This paper presents an augmented reality-based Chinese character composition game (ARC) that employs augmented papers to engage lower primary school students in collaborative Chinese character learning. A design research approach was used to gain a holistic view of designing, enacting, and evaluating the ARC. The participants included four teachers and five classes of students from two primary schools. The school-based research findings suggested that: (1) the ARC was an effective system for improving beginning learners' orthographic knowledge of Chinese characters, particularly for those students with low Chinese language proficiency; (2) the tangible paper interface engaged students in group work and increased the game playfulness; and (3) students' language proficiency had a significant effect on their perceptions of ease of use and usefulness of the augmented paper game. This paper not only substantiated the potential of the augmented paper as a carrier of educational content, but also instantiated how to implement it to promote social and cognitive supports for interaction and collaboration.