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During his visit in the Czech Republic, the president of PRC Xi Jinping (习近平) has made a record in the castle of Lany guestbook. Its photo was posted publicly.

The second line 二〇一六年三月廿八日 is obviously the date 2016-03-28,
but what are the main three characters above? They don't look like the name signature much.

??? 二〇一六年三月廿八日

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5
  • btw, the date numerals seem weird, inconsistent - year 2, 0, 1, 6; month 3; day 20, 8
    – mykhal
    Mar 29 '16 at 17:32
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    I don't see anything weird there, please make your point clear?
    – Stan
    Mar 30 '16 at 8:13
  • Second @Stan, Nothing weird in the date either.
    – dda
    Mar 30 '16 at 16:40
  • @Stan I thought inconsistency is obvious from my original comment.. OK, in other words: if the day number was written the same way as the year (list of digits), it would not be written as 廿八 or 二十八, but 二八.
    – mykhal
    Mar 31 '16 at 8:52
  • Written in Chinese characters, 十一月／十二月／十一日／二十八日／廿八日 are normal. The year would be too long if it's written as 二千一百一十六年 in a common situation; however, there's the usage 西元二千一百一十六年, when 年号 is applied, the number is generally "spelled out". (Anyway it sounds pretentious.)
    – Stan
    Mar 31 '16 at 9:06
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That's 習近平 (Xi Jinping)'s signature. Just written in Traditional Chinese characters.

EDIT:

This is Xi's signature on his dissertation (Doctor of Laws): Xi

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5
  • .. don't look.. at least for a chinese amateur. E.g. the third character looks rather almost exactly like 年 below. My untrained eye can barely match any pattern in the first two ones..
    – mykhal
    Mar 29 '16 at 10:12
  • @mykhal I was just trying to avoid one-line answer :) I hope you don't mind. Yes it looks a little like 年.
    – Stan
    Mar 29 '16 at 10:17
  • I don't mind but also I am not convinced :)
    – mykhal
    Mar 29 '16 at 10:20
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    @mykhal Just add a picture of Xi's dissertation with his signature. And you can also search 习近平 签名 on Google image.
    – Stan
    Mar 29 '16 at 10:29
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    @mykhal the key to understanding Chinese cursive writing is to know stroke order. For example, with the 平, you should write the top heng, then the two dian, the middle heng, and finally the shu. This explains the zigzag pattern of the cursive character. You won't write 年 like that.
    – congusbongus
    Mar 29 '16 at 14:33
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As my uncle (who is very good at calligraphy) put it, most Chinese signatures are wrong in their strokes if you take it seriously.

If you take out any character of the signatures alone, it will be hard to recognize. You don't need to worry about that, for Chinese people, some signatures can be only recognized by those who sign it.

For cursive strokes, I began writing in this way by imitating adults when I was a middle school student. Because pupils are not allowed to write in cursive strokes.

Years past, I write characters in cursive unconsciously, if I stop and think about how I write next stroke, I will fail. Which proves it has become my conditioned reflex.

This may be off the topic, just end it here.

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  • Hi Abraham, I voted up to encourage you share your stories! Next time, try to add some more information with reference, that would be even better ;)
    – George
    Mar 30 '16 at 19:33
  • You may look up "Cursive script" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursive_script_(East_Asia) ). As for signature, it doesn't have to be right in the strokes: for example, a cursive circle can be used as a signature.
    – Wang Zong'an
    Mar 30 '16 at 21:53

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