system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How do people in China put things in alphabetical order?
gpt
Chinese characters are made up of a certain number of strokes.  For example, the Chinese chracter for water is 水, and it comprises 4 strokes.

In Chinese dictionaries, words will be commonly arranged by the number of strokes they contain.

They can also be arranged according to the primitive elements that form them.  花 is the chinese character for flower.  You might not remember that is has 7 strokes, but you remember that it has the little 3-stroke element at the top.  This is a common primitive element, and you will find words that use it grouped together in the dictionary.