<p>In restaurants (茶餐廳) in Hong Kong, the "waiters" also face this problem because writing in a formal and clear way takes too much time. They developed methods so that they can take orders faster:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Write words with other words that has the same pronunciation.<br>
For example, instead of writing the word 「飯」(faan<sup>6</sup>), they would write 「反」(faan<sup>2</sup>) because they both have similar pronunciations.</p></li>
<li><p>Draw symbols instead of words.<br>
Instead of writing 「叉燒」, writing 「╳燒」takes less time and is still readable.</p></li>
<li><p>Try to write with less strokes. Instead of writing a stroke by another, try this:<br>
<img src="https://i.sstatic.net/kCD9r.jpg" alt="enter image description here"></p></li>
<li><p>Use a mixture of Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese: (applies to people who are outside of mainland China, mainly for users of Traditional Chinese)<br>
Eg: 我是一個好<code>学</code>生。</p></li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-09-28T02:27:57.367Z
@congusbongus people have used "simplified" characters for thousands of years (Chinese has cursive forms, too!) - it's helpful to keep this in mind when comparing with the PRC's formally simplified script
ianpojman
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-02T00:50:37.287Z
The confusion that may be caused by Simplified usually only comes up in reading certain Classical Chinese texts transliterated into Simplified, so it really doesn’t occur in day to day life.
H Huang
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-04-15T00:39:58.250Z
Why not just go the whole nine yards and use Simplified all the time? After all, it was designed primarily for ease of writing.
congusbongus
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-04-15T02:10:58.027Z
Nice answer, you may like to clarify your last point which applies to users of traditional Chinese characters who know a bit of simplified Chinese. @Cong Xu, I doubt traditional Chinese users can make the full conversion to simplified without the help of some tools.
杨以轩
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-04-15T02:39:56.397Z
Great! Thanks for the image - good way to demonstrate. I only write simplified Han zi. I bought some books that provide fast-hand writing han ci to practice/ copy the characters but don't like that person style.
Meandering
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-04-15T03:13:48.957Z
@CongXu - Simplified characters often create confusion, for example, can you tell what does `干` means? It also creates misleading characters such as `游戏`. `游` means `to swim (nothing else)`, but now it seems like you are `playing games while swimming`.
Derek 朕會功夫
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-04-15T04:36:50.123Z
@Derek I don't find the shorthands `╳` and `反` misleading or confusing; I'm sure most people are fine with what `干` means too.
congusbongus
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-04-15T06:06:49.213Z
@CongXu - What I meant is the Simplified Chinese system... not those tricks I mentioned.
Derek 朕會功夫
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-04-15T08:08:56.377Z
@Derek Used in context, I don't think the merged characters in simplified are ever confusing (no one ever thinks "OMG, I'm swimming while playing!"). From the systematic perspective, it's kind of dumb/ugly that they merged characters, but I don't think it leads to miscommunications in practice.
Stumpy Joe Pete
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-04-15T00:10:48.327Z
2013-04-15T03:12:57.767Z
2013-04-15T03:12:57.767Z
Derek 朕會功夫
<p>A good way to write faster, apart from to "practice, practice, and practice", is learning the order in which strokes are supposed to be written. This order tipically arises logically from the radicals that are used to build each character, and from the ancient traditional writing, e.g: engraving in wood or stone, and, mainly, using feathers or brushes &amp; ink.</p>

<p>When you write with a feather on thin sheets of rice paper, it is materially very hard to perform some movements without piercing through, such as a full circle, or a right-to-left horizontal line. That is one reason why most ideograms that should be circular in nature, are actually drawn as squares. This is the case, f. i., of the "sun":  日 (rì). In writing so, boxes are drawn using two strokes: the left, top and right sides of the aquare in one single movement, and then closing the box at the bottom from left to right.</p>

<p>There are some other unwritten rules, like writing from left to right, top-down, and adding the dots at the end. But watch out, since these rules do not work 100% of the times. In Chinese calligraphy, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroke_order" rel="nofollow noreferrer">stroke order</a> is very unintuitive, because the lines are usually drawn in the less logical of orders, for reasons that only experienced calligraphers can explain (such as achieving more graceful manners, or avoiding blurring the ink at crossings). It is always a good idea to learn how to draw some complex characters of frequent use, such as 我 (wŏ). After a bit of practice with these, most other will come around quite naturally. This simple practice will greatly increase your handwriting speed.
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/N308E.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/N308E.png" alt="Wo by Arch Chinese"></a></p>

<p>Anyhow, calligraphy by itself is considered a rightful art in mainland China, so it is naturally hard to master. There are many abbreviations for the most common strokes, and also different calligraphies that may be used, outside of the canonical one. Many chinese brand designers seem to think that, the more unreadable the font, the more beautiful it looks when printed. Like it's the case in western calligraphy, usually the most unreadable of all, are the notes taken by professionals, who have to write the same text, over and over again, like medics and chemists. Studying their calligraphy will yield hints on how to optimize your writing speed, once you achieve some average level.</p>

