Lychee nuts: Close family ties Noodles or peanuts: A long life Seeds: Having a large number of children Tangerines: Luck Learn how to write your name in Hanzi Chinese characters, also called Hanzi, are the oldest continuously used system of writing in the world. Hanzi is short for 'Han characters', these logograms can be traced back to as far as the Shang Dynasty about 1200-1500BC. The total number of Chinese characters ever to appear in a dictionary is in the tens of thousands though many are outdated and not used. A university graduate who is literate in written Chinese known on average between three and four thousand characters - more are required for specialised fields.