How to Write 芗 (xiāng) — Meaning “Fragrance (often used in local names)”

Picture grass (艹) growing in a small village (乡), and the whole area smells wonderful. This connects the visual of a village with the meaning "fragrance" — you can also remember the sound xiāng by thinking of "sweet scent in a village."

Write the grass radical first with two horizontal strokes and a short vertical in the middle. Then write 乡: start with the left stroke, then the middle vertical stroke, and finally the right stroke. Keep the top radical slightly wider than the bottom part, and avoid making 乡 too tall.

Unlike 芗, the character 艺 (yì) has a bottom part 乙 meaning "art," and 艻 (lè) has bottom 力 meaning "strength." 芗 uses 乡 as its bottom, so it is visually distinct and has a completely different meaning related to fragrance and place names.

芗 is most often found in proper names, such as 芗城 (a district in Fujian), 芗江 (a river), and 芗剧 (a traditional opera from southern Fujian and Taiwan). It is not part of common daily vocabulary, so you will mostly see it in geographic and cultural terms.

Common words containing 芗 include: 芗剧 (xiāng jù) — Xiang Opera; 芗江 (xiāng jiāng) — Xiang River; 芗城 (xiāng chéng) — Xiangcheng.