Pu Tong Hua, with four different speech tones and hieroglyphic characters, might cause many foreigners to scratch their heads. And in a digital age when computers have become almost inseparable from human beings and auto-check corrects everything, the Chinese language is facing an unexpected threat.

A TV program is striving to rekindle interest among Chinese readers, reminding everyone of the enduring appeal of Chinese characters. Entitled "Dictation Assembly of Chinese Characters," the show encourages people to come on stage and spell out words-- on TV.

This TV competition has gained a growing number of fans since it hit airwaves last year. The event tests your proficiency in Chinese characters, and more often, Chinese idioms that are usually four-character phrases expressing sophisticated ideas.

Many words, which have long been forgotten by many, have captured the eyes of the public once again thanks to the introduction of the show. For example, "Wei Rui," which literally means luxuriant, quickly went viral with netizens liking and tweeting it on social networks more than a million times only 24 hours after the show.

Another word "Qian Fang," a verb existing in ancient Chinese books describing the action of picking up flowers, couldn't be written correctly on one TV episode.

Organizers of the competition say standard criteria is employed for choosing all the words for the show.

"The words and phrases we chose for the competition are either featured in historically valued literature, or were still being used in contemporary Chinese literature. So they are not 'Dead Words' as some argue. No, they are not dead. They are simply hibernating," Director Guan Zhengwen said.

"The words for this year's competition are not very difficult. All of them are included in the list of 8105 standardized Chinese characters, which means we ought to know and remember them. But as time evolves, some phrases are becoming foreign to people nowadays. Our program has created such an opportunity for everyone to pick up their pen and write these characters down," Executive producer for CCTV 10 Jin Yue said.

The Dictation Assembly aims to gain the same popularity as the American show Spelling Bee, but with a Chinese twist. The production team hopes that more people will get involved in revitalizing traditional Chinese culture and appreciating the beauty of Chinese characters.