》.However, I know 《现代汉语通用字笔顺规范》is a recommended, not a mandatory standard.

When I was a student, my teacher taught me the correct order for some characeters, but not all characters. I just reviewed the standard, and found I had some mistakes in the order against the standard.E.g. the standard says that “heart" radical(left part of 情) is written: /，、，|， but my order is:|, /, 、.  
 I think minor "mistakes" are acceptable, because the stroke order is not something like math, you can't set up a definite system to specify everything. I think that's why the standard is not mandatory.

> **Comments:**
> **username_21**: Oh, I write 忄 in the same order as you do.  
> **username_22**: very interesting, I tend to write it as /，|，、. Personally I feel the standard should only be regarded as a guideline and not something to be strictly adhered to. Calligraphy experts may feel otherwise  
> **username_3**: @username_21 Me as well.  
> **username_20**: @username_3 That's why I can't input such radical on my phone by using "stoke input method" :)  
> **username_5**: If a computer requires the operator to memorize pointless lists of facts (such as stroke orders for thousands of characters) then the computer isn't doing its job properly.  
> **username_12**: @username_5  When you design a program to do what you think it should, let me know.  For now, handwriting OCR on my cell phone gets substantially better results with the correct stroke order.  
> **username_5**: @username_12 Just because your phone's software is unable to recognize arbitrary stroke orders doesn't mean it shouldn't. Don't blame me if your software forces you to memorize stuff you shouldn't have to.  
> **username_2**: @username_21 Guess this could help understand the order of 忄: 忄 evolves by putting 心 from button to left. e.g. 慯 in seal script (column 7th from left, row 3rd from top, at http://www.art-child.com/school/UploadFiles_3672/201110/2011101410131422.jpg) and 忘 in seal script (column 2nd from left, row 2nd from top, at http://img2.ph.126.net/0LWVT2wQ6Ig0nKiuJOc03w==/2503719917858404952.jpg)  
> **username_20**: @username_5 I think the order is important at least for the stroke input method. Take 情 for exmaple, it consists of 11 strokes. If the software is designed without the restriction on the order of strokes, it has to deal with 11!=39916800 possibilities.In that case, the workload is huge and the software may display many many possible characters for you to choose. For touch screens, the order might be less important when recoginizing the character since positions of the strokes are extra info/restrictions for the it to recognize characters.  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2012-01-04. Score: 17

The stroke order is important, yes. The main reason that explains why the stroke order is so important is that the it helps to write the character correctly, with better speed and in an easier way.

Pick a character, and try to write it with the official stroke order, and then with another one: you'll find out that in the second case it will be sometimes harder to write it and mostly it will come out with a different shape, i.e. incorrect shape, and also ugly sometimes. This is because when using the official stroke order, the character will appear with more harmonious proportions and therefore, more beautiful.

Also, I'm not sure the following are "official reasons", but I suppose that:

