The Chinese symbol for hope — 望 (wàng)

Where the character comes from

The old forms show a person standing on a mound with the eye drawn large and raised, looking far off. The 月 on the modern character arrived later; the original picture is about looking, not about the moon.

How it is actually used

希望 is hope, 失望 is disappointed, 期望 is expectation, 愿望 is a wish, 渴望 is to long for, and 望远镜 is a telescope — a far-looking glass.

Both glyphs above are set in whatever Chinese font your device uses, which is a 楷书-derived regular script — the same shape a printer or a tattoo studio's "Chinese font" will produce. Brush styles (行书 running, 草书 cursive, 篆书 seal) look substantially different and are worth commissioning from a calligrapher rather than approximating from a font. You can watch this character written stroke by stroke in the Stroke Order Animator or practise it on printable 田字格 sheets.

This is the part a symbol list leaves out, and it is the fastest way to feel what a character actually carries. Readings and meanings come from the same dictionary that powers the translator; tap any word for its full dictionary entry.

望 is one answer, not the answer. Which of these is right depends on what you mean by "hope" — and that is usually the question worth settling before anything is written down permanently.

What is the Chinese symbol for hope?

望 (wàng) means to gaze into the distance, and from that, to look forward to something. Hope as a word is 希望 (xīwàng); 望 alone is closer to expectation than to hope, and it also means reputation. It is written 望 and pronounced wàng.

What does 望 not mean?

It does not mean hope as an emotional state. And it carries a second sense that surprises people: 名望 is reputation and 威望 is prestige, both built on 望 in the sense of what people look toward.

Is 望 commonly mistranslated?

Yes. The claim you will meet most often is: "望 means hope." 希望 means hope. 望 supplies the looking; 希 supplies the wanting. This page lists 2 such claims about 望 with what is true instead.

Is 望 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?

望 is the same in simplified and traditional Chinese, eleven strokes. It stacks three components into a tall, narrow frame, which makes it look formal in print and gives calligraphers a lot of vertical structure to play with.

What else can I use for hope in Chinese?

Depending on what you mean: 希望, 愿, 盼. This page explains when each one is the right choice, and 望 itself lives in words such as 希望, 失望, 期望.