You can look up Chinese characters in a dictionary by stroke count.
Tips
usage
The main strokes are 横 héng (horizontal), 竖 shù (vertical), 撇 piě (left-falling), 捺 nà (right-falling), 点 diǎn (dot), 提 tí (rising), 折 zhé (turn), 钩 gōu (hook). Stroke count is still a common dictionary index alongside 拼音 and 部首.