* it helps to memorize the character and retain it too, because your muscles "remember" the movements and so does your brain;
* when reading someone else's handwriting, the shape changes a lot and the movement of the pen/brush can help you to read since you know the stroke order.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Hey, would you be able to reference your first point there? I can understand that for cursive writing stroke order could influence the shape, but if you are writing 一笔一划, I can't see why it would make a difference, and surely if you can write the characters, it doesn't matter what the order is?  
> **username_3**: @username_0 Are you referring to what I said about "illiteracy"?  
> **username_0**: Exactly - I just don't see the correlation, that's all.  
> **username_3**: @username_0 I wasn't remembering where I "took" it from, but I have found it again. It's stated in the "Beginner's Chinese" grammar text book by Yong Ho. I can't find it on Google books so I can't link the page, but taking it verbatim, it states: *"In writing a character, it is not only important to get the end product right, but also to follow the proper stroke order. Failure to follow proper sequence is the first sign of illiteracy."*  
> **username_0**: Interesting - thanks for sharing that. Not sure I agree, but it's nice to have some more insight!  
> **username_3**: @username_0 You're welcome. :) But if you think about it, writing with the wrong stroke order it not exactly correct. If it was, there wouldn't be a "correct stroke order", no? :)  
> **username_5**: If someone can write a character from memory when they need to, wouldn't that be a sign of LITERACY instead of illiteracy (because the stroke order is "wrong")? Sheesh, what a pointless, snobby rule! The first sign of illiteracy is when someone can't read, not when their handwriting is bad. Honestly that notion offends me so much I feel like I should learn an incorrect stroke order for every character just to stick it to the snobs who feel it's intrinsically important.  
> **username_3**: @username_5 You're confusing handwriting with something else. The stroke order is not handwriting, it's stroke order. And apart from that, there are also rules about the lines: vertical lines should be vertical, while horizontal lines can be a bit inclined. But again, handwriting is not the same as the stroke order. Anyway, that rule seems to be only reported by that grammar. I can't find the same info elsewhere...  
> **username_5**: @username_3: No, I'm talking about stroke order. It's mostly invisible after the character is on paper and thus if other people consider me to be illiterate because I write my characters differently than they do, then I consider their opinion of me to be baseless, false, and worthless, and offensive. If I produce a legible, correct character, who cares what order I wrote the strokes in?  
> **username_3**: @username_5 Well if you say "not when their handwriting is bad", you're talking about handwriting. Anyway, I removed the parts referring to "correctness" and illiteracy. But if you think about it, there is a certain order. I'm referring about the "first horizontal lines, then vertical ones, then..." etc.  
> **username_3**: @username_0 I removed the parts about the illiteracy and "correctness".  
> **username_5**: @username_3: Don't misunderstand me, I noticed that your answer was referencing a book, so I get it if people believe that stroke order is somehow correlated with "literacy". I just think that's insane, that's all. :)  
> **username_4**: @username_0 I thought your point about "illiteracy" was quite interesting and valid. Here's a Google Books link to the passage you mentioned. https://goo.gl/UKFHik Like it or not, arbitrary rules one may call unnecessary or "snobbish" always were an important part of language practice. So "correct" stroke order in Chinese can be likened to "good" handwriting or "proper" spelling or "correct" pronunciation in English: the elevation of arbitrary convention into a rule that partly helps communication, and partly advertises that you are well-educated. We judge people by how they write and speak.  

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### Answer by username_6 on 2012-01-04. Score: 11

The single most important reason for stroke order being adhered to is probably the handwriting problem:

Imagine, if you will, someone writing an english text in cursive, consistently crossing the t's and dotting the i's before writing the stems; and making it part of the flow of the line.

Now imagine that same scenario, only with each character having dozens, if not hundreds of potential cursive shapes…

Essentially, the stroke order allows writers to make simplifications when writing the character; and readers to understand same. (Squiggly line at the left? 水 radical, etc.)

Secondary to this is the use of stroke order in memorization techniques, etc.

> **Comments:**
> **username_8**: I think this is the right answer ^_^  
> **username_7**: One should not forget that there _are_ standard stroke orders for every letter of the Latin alphabet, and that these vary from nation to nation. Such variations become very obvious in cursive script: see the [Antiqua vs Fraktur dispute](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiqua%E2%80%93Fraktur_dispute) of the early 20th century.  

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### Answer by username_9 on 2013-08-24. Score: 6

The order of strokes affects the "evolution" of the character when writing in high speed. In high speed the character shape shifts and one can often recognize the character even after extreme deformation because the general flow of the character is there. But if the stroke orders are changed, the deformation doesn't conform to the expected shape and it may be unrecognizable to other people.

For example, imagine the "s" in the word "best". If written in high speed the end of the "e" touches the top of the "s" and the "s" deforms to look like a "backwards C". Imagine if people wrote "s" with the "e" touching the bottom of the "s". i.e., the "s" is written from bottom-up. Now under high speed, the "s" actually looks like a well formed "s" but the "e" and "t" are deformed, make the word "best" look weird.

High speed writers can make characters look almost nothing like it's proper counterpart, but people have learned to recognize them and recognize other people's handwriting because the stroke order affects the form.

Also, following stroke order helps computers recognize characters better. Under high speed, a character will look totally different from it's proper form, but a trained computer can recognize the direction and order of the strokes and can recognize the character based off of that alone, rather than trying to recognizing the end image. I would imagine that that results in fewer false positives than recognizing by image alone.


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### Answer by username_10 on 2012-01-04. Score: 6

My teacher says there are two main reasons for stroke order:

* Depending on the stroke order, the character will look one way or another. This is mainly a matter of style from times when writing was made exclusively with paint brushes. Now in the era of computers, stroke order is definitely not important for writing.
* As it's been said, for systems that rely on stroke order to lookup and input characters on a computer, a standardized order is mandatory.

Remember that Roman letters have also a standard (maybe more than one standard) stroke order and direction, which is taught at school, although I don't think most people is aware of this when writing (I know I'm not).

