Why is stroke order important when writing Chinese characters?

Question

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?

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

The stroke order is important, yes. The main reason that explain why the stroke order is so important is that the stroke order 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.

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

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).

Answer 5

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).

Answer 6

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