Is it possible to recognize female Chinese handwriting?

[Lu]

But we all guessed 1 and 2 correctly. I'd say it really depends on the handwriting. Sometimes it's recognisably female or male, sometimes not. (And sometimes it's recognisably one but actually the other, as in the case of Skylee's predecessor.)

We should also keep in mind that three of the four guessers were not native speakers, and probably have had a lot less exposure to Chinese handwriting than most native speakers.

[Shelley]

Interesting that we all got 1 & 2 right. But it does seem we didn't really do better than random guessing, although I think because we all got the same ones right there must be something to distinguish one from the other.

 

It was really a very small sample and even smaller number of participants so it may be really skewed.

 

Interesting stuff though.

[Guest realmayo]

Reminds me a bit of the can-you-tell-Koreans/Japanese/Chinese people apart thing .... 

 

Perhaps the better test would be to say: here are five examples of handwriting that are all written by one gender, and here are five more all written by the other, now guess which is which.

[Kenny同志]

The fourth is an F? I can't believe it! The handwriting is so 不好看.

 

PS: I figured it out - it must be written by a 女俠.

[Demonic_Duck]

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

 

Well, it's true that 2% isn't statistically significant over such a small sample, but at that sample size I guess any difference would still be too small to be statistically significant. Anyway, I was referring more to the idea that Chinese handwriting seems to be less easily distinguishable by gender than English handwriting.

 

Perhaps the better test would be to say: here are five examples of handwriting that are all written by one gender, and here are five more all written by the other, now guess which is which.

 

That would be more likely to show up a detectable difference, though to balance that out you'd have to get them to write out the same text on the same paper, and disallow the use of smileys and “～” symbols.

[Angelina]

So people who have not been trained in forensic science can't tell the difference when it comes to Chinese handwriting. 

 

 

Demonic, I said that wearing high heels is torture, wanted to make a disclosure that I don't think that men are the source of all evil. 

 

Kenny, is new 女俠 a new Internet buzzword? My handwriting is NOT neat and pretty. 

[Lu]

I made a new thread on telling people apart, we can continue that discussion here.

[Angelina]

Thanks 

[Kenny同志]

Kenny, is new 女俠 a new Internet buzzword? 

 

No, in fact it's quite old. You can easily find it in a wuxia novel.

 

A 女俠 is someone like this or this:

 

 

 

解釋一下，俠是指以武力維護社會公平（比如懲治惡人，幫助弱小）的人。女俠即這樣的女性。

[anonymoose]

So is ² in Chinese the same as 々 in Japanese?

[Angelina]

I thought there is a new meaning in this Internet age. Maybe we can come up with a new meaning: a 女俠 is a girl who does not care how neat her handwriting is. So you think my handwriting does not look nice? Who cares?

[Kenny同志]

Maybe we can come up with a new meaning: a 女俠 is a girl who does not care how neat her handwriting is. So you think my handwriting does not look nice? Who cares?

 

You can give it a shot. hehe.

 

Anyway, I was just kidding. 女俠s have some masculine qualities, so I was basically saying that I saw something typical of men in that handwriting. It's only a joke. Technically, a 女俠 can be well-educated and write nice characters. 

[maomao2014]

女侠is out  女汉子is in

[Demonic_Duck]

So is ² in Chinese the same as 々 in Japanese?

I've never seen “²” used like that in the mainland, but I have seen “々” used a few times.

[Angelina]

I have heard about 女汉子, things in China are getting better after all. 

[SimonV]

Thanks for all your information and reactions, especially Demonic Duck and Angelina!

[戴 睿]

I've just shown the 6 examples of handwriting to my friend (a native chinese speaker). 

 

He guessed all 6 with 100% accuracy.

 

Granted, he said he felt that the content influenced his decision (some of the word choices marked the writer as distinctive female in his mind), but I was still impressed.

 

Also, he didn't take a long time to think about it or analyze the writing. It was off the cuff, but not random guesswork. He seemed fairly confident as he gave the answers.