What is Chinese Whispers clustering?
Chinese Whispers is a randomized graph-clustering algorithm. It can be implemented iteratively, and increasing the number of edges has a linear time cost. The algorithm is simple to implement with primitive data structures.
Algorithm Steps
- Assign a unique cluster label to each node. If you have 5 nodes, they can be labeled (0, 1, 2, 3, 4).
- Iterate the nodes in a random order. For each node, change its cluster label to the cluster with which we have the most connections. If there is a tie, pick one randomly from the tied clusters.
- Repeat step two for N steps, or until the clustering converges.
References and relevant links
Citation
If you find this work useful, please cite it as:
@article{yaltirakli,
title = "Chinese Whispers clustering",
author = "Yaltirakli, Gokberk",
journal = "gkbrk.com",
year = "2025",
url = "https://www.gkbrk.com/chinese-whispers-clustering"
} Not using BibTeX? Click here for more citation styles.
IEEE Citation Gokberk Yaltirakli, "Chinese Whispers clustering", June, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://www.gkbrk.com/chinese-whispers-clustering. [Accessed Jun. 30, 2025].
APA Style Yaltirakli, G. (2025, June 30). Chinese Whispers clustering. https://www.gkbrk.com/chinese-whispers-clustering
Bluebook Style Gokberk Yaltirakli, Chinese Whispers clustering, GKBRK.COM (Jun. 30, 2025), https://www.gkbrk.com/chinese-whispers-clustering
