1
Cast an actor
The first sound of a character picks the actor. Every "h" character stars the same person. Pick a friend, a celebrity, whoever you can see clearly.
Mandarin characters, one scene at a time
Characters you can picture, not cram.
Hanzen breaks every character into its parts and turns them into a short scene starring people and places you already know. Read it once. Then it sticks.
- 3,000+ characters mapped
- Spaced reviews built in
- Your cast, your stories
Flashcards drill the shape. Apps drill the sound. Neither gives you a reason to remember. Hanzen gives every character a story with a cast, a setting, and props, all pulled from its actual parts.
How it works
Four beats. One scene. One character.
You cast the actors and pick the places once. After that, each new character assembles itself from pieces you already know.
2
Pick a set
The ending sound picks the place. Your childhood kitchen, a favorite cafe, the gym. Places you can walk through in your head.
3
Let the tone choose the room
Five tones, five zones in every set. The tone tells you where in the place the scene happens. No more guessing.
4
Add the props
Each component of the character becomes a prop with its own name. Put the actor, the set, and the props together and you have a scene you can replay any time.
妈
女 woman
+
马 horse
=
妈 mom
Your "m" actor walks into your "-a" place. Tone 1 puts the scene at the entrance. A woman rides a horse straight through the door. That's mom. You will not forget it.
The app
A path, a deck, and a place to browse it all
Dark by default. Calm on purpose. Built to open for ten minutes a day and close again.
-
Reviews on a schedule
Spaced repetition decides what you see and when. You show up, it does the planning.
-
3,000+ characters
Enough to read the news. Every one broken into parts with its own keyword.
-
Your cast
The actors and places are yours. The stories are yours. Nothing generic to memorize.
-
Stroke by stroke
Watch each character draw itself. Then write it on the grid.
-
Phone and laptop
One web app that installs to your home screen. Same progress on every device.
-
Original content
Keywords, component names, and stories are written for Hanzen. No textbook pages inside.
Hanzen Watch, a browser extension
Any Chinese YouTube video becomes a lesson
Open a video with Chinese captions. A panel slides in and follows along. Slow a line down. Loop it. Say it back. Tap a word to see how its characters are built. Grammar gets spotted for you. Short questions keep you honest.
- Synced transcript. Every line, timed. Click one to jump. It scrolls with the video.
- Slow, loop, shadow. Drop to half speed, loop a line, then repeat it after the speaker in three steps.
- Word cards. Pinyin, meaning, and a component breakdown for each character. Save the ones you want to keep.
- Grammar spotting. Sixty patterns from beginner to advanced, flagged in the line where they show up.
- Questions that use the video. Fill the gap, pick the meaning, rebuild the line, catch the tone. Distractors come from the same video.
- Runs in your browser. No account, no server, no data leaving the page. Firefox and Zen today. Chrome next.
Waitlist
Be first in
Early access, a launch discount, and one email when it's ready. Nothing else.
One purchase. Both tools.
Buy once and unlock the Hanzen app and the Hanzen Watch extension together. Start free with the first 150 characters, upgrade when you are ready.
Secure checkout by Stripe. One purchase unlocks the Hanzen app and the browser extension. Your licence key is shown right after payment.
Questions
The short answers
Do I need to know any Chinese first?
No. Hanzen starts from the first stroke. If you already know some characters, you can mark them known and skip ahead.
Simplified or traditional?
Simplified at launch. Traditional is on the list.
Does it teach speaking and listening?
The app is about reading and remembering characters. Hanzen Watch covers listening and shadowing with real videos. They work well together.
Where does the content come from?
Character keywords, component names, and story scaffolds are written for Hanzen. Dictionary definitions come from open data with credits shown in the app.
What will it cost?
Not settled yet. Waitlist members get the launch price, and it will be lower than the public one.