How to Write 糬 (shǔ) — Meaning “Mochi / Glutinous rice cake”

Picture a sticky rice cake (米) being officially stamped or arranged (署) at a dessert shop. The right side 署 looks like a combination of 罒 (net) and 者 (person), so imagine a person netting sticky rice to form mochi. This visual link helps recall both the shape and meaning.

The radical 米 on the left is narrow and must be written with the horizontal stroke crossing the vertical, ending with two side dots. The right part 署 has many strokes; pay attention to the top 罒 (written as vertical, horizontal, then two small strokes) and the lower 者, whose 日 should be narrower than the 土 below. A common mistake is making the right side too wide or confusing the net-like top with a 四.

糜 (mí) means "rotten" or "gruel" and features 麻 (hemp) on top of 米, while 糟 (zāo) means "dregs" or "pickled with grains" and has 米 with 曹. Both 糜 and 糟 describe processed rice forms, but 糬 specifically refers to a soft, chewy rice cake snack like mochi, and it is not used for fermentation or decay.

糬 appears almost exclusively in the word 麻糬 (má shǔ), which is the Chinese term for mochi, a popular Taiwanese and Japanese dessert. It is also used in compound words for specific flavors, like 草莓糬 (strawberry mochi). The character is not common in daily Chinese outside of food contexts, but it is well-known in Taiwan due to the popularity of 麻糬 as a snack.

Common words containing 糬 include: 麻糬 (má shǔ) — mochi; 草莓糬 (cǎo méi shǔ) — Strawberry mochi.; 糯米糬 (nuò mǐ shǔ) — Mochi / Glutinous rice cake.