<p>There are a number of websites where beginners can learn the right stroke order, such as <a href="http://www.archchinese.com/chinese_english_dictionary.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ArchChinese</a>.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-04-21T18:54:00.063Z
2016-04-21T18:54:00.063Z
Alfonso F R
<p>First, make sure you are writing in the <strong>correct stroke sequence</strong>.</p>

<p>Then, just try to write faster, and <strong>don't care the strokes to be connected</strong>. While, try to keep the connecting line as light as possible.</p>

<p>Chinese characters are understandable even if the strokes are connected as long as the stroke sequence is correct. The strokes in many Chinese handwriting computer fonts are connected.</p>

<hr>

<p><strong>Chinese handwriting in ball pen:</strong>
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/vdeFy.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/vdeFy.jpg" alt="Chinese handwriting"></a></p>

<p><strong>Chinese handwriting computer font:</strong></p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/PXjmH.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/PXjmH.jpg" alt="Chinese handwriting font"></a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-04-22T03:30:33.513Z
2016-04-22T03:30:33.513Z
wilson
<p>There are ancient people think exactly like you, so they developed <code>草書</code>, see <a href="https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8D%89%E4%B9%A6" rel="nofollow">wiki</a>.</p>

<p>It's like drawing the <code>shape</code> instead of <code>detail</code>, i.g. stcakexhacnge and stackexchange will looks like identity at first glance. There are no rules but depend on your mind, sometimes it can be master pieces.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-04-22T06:56:04.137Z
2016-04-22T06:56:04.137Z
yyc1217
<p>Learn the simplified characters. That's what they're there for. </p>

<p>IMHO, they aren't easier to learn. But they ARE easier to write.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-14T16:04:10.273Z
@MichaelLai: I was talking about the physical "writing." You're referring to "character recognition," which is really more part of "reading."
Tom Au
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-04-24T06:34:15.417Z
I would argue whether they are easier to write or not. Simplified characters take less time to write, but I think for non-native speakers the relationship between the radicals and the character helps them to remember the strokes and character better than simplified characters.
Michael Lai
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-04-16T14:06:49.380Z
2013-04-16T14:06:49.380Z
Tom Au
<p>Are there any resources / how-to sources about how to write Chinese characters faster than normal while still being readable? It took me forever to take notes while in class.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-04-24T13:40:43.727Z
For me personally, I don't take my pen off the paper and continue the strokes as 1 if comfortable.
Daniel Cheung
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-05-05T02:14:12.013Z
Is it proper to ask non-native speaker to write Chinese in 行书 or 草书 ? I think there is no easy way to write fast. Just practise.
catinred
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-04-15T02:06:40.257Z
try Google 硬筆字+行書
AngelLeliel
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-04-16T05:15:58.287Z
@AngelLeliel or instead, they could maybe ask on some kind of question and answer site for experts, language enthusiasts, and people who have an interest in the Chinese language..? :P
Cocowalla
<writing>
How to (hand) write Chinese characters faster
# How to (hand) write Chinese characters faster

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-04-14)

Are there any resources / how-to sources about how to write Chinese characters faster than normal while still being readable? It took me forever to take notes while in class.

**Tags:** writing

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: try Google 硬筆字+行書  
> **username_4**: @username_3 or instead, they could maybe ask on some kind of question and answer site for experts, language enthusiasts, and people who have an interest in the Chinese language..? :P  
> **username_1**: For me personally, I don't take my pen off the paper and continue the strokes as 1 if comfortable.  
> **username_2**: Is it proper to ask non-native speaker to write Chinese in 行书 or 草书 ? I think there is no easy way to write fast. Just practise.  

---

## 5 answers

### Answer by username_5 on 2013-04-15. Score: 14

In restaurants (茶餐廳) in Hong Kong, the "waiters" also face this problem because writing in a formal and clear way takes too much time. They developed methods so that they can take orders faster:

* Write words with other words that has the same pronunciation.  
  For example, instead of writing the word 「飯」(faan6), they would write 「反」(faan2) because they both have similar pronunciations.
* Draw symbols instead of words.  
  Instead of writing 「叉燒」, writing 「╳燒」takes less time and is still readable.
* Try to write with less strokes. Instead of writing a stroke by another, try this:  
  ![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/kCD9r.jpg)
* Use a mixture of Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese: (applies to people who are outside of mainland China, mainly for users of Traditional Chinese)  
  Eg: 我是一個好`学`生。

