Research

Shared Strategies on Chinese Character Learning

"字圆其说 · I Got One" is a long-term research, teaching, and community-engaged initiative on Chinese character learning across cultures. The project investigates how learners from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds conceptualize Chinese characters, and how these processes can be documented, analyzed, and translated into effective pedagogy. At its core is a researcher-led crowdsourcing platform that has collected over 6,500 learner-generated strategies covering more than 600 Chinese characters. These entries form a unique empirical dataset that reveals five major pathways through which learners connect with characters, challenging the dominance of radical- and phonetic-based explanations in traditional instruction. The project combines digital humanities methods, semiotic and cognitive analysis, creative design practice, and community-engaged learning. It has expanded beyond the online platform into exhibitions, intercultural salons, workshops, and classroom-integrated projects, including collaborative creative work with local Chinese-speaking communities. Through its integration of research, teaching, and public engagement, the project proposes a sustainable, human-centered model of Chinese language education that foregrounds meaning-making, intercultural dialogue, and forms of learning that remain difficult to replicate through AI-driven tools.