Stroke order refers to the way Chinese characters are written.  A stroke is a single movement of the pen or brush, and each character is composed of a number of strokes.  There are quite a few rules, guidelines, and exceptions to stroke order (e.g. horizontal before vertical, outside before inside, etc.).

Incorrectly written strokes can produce unappealing, or downright ugly, and occasionally, the incorrectly written Chinese character.  It’s especially important when it comes to brush writing, calligraphy, or in my company’s case, stitching.  Not to mention, it just seems kinda silly if you don’t follow the correct stroke order.  Just to give you an example, what if you saw someone writing their name this way?

1. Michael
2. Michael
3. Michael
4. Michael
5. Michael
6. Michael
7. Michael

Nah mean?  It’s both awkward and inefficient.  Now amplify that by 5, and you’ll get a better sense of it’s relevancy with Chinese character writing.

Most Westerners are not familiar with proper stroke order…  and for those of you who have visited my company’s site Building Characters, you can be sure you are getting your shirts from a credible Asian-American source, and that stroke order is taken into account for your stitching and balanced with what is aesthetically pleasing from an embroidery perspective.

That’s my little shameless plug for the day, haha.  =)