Section 2: Formations
Apart
Some characters are made up of strokes not touching one another but are positioned relative to one another. Take note of how the strokes are spaced apart to ensure that the characters look balanced and centred.
ABC2: Apart, Bonding, Crossing
The second set of ABC (Apart, Bonding, Crossing) in the Triple ABCs Concept explains how characters (formations) are created and explains the relationships between the strokes (performers).
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Apart
Performers not touching one another
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Bonding
At least one part of a performer touches another performer
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Crossing
At least two performers intersecting each other
4. Positioning of Multiple Dots
As dots are often apart from other strokes, it is important to observe how they are positioned relative to other strokes. Here is an example on how to analyse dots.
1. Equal Space Between Parallel Strokes
2. Dots Spaced Evenly
3. Placed at Mid-point
a) Curl-up Positioned with respect to the Left Dot
The starting point of Curl-up is slightly below the starting point of the left dot.
b) Artistic Positioning
The three dots are positioned artistically at different heights with the middle dot at the highest point.
c) Spacing Evenly
The three dots are spaced evenly horizontally.
d) Dots Positioned Relative to Curl-up
The dots are not positioned too close or too far from the Curl-up
Bonding
The second way how strokes are combined is through ‘Bonding’, that is a stroke touches another stroke at one point. There should not be any gap between the strokes and neither should they be overlapping each other. See pictures.
Strokes bonded
Gaps between strokes
Strokes overlapped
Types of Bonding
A ‘Head-Head (HH)’ bonding occurs when the start of an earlier stroke touches the start of a latter stroke.
A ‘Head-Tail (TT)’ bonding occurs when the start of an earlier stroke touches the end of a latter stroke.
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​Bonding occurs when any of its parts—the head (H), body (B) and tail (T) of a stroke touches one of these parts of another stroke. The only exception is ‘Body-Body’ interaction, which is a crossing not bonding.
Crossing
In English, it is not wrong to mix up bonding and crossing. You can write the strokes as just touching or overlapping slightly.
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​However, in Chinese even a slight overlap matters. Observe the difference between each pair of characters. The characters may look identical to you, but they are very different and have totally different meanings.
Worksheets
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© 2017 by W.Q. Blosh