Unlike older generations, young people today prefer typing.

"The frequency of students writing words incorrectly has become worse in recent years. The prevalence of digital devices is a major contributing factor," lamented Su Yunsheng, who has taught Chinese for more than 20 years at Hangzhou Foreign Languages School in Zhejiang Province.

"In addition, in order to reduce the burden placed on students, written homework has been largely cut," Su told the Global Times. "In an era of image-reading and voice recognition, handwriting skills have become far less vital," she added.

Cell phone and computers are common devices to most urban children.

A report on the lifestyle of Chinese children published by Beijing Women's Federation in July showed that mobile phones, instant messenger QQ, Weibo and tablets have become a major part of urban children's daily lives.

According to the report, 52.6 percent of kids aged 4 to 6 had used the Internet. The percentage for kids aged between 7 and 9 reached 58.6 percent, and 77 percent for 10 to 12-year-olds.

Yang Lincheng, deputy copy editor at Excessive Wording, a monthly magazine dedicated to promoting the standard use of Chinese language, noted that speed reading has also weakened people's knowledge of the Chinese script.

"Before, people got their information mainly from print media. But now, given the prosperity of new media, people spend less time reading traditionally written full-blown articles," Yang told the Global Times.

Many are calling for the popularity of handwriting to be revived as they are convinced it is significant to pass on Chinese history and culture.

"Chinese characters are ideograms and carry the essence of Chinese culture. Handwriting is an important way to touch this essence. As a result, we must write them and feel them," said Zhang Yiwu, professor of Chinese literature at Peking University. He deemed that opening calligraphy lessons in schools would be a meaningful method to rebuild children's interest in handwriting.

Luo Dongqing, a professor of Chinese language and literature at Nanjing Normal University, also stressed the legacy of Chinese characters.

"They are the most important part of Chinese culture. By studying the formation and evolution of a Chinese character, one is offered a window into the evolution of Chinese culture and history," he told the Global Times earlier.

There are currently over 80,000 Chinese characters and 3,500 of them are frequently used in daily life.

Yang added to this by saying that Chinese characters contain a cultural code. "By studying these pictograms, we can get closer to our ancestors' mode of thinking and their lifestyle," he said.

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While many call for new handwriting classes to be created alongside related TV shows and other methods, others disagree.

"I feel a bit ashamed that I am unable to write some words. But I don't think it will have any effect on my life and work. Using pinyin input, I can type any word as long as I can read them out. It turns out to be much quicker and more convenient than handwriting," said Xiao Jian, an IT engineer in Beijing.