You can read it.
Now write it.
You know the character. The keyboard offers it after two letters of pinyin. Hand you a pen and ask for it from memory, and your hand stops. Xie Chinese closes that gap the only way it closes — by writing, one graded stroke at a time.
iPhone & iPad · Apple Pencil ready · Ten minutes a day.
That gap has a name.
You have recognition. You don't have recall. And no amount of tapping the right answer out of four will give it to you.
You see 想 and you know it. You pick it out of four options. You type xi and the keyboard hands it to you.
Blank paper, no options, no keyboard. Thirteen strokes in a fixed order, produced from memory. That is a different skill, and it only comes from doing it.
Stroke order looks like etiquette.
It isn't.
It is the index your memory files a character under. Written in the right order, a character stops being a picture you are copying and becomes a sequence your hand can replay — the way you don't picture your signature, you just produce it.
- ✓Keeps components in proportion, so the character doesn't drift out of shape
- ✓Keeps your handwriting legible to a native reader
- ✓Makes stroke-based dictionary lookup work
So this app grades the order, not only the shape.
How a character goes in.
A new character arrives as a faint model you trace over. It fades a little on each pass. By the third the grid is empty.
The fade is the whole method: the app is not testing you, it is removing itself.
Trace, then let go
The model gets fainter every pass until the grid is empty and you write it unaided. Nothing announces the moment — you just find you did it without help.
Every stroke graded as you draw it
Not a score at the end. Miss the hook on stroke seven and the app names that stroke, circles it on the character you just wrote, and tells you in one line what to do differently.
The order, any time you want it
Stuck halfway through? Replay the full stroke order, stroke by stroke, without leaving the exercise. No penalty, no trip back to a lesson screen.
Ten minutes, then you are finished
A short set each day, not an endless feed. Finish it and the app gets out of your way — with the numbers for the session: characters written, stroke accuracy, time, day streak.
Graded per stroke,
not per character.
A single score at the end tells you nothing you can act on. Xie Chinese watches the stroke you are drawing while you draw it — where it starts, which direction it travels, whether it comes before or after the one next to it.
Everything here serves the pen.
In most Chinese apps, handwriting is one bullet in a list of thirteen. Here it is the entire app.
Per-stroke grading
Named, explained corrections on the stroke that went wrong — not a percentage on the finished character.
Correct order from character one
You never learn an order you have to unlearn. Replay the full sequence stroke by stroke whenever you're stuck.
Apple Pencil & iPad
Precise palm rejection, so you can rest your hand on the glass and write the way you would on paper.
Sentence practice
Each character written inside a real sentence, with pinyin and meaning, so it sticks to something you'd say.
Pinyin typing, no tone marks
For reviewing on a bus or in a queue, when there is no pen. A review mode — never a substitute for writing.
HSK 1–6 dictionary
Pinyin, meaning, stroke count — and what you already know, marked against every entry.
Printable PDF workbooks
Pick the characters, pick the grid, print it, write on paper. The oldest method, generated from what you're actually learning.
End-of-session numbers
Characters written, stroke accuracy, time, day streak. Four figures, then the app closes the session.
Review that comes back
The characters you got wrong return on their own schedule, so a bad stroke gets a second attempt instead of a shrug.
It will not teach you to order coffee
or carry a conversation.
Keep your dictionary, keep your flashcards, keep whatever course you are on. Writing is the one part of Chinese that never comes from tapping, and it is all this app does.
Who it is for.
Anyone who recognises more characters than they can write — which is nearly everyone who has studied Chinese for a while.
You've studied for years, you read fine, and you cannot produce a character from memory. This is the app for exactly that gap.
HSK asks you to write. Work through the level you're sitting, character by character, with the order graded from the start.
Begin at the basic strokes and build up. You will never learn a stroke order you have to unlearn later.
Free to download. Free to practise.
Every day you can pick up the app and write, at no cost. Pro is for when you want the whole HSK 1–6 program open, no daily cap, and your own workbooks on paper.
- ✓ Per-stroke grading with named corrections
- ✓ Correct stroke order and full replay
- ✓ Daily practice set, every day
- ✓ Dictionary lookup and pinyin review
- ✓ Session stats and your day streak
- ✓ The full HSK 1–6 program
- ✓ Unlimited daily practice — no cap
- ✓ Printable PDF workbook export
- ✓ Sentence practice across every level
- ✓ Cancel any time in Apple Account settings
Xie Chinese Pro is an auto-renewing subscription. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase, and renews automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel in your Apple Account settings. Prices shown in USD; your local price is set by the App Store and may vary by region.
Questions
The ones we get asked most.
Ten minutes. One pen.
Write the characters you can already read, starting today.