> **Comments:**
> **username_11**: +1 on the brushes answer  
> **username_12**: Well, today stroke order is important for handwriting, if you are writing on a computer screen for OCR, which in fact is the main way I write Chinese.  And my Chinese friends do it a lot.  
> **username_10**: Yes you are right, I meant when writing with a keyboard with a method as typing Pinyin, for example, there's absolutely no need to remember the stroke order to write successfully.  

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### Answer by username_13 on 2012-01-08. Score: 2

Stroke order is important, but the rigid insistence on a single correct stroke order appears to be a product of modern universal education. The Japanese and Chinese have actually standardised different stroke orders for some characters (e.g., 必).


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### Answer by username_14 on 2016-05-22. Score: 1

Stroke order is important to get the right proportions. First, it's like a picture. A good photographer would know the law of thirds. Similar concept in Chinese characters. The previous stroke helps to align the next stroke on the page.

Take 酉 for instance. I was always taught that you start from top left, first down then right. Start with the 一。But then there is the mouth 口。you open the mouth 冂，fill it, 一, then close it 一 at the bottom. So do you write 儿，before opening the mouth? If you did, you would have to make sure the mouth was big enough to fill everything. Otherwise you would have no guideline for where to stop the stroke, and the proportions for the size of what to fill the mouth with. The correct stroke order: 一，冂，儿，一，一。

The worst character to write nicely I find is: 美, and anything with 隹 in it, like: 謢.

With this stroke order is important. It is only important in computerized typing to know the right combination of key presses to output the right character on screen.


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### Answer by username_15 on 2017-07-19. Score: 0

There are six basic strokes of Chinese characters, horizontal stroke, vertical stroke, left-falling stroke, right-falling stroke, dot and rising stroke. Other types of strokes are derived from the strokes mentioned above, and thus known as the derived strokes.

One should be aware that in writing Chinese characters each stroke must go in a certain direction. It is important to understand this point and get oneself familiar with strokes. There are about 20-30 types of strokes that Chinese characters are composed of. The following is but a brief list:

[chinese character stroke](http://www.hanbridgemandarin.com/article/chinese-characters-learning-tips/chinese-character-stroke-order/)

The great majority of Chinese characters are formed by more than two strokes. The stroke can only be written in certain directions. For example, the horizontal stroke should only go from left to right. the vertical stroke can only be written from top to bottom, never from bottom to top.
check here and learn the chinese stroke order <http://www.hanbridgemandarin.com/article/chinese-characters-learning-tips/chinese-character-stroke-order/>


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### Answer by username_16 on 2017-07-19. Score: 0

Besides easier-to-guess-your-intended-character hand-writing knowing how to write characters "correctly" gives a Mandarin learner:

1. Better character lookup ability in dictionaries when using the "hand-write" character lookup in Pleco and other modern electronic dictionaries. Especially useful when the scan lookup isn't working (because of a weird font or hand-written character). The order you hand-write strokes on your smartphone will affect which characters the dictionary thinks you are writing.
2. If you know the right number of strokes added to the radical then better character lookup in paper dictionaries that organize characters by radical and number of strokes (also can be used to look-up characters with some electronic dictionaries like MDBG).
3. Better ability to guess the correct character meant when reading (somewhat sloppy) hand-written Chinese.
4. Ability to use Character input methods that depend on knowing how to write the character "properly".


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### Answer by username_17 on 2015-09-21. Score: 0

Very important as It's a part of the learning process, learning [**Chinese characters**](http://www.hanbridgemandarin.com/course/chinese-language-course/chinese-characters) without the strokes order makes things more difficult. I believe nowadays schools in China still teach stroke orders, but many people write purely on computers now using PinYin, making it less important. For people typing with WuBi the stroke order is crucial. If you want to know more about Chinese writing.


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### Answer by username_18 on 2017-07-18. Score: -1

I am a half Chinese.I love my Chinese grandma. This is the reason why it made me so eager to learn her language. And it all started when she held my hand and taught me the right strokes and suddenly I came to remember on how to write it properly and nicely. I believe it is very important to learn the strokes, It creates a clear direction on how to write it in an easy manner. at first, I thought it was difficult. As time goes by, It made me to yearn for more. Practice makes perfect. When you learn the strokes by heart. I also have taught kids "The Chinese Language" Read and write, As a Tutor. I felt good after seeing them writing just like my handwriting. For My grandma left a legacy for me, And I want to continue it. So I also pass that legacy to my students. It created an impact on the lives of other people.


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### Answer by username_19 on 2012-01-04. Score: -1

I'm a chinese. For my point that stroke order is necessary but not very important.It's a way to write them just like we write English. And the last question, I think less people could know


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