Series

Read them in order

Loose guides, grouped. Each series is a short run you can read end to end — and every piece ends in characters you can look up, write and print.

Start here

2 pieces

September 18, 2026 7 Chinese characters that are still drawings — the fastest win for day-one learners Seven of the oldest characters in the script still look like what they draw. Learn these seven on day one and you have proof, in your own handwriting, that characters are not random. September 11, 2026 The 12 radicals that unlock 500 characters — and the order to learn them in A radical is a meaning tag hiding inside a character. Learn these twelve and you can make a real guess at hundreds of characters you have never seen before.

Characters are documentaries

1 piece

September 15, 2026 Why 家 has a pig under a roof — 5 characters that tell you how ancient China actually lived A pig under a roof means home. A woman under a roof means peace. Five everyday characters that are really tiny documentaries about how people lived, worked and hoped three thousand years ago.

Characters in the wild

1 piece

September 7, 2026 Dragon, phoenix, turtle: 4 things to check before you get a Chinese tattoo A character tattoo is permanent; a bad one is permanently embarrassing. Four checks that take twenty minutes and save you from the tattoo-fail gallery.

Exam lists, humanely

1 piece

September 3, 2026 HSK 1 in stories — 150 characters grouped so they remember each other HSK 1 is 150 characters. Learned as an alphabetical list it is a chore; learned in story families it is five small worlds. Here is the grouping, and the free practice sheets to write each one.

Never mix these up again

1 piece

August 30, 2026 5 character pairs every learner mixes up — and the one-line trick for each 人 and 入, 未 and 末, 刀 and 力: five pairs that look identical at speed, with a one-line trick for each so you never swap them again.