A stroke-level large-scale database of Chinese character handwriting and the OpenHandWrite_Toolbox for handwriting research.

Overview

This mega-study constructed the first publicly available, multi-level Chinese handwriting database, recording character-, radical-, and stroke-level kinematic metrics (latency, duration, pen pressure) across 1,200 simplified Chinese characters from native adult speakers. The project also released the upgraded, open-source OpenHandWrite_Toolbox for experimental design and automated trajectory extraction. The empirical findings reveal how lexical, phonological, and orthographic components cascade and hierarchically attenuate during fine-grained handwriting preparation and execution.

I coordinated and executed the behavioural data collection pipeline, overseeing high-throughput digitizer tablet setup (Wacom Intuos) and participant testing across multi-session handwriting-to-dictation protocols using PsychoPy.

Reflection

Looking back, my initial involvement in this large-scale multi-site project was driven simply by the excitement of cross-institutional collaboration. Revisiting this work today reveals where my core research identity was first sparked:

Hands-on execution with advanced devices grounded my understanding of data collection (e.g., stroke-level trajectories, latency, and pressure metrics), reinforcing my passion for computational and methods-driven research. Observing how orthographic retrieval degrades across character, radical, and stroke hierarchies offers crucial behavioral metrics for understanding neurodevelopmental variations and conditions like developmental dysgraphia or dyslexia. Capturing real-time motor execution provided a tangible, fine-grained look into how linguistic representations are retrieved and processed in the mind.

Reference

Xu, Z., Yu, S., Torrance, M., Nottbusch, G., Zhao, N., & Cai, Z. (2026). A stroke-level large-scale database of Chinese character handwriting and the OpenHandWrite_Toolbox for handwriting research. Behavior Research Methods, 58(6), 162.