> **Comments:**
> **username_8**: Why not just go the whole nine yards and use Simplified all the time? After all, it was designed primarily for ease of writing.  
> **username_9**: Nice answer, you may like to clarify your last point which applies to users of traditional Chinese characters who know a bit of simplified Chinese. @Cong Xu, I doubt traditional Chinese users can make the full conversion to simplified without the help of some tools.  
> **username_0**: Great! Thanks for the image - good way to demonstrate. I only write simplified Han zi. I bought some books that provide fast-hand writing han ci to practice/ copy the characters but don't like that person style.  
> **username_5**: @CongXu - Simplified characters often create confusion, for example, can you tell what does `干` means? It also creates misleading characters such as `游戏`. `游` means `to swim (nothing else)`, but now it seems like you are `playing games while swimming`.  
> **username_8**: @username_5 I don't find the shorthands `╳` and `反` misleading or confusing; I'm sure most people are fine with what `干` means too.  
> **username_5**: @CongXu - What I meant is the Simplified Chinese system... not those tricks I mentioned.  
> **username_10**: @username_5 Used in context, I don't think the merged characters in simplified are ever confusing (no one ever thinks "OMG, I'm swimming while playing!"). From the systematic perspective, it's kind of dumb/ugly that they merged characters, but I don't think it leads to miscommunications in practice.  
> **username_6**: @username_8 people have used "simplified" characters for thousands of years (Chinese has cursive forms, too!) - it's helpful to keep this in mind when comparing with the PRC's formally simplified script  
> **username_7**: The confusion that may be caused by Simplified usually only comes up in reading certain Classical Chinese texts transliterated into Simplified, so it really doesn’t occur in day to day life.  

---

### Answer by username_11 on 2016-04-21. Score: 2

A good way to write faster, apart from to "practice, practice, and practice", is learning the order in which strokes are supposed to be written. This order tipically arises logically from the radicals that are used to build each character, and from the ancient traditional writing, e.g: engraving in wood or stone, and, mainly, using feathers or brushes & ink.

When you write with a feather on thin sheets of rice paper, it is materially very hard to perform some movements without piercing through, such as a full circle, or a right-to-left horizontal line. That is one reason why most ideograms that should be circular in nature, are actually drawn as squares. This is the case, f. i., of the "sun": 日 (rì). In writing so, boxes are drawn using two strokes: the left, top and right sides of the aquare in one single movement, and then closing the box at the bottom from left to right.

There are some other unwritten rules, like writing from left to right, top-down, and adding the dots at the end. But watch out, since these rules do not work 100% of the times. In Chinese calligraphy, the [stroke order](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroke_order) is very unintuitive, because the lines are usually drawn in the less logical of orders, for reasons that only experienced calligraphers can explain (such as achieving more graceful manners, or avoiding blurring the ink at crossings). It is always a good idea to learn how to draw some complex characters of frequent use, such as 我 (wŏ). After a bit of practice with these, most other will come around quite naturally. This simple practice will greatly increase your handwriting speed.
[![Wo by Arch Chinese](https://i.sstatic.net/N308E.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/N308E.png)

Anyhow, calligraphy by itself is considered a rightful art in mainland China, so it is naturally hard to master. There are many abbreviations for the most common strokes, and also different calligraphies that may be used, outside of the canonical one. Many chinese brand designers seem to think that, the more unreadable the font, the more beautiful it looks when printed. Like it's the case in western calligraphy, usually the most unreadable of all, are the notes taken by professionals, who have to write the same text, over and over again, like medics and chemists. Studying their calligraphy will yield hints on how to optimize your writing speed, once you achieve some average level.

There are a number of websites where beginners can learn the right stroke order, such as [ArchChinese](http://www.archchinese.com/chinese_english_dictionary.html).


---

### Answer by username_12 on 2016-04-22. Score: 2

First, make sure you are writing in the **correct stroke sequence**.

Then, just try to write faster, and **don't care the strokes to be connected**. While, try to keep the connecting line as light as possible.

Chinese characters are understandable even if the strokes are connected as long as the stroke sequence is correct. The strokes in many Chinese handwriting computer fonts are connected.

---

**Chinese handwriting in ball pen:**
[![Chinese handwriting](https://i.sstatic.net/vdeFy.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/vdeFy.jpg)

**Chinese handwriting computer font:**

[![Chinese handwriting font](https://i.sstatic.net/PXjmH.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/PXjmH.jpg)


---

### Answer by username_13 on 2016-04-22. Score: 1

There are ancient people think exactly like you, so they developed `草書`, see [wiki](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8D%89%E4%B9%A6).

It's like drawing the `shape` instead of `detail`, i.g. stcakexhacnge and stackexchange will looks like identity at first glance. There are no rules but depend on your mind, sometimes it can be master pieces.


---

### Answer by username_14 on 2013-04-16. Score: -1

Learn the simplified characters. That's what they're there for.

IMHO, they aren't easier to learn. But they ARE easier to write.

> **Comments:**
> **username_15**: I would argue whether they are easier to write or not. Simplified characters take less time to write, but I think for non-native speakers the relationship between the radicals and the character helps them to remember the strokes and character better than simplified characters.  
> **username_14**: @username_15: I was talking about the physical "writing." You're referring to "character recognition," which is really more part of "reading."  

---

