About
I'm Cao Wenyi, a Chinese heritage parent. Eleven years ago, looking for a way to make characters less difficult to learn, I stumbled onto the seven-color principle and founded Rainbow Chinese. I've kept exploring this way of teaching ever since, and built a set of tools around it — and along the way I came to understand both the causes of, and a way out of, the impasse in teaching Chinese characters overseas.
At heart, Rainbow Chinese uses color to break a character's structure apart in a way you can see at a glance, so learning characters becomes easy and efficient. And as they learn, it guides children toward an efficient habit of study built on precision and logic.
The 2026 release of the site adds a wealth of AI illustrations, for a livelier, happier place to learn. Please try it out! If you have anything you need or any suggestions, leave a note at the bottom of the page. Thank you!
Academic publications
Overseas Children's Chinese Education Research Institute, Beijing Normal University: 5 articles
- May 14, 2025 Cracking the character code with seven-color magic
- Aug 6, 2025 The Rainbow Chinese mobile app launches
- Sep 15, 2025 AI bilingual picture books: tell a story and learn to write, all in one place
- Sep 18, 2025 Making Chinese learning warmer: the teaching design and practice behind AI bilingual picture books
- May 3, 2026 A gift for International Chinese Language Day: the new HSK 1 Rainbow character cards, open-sourced for the whole world
Competition
At the end of 2025, Rainbow Chinese was shortlisted in two tracks of the Global Chinese Language Alliance annual innovation competition.