A Chinese seal is a seal or stamp containing Chinese characters used in East Asia to prove identity on documents, contracts, art, or similar items where authorship is considered important.
Chinese seals are typically made of stone, sometimes of wood, and are typically used with red ink or cinnabar paste (Chinese: 朱砂; Pinyin: zhūshā). The word 印 ("yìn") specifically refers to the imprint created by the seal. The colloquial name chop, when referring to these kinds of seals, was adapted from a Malay word during the colonization of the Straits Settlements.
East Asia currently uses a mixture of seals and hand signatures, and increasingly, electronic signatures. But notably in China, Japan, and Korea, seals remain commonly used instead of a signatures when doing business or other procedures, and in certain cases, only seals are acceptable.