Is it possible to recognize female Chinese handwriting?

[Demonic_Duck]

@Angelina: I'm assuming what you quoted is from behind the paywall?

 

Seems like their analysis is a bit of a stretch, though that doesn't invalidate their actual observations. Also, it was males that left the smaller margins.

[Angelina]

Let me edit my post. We can also add that women tend to make a lot of typos when angry, or hysterical if we are to adopt the right vocabulary. 

[Angelina]

Here is the file

%e4%b8%ad%e6%96%87%e7%ac%94%e8%bf%b9%e6%80%a7%e5%88%ab%e5%b7%ae%e5%bc%82%e7%9a%84%e7%a0%94%e7%a9%b6.pdf

[Lu]

@Skylee, it's impossible to tell for certain, but there are trends. You were surprised that the handwriting was a woman's, which shows that it's never 100%, but also that you have some idea in your head about what a woman's handwriting looks like and what a man's.

[Hofmann]

At first I thought this was stupid, but then I thought this might resemble the gender paradox.

[Angelina]

There might be some truth in there Hofmann, I have met many women who married up. However, we can't generalize. Saying that women are 自我评价低 is just wrong, can't believe a paper like that was actually published. 

[Hofmann]

I didn't even read that. I was referring to that if women tend to have neater (or whatever) handwriting, it might resemble their tendency to adopt more prestigious varieties in Western European languages/cultures.

[Angelina]

Yup

[Lu]

That would mean that all else being equal, women would potentially make the most prized calligraphers. Conform to the rules, adopt more prestigious varieties, but lead linguistic innovation. Of course in the past, women in China generally weren't encouraged to write a lot, but this might have evened out by now (no idea if that is actually the case, but I don't think anyone would discourage a woman from practicing calligraphy, it's not un-feminine I think). So if all that is correct, we might be seeing more and more great calligraphy by women.

[imron]

Saying that women are 自我评价低 is just wrong,

Put it in a cultural context, where the women have grown up in a 重男轻女 society, I don't think it's surprising that you will get many women who have low opinions of themselves compared to men performing the same assessment.  In fact, the part of the paper you quoted says as much.  Let me highlight some different parts.

 

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。

 

So, it's not saying all women 自我评价低.  It's saying that in a society that strongly favours men, women are more likely than men to have a lower opinion of themselves (and a whole host of other negative things).  I don't see anything logically wrong with that assertion, and it reflects the truth about Chinese society today, which is still 重男轻女 - though not nearly as badly as it used to be.

[Angelina]

though not nearly as badly as it used to be

 

Yeah, at least they don't mutilate the feet of Chinese women any more. It is only high heels nowadays. Still a torture, but nothing too scary. 

 

You are right. It is true in the context of Chinese society, it does not apply to all women.   (I am not an anarcha-feminist - I don't hate 'men')

[Demonic_Duck]

I don't think anyone ever suspected you were an anarcha-feminist, nor that you hate men. Anyway, I can't say I'm too familiar with anarcha-feminism, but I'm somewhat familiar with both anarchism and feminism, and I see no reason to assume their intersection would hinge on hating men.

 

For what it's worth, as imron says, it could very well be true that women tend to have a lower opinion of themselves than men in Chinese society, but even if this is the case, it doesn't seem like the authors of the study have any evidence to link this to the observed handwriting differences. That paragraph is highly speculative, but written as if it is fact.

[Shelley]

@Geiko are you going to tell us which ones are which?

[Geiko]

Hahaha yes I am, I haven't done it yet because I'm using my mobile and can't find the "spoiler" thing. As soon as I get home I'll write the correct answers. However, I can tell you that neither of you got all of them right! A couple of handwritings were chosen because they were misleading...

[Demonic_Duck]

My guess would've been MFFMMF (same as Lu's).
 
You can also input spoiler tags by typing

[spoiler][/spoiler]

around the content.

[Geiko]

Oh, thank you, Demonic Duck! The correct answer is...

MFFFFM

[Simon_CH]

So the conclusion is that it's still possible in general to differentiate between male and female handwriting but that it's more difficult than in the Latin alphabet?

[Demonic_Duck]

Oh, thank you, Demonic Duck! The correct answer is...

MFFFFM

 

Of the four people that guessed:

 

Lu: 3/6

Shelley: 3/6

Kenny: 3.5/6 (I generously gave half a point for "uncertain")

Me: 3/6

 

That means that between us we attained a miserable 52.08% average success rate for guessing the gender.

 

So the conclusion is that it's still possible in general to differentiate between male and female handwriting but that it's more difficult than in the Latin alphabet?

Based on our very small and unscientific study, it'd seem so. Although I'm not convinced the success rate would be much higher with English-language handwriting. I also suspect that for handwriting in any language, a specialist could attain a much higher success rate (maybe 80% or so? That's a complete guess).

[imron]

it doesn't seem like the authors of the study have any evidence to link this to the observed handwriting differences

They do list a bunch of studies in their paper.  Not sure if those other studies provide any evidence.

[imron]

Based on our very small and unscientific study, it'd seem so.

Or rather, at 52.08%, it's basically the same outcome you'd get as random guessing