Is it possible to recognize female Chinese handwriting?

[SimonV]

In English language it's often possible to recognize female handwriting. Is that possible in Chinese handwriting, too?

And if so, what would be the differences between male and female handwriting?

 

Any help would be appreciated!

[skylee]

I don't think so. Or at least not always.

[Demonic_Duck]

I suspect there are general trends, though I've never thought about it much. One thing I'd expect to be the case is that female handwriting would tend to be neater and more attractive.

[Lu]

and more attractive.

That would be in the eye of the beholder, no?

I think you can tell the difference (not always, of course, but sometimes) but I don't really have pointers as to how.

[Demonic_Duck]

It would indeed be in the eye of the beholder, but I suspect if you took a random sample of female handwriting and a random sample of male handwriting, and showed them to a random selection of the population asking them to rate each sample for attractiveness, you'd find female handwriting would tend to be rated higher.

[Angelina]

female handwriting would tend to be neater and more attractive.

 

you haven't seen mine    

[SimonV]

In female English handwriting the characters have sometimes more round curves. But in Chinese language that's not possible, I think...

[SimonV]

I've googled at 例如，“女手写” , but didn't get an example...

[Simon_CH]

I would be very surprised if Chinese couldn't tell it apart. But who knows, any answers from native Chinese speakers?

[Geiko]

I agree with Demonic_Duck. Obviously, we're speaking in general terms, so there will also be many exceptions. Anyway, I took a photo of some letters I've received in the last few years. Writers are both from mainland China and Taiwan, both male and female. Can you guess which handwritings belong to boys and which ones to girls?  

[Angelina]

6 - female 

3 - male

[Lu]

M F F M M F. Am I right?

The ones that are the most attractive to me are the first and the fourth. I don't like the second one, too girly. I also quite like the fifth one, that person clearly writes a lot.

[Shelley]

Oooh what fun

 

M F M M F F

 

Just going on my gut, no analyzing, just how it feels.

 

I like no. 5 & 6.

[Kenny同志]

F: 2, 3, 5, 6

M: 4

Not sure: 1

 

PS: The second is my favourite. Very 工整, haha.

[Demonic_Duck]

I've googled at 例如，“女手写” , but didn't get an example...

 

I tried “笔迹 性别差异 实例”* in Google and Baidu. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything with samples of male and female handwriting (though it seems Geiko has helpfully provided some above), but what I did find was this:

 

中文笔迹性别差异的研究 (Study of Gender Differences in Chinese Handwriting)

 

The full study is behind a paywall, but you can read the abstract. The author concluded that the differences were:

 

男性的书写水平低于女性,男性书写速度比女性快,男性笔迹较潦草,轻重疾徐的节奏感较弱;男性书写时所留页边比女性小;男性笔迹的连笔比女性多,转折角度比女性大;男性笔迹的字行间距大于女性.

• Males generally had a lower level of handwriting, wrote faster than females, the handwriting was more sloppy, and ability to regulate pressure and speed of the pen was weaker.
• Males left smaller margins at the sides of the pages.
• Males joined up more strokes than females, and the angles at which strokes changed direction were bigger than for females [i'm not sure if this means angles between strokes tended to be more obtuse, more acute, or simply sharper and less rounded - perhaps someone with better Chinese could shed light on this].
• Males left more space between lines than females.

*The quotation marks weren't included in the search. Is there a generally accepted way of setting apart search terms within prose without using quotation marks?

[Angelina]

男性的书写水平低于女性

 

Let's not forget that the author is a female

[Demonic_Duck]

...and therefore, the handwritten first draft of the paper was impeccably neat!

[Angelina]

分析与讨论 男女笔迹存在差异的主要原因有以下几个方面:

一是由社会文化的影响以及男女个性的发展不同造 成的。生活在社会中的个体在扮演自己的性别角色 时,就必须依从于自己所在社会对性别角色的要求, 男性和女性分别向着“男子气”或“女子气”的方向发 展,使其人格具有男性化或女性化的特征[3]。我国传 统对女性的行为规范是以比较严格的约束为特征的, 这种约束性在书写方面也有体现,如要求女性写字要 工整、要文雅,不能随意挥洒等等。对于男性则没有 诸多的限制,较多地顺其自然,由其随意发挥。二是 由男女生理方面的差异造成的。从生理学因素上看, 男性在运动速度及灵活性方面都普遍大于女性,表现 在笔迹上男性书写速度比女性快。三是由男女审美 观的差异造成的。男性和女性自我追求书写艺术风 格有明显的差异,男性一般喜欢并追求笔势雄健、气 势磅礴、龙飞凤舞的行书书体,而女性则一般多喜欢 并追求秀丽平稳、小巧玲珑的楷书书体,所以男性较 女性笔迹潦草。四是由男女心理方面的差异造成的。 以男性为中心的社会环境中,在男性身上便出现了一 些有典型意义的特殊心理现象,如在控制欲问题上, 性别差异是很突出的,女性较男性自卑感强,依赖性 强,自我评价低,成就动机弱,控制欲、占有欲弱[3]。 所以,男性笔迹所留页边小于女性。社会心理学研究 也表明,在人际交往中每个人都有个人空间的需求, 而人们需求的个人空间的大小因性别、年龄、文化、人际关系的亲密程度等不同而不同。中国人大多都信奉“男主外,女主内’’的观点,女性多以家庭为中心,对独立空间、距离的需求要小,而男性以事业为中心,承担更多的社会负任，对独立空间距离的需求要大。所以,男性笔迹的字行间距大于女性。 

 

 What?

[Angelina]

So, men tend to leave smaller margins than women because women feel insecure. However, our handwriting is more 工整. 

 

What a nice study you have found Demonic. 

[skylee]

Re #10, it is impossible to tell!

My predecessor at office has left me two cabinets of documents. I have little interest in them. But a while back I thought I should take a look at some of them, and I found some handwriting in them. I know my predecessor is a woman, and I thought, ha, who wrote these things? But after reading those documents, I realised that it was her handwriting. It was very masculine, even wild. So my conclusion is it is hard to tell. (Though in fairness the handwriting is mostly if not all in English as we don't usually write in Chinese at office.)