Write Chinese on Arch

  • 2nd Jun 2025
  • 1 min read
INFO

This setup was done with X11 running dwm

Install the Chinese input engine:

sudo pacman -S fcitx5 fcitx5-gtk fcitx5-qt fcitx5-configtool fcitx5-chinese-addons
  • fcitx5: The main input method framework.
  • fcitx5-gtk, fcitx5-qt: Modules for GTK and Qt applications.
  • fcitx5-configtool: A graphical configuration tool.
  • fcitx5-chinese-addons: Provides Chinese input methods, including Pinyin.

Add the following to your ~/.xprofile (or wherever you set your environment variables):

export GTK_IM_MODULE=fcitx
export QT_IM_MODULE=fcitx
export XMODIFIERS="@im=fcitx"

Then, in your ~/.xinitrc, start fcitx5 in the background:

fcitx5 &

Run:

fcitx5-configtool

In the “Available Input Methods” section, search for Pinyin.

Now you can switch to Chinese by pressing Ctrl + Space.

For a more in-depth look at my setup, check out my dotfiles repository on GitHub.

Arch, 你去哪儿我就去哪儿。

Arch 用得越久，我越怀疑人生。