Bihua

Bihua is a web application for studying Chinese character writing. The tool allows users to search words by hanzi or pinyin, consult meanings, and practice the correct stroke order directly on screen.

The application combines a dictionary, animated stroke-order visualization, and a drawing canvas for writing practice. When consulting a character, users can view the correct writing sequence and then practice using a mouse, finger, trackpad, or digital pen. The interface allows adjustment of stroke thickness and color, as well as undoing, clearing, saving, and sharing drawings.

Official Vocabulary

Bihua includes vocabulary lists organized by study level and topic, such as food, colors, countries, body parts, and professions. The content serves beginners as well as intermediate and advanced learners. It also includes vocabulary lists related to the HSK (汉语水平考试), the official Mandarin Chinese proficiency examination administered periodically by China's Ministry of Education through Confucius Institute centers around the world.

The dictionary is based on an open-source Chinese–English resource. uint studio added Portuguese translations for thousands of entries, making the tool especially useful for Portuguese-speaking learners. The interface is available in Portuguese, Chinese, and English.

Democratizing Access to Knowledge

The project emerged from developer Vitor Butkus's own experience learning Mandarin Chinese. From this personal need, Bihua was created as a free tool and is now used daily by hundreds of students and teachers across different countries.

“One of my motivations for developing the app was the need for a free Mandarin learning tool in Portuguese. The overwhelming majority of online tools, apps, and textbooks for learning Mandarin are in English. This often creates the impression that knowing English is a prerequisite for learning Mandarin—and it is not. Bihua also stems from a desire to democratize access to Mandarin, both by being available in Portuguese and by being free to use,” Butkus said in an interview published by Ibrachina in 2023.

Reception

The Instagram profile @bihua.app gathered approximately 20,000 followers during the application's launch campaign. The account archives reviews of the webapp published by teachers, students, and study groups focused on China-related education. Notable examples include reviews shared by the Confucius Institute at UFRGS and by GECHINA (the China Studies Group at the University of Brasília).

Developer Vitor Butkus also gave an interview to Ibrachina, a cultural organization dedicated to Brazil–China relations based in São Paulo. In the interview, he discusses the motivations behind the project and the collaboration with Chinese translator Wu Liang, who contributed to the development of the webapp.