作者：任子杰 - 永远好奇的文化探索者，分享在探索之路所见所闻。
伦敦大学亚非学院中国文化本科生
“你会书法吗？” 最近我向我所有的中国朋友提出这样一个问题，他们对这个问题的回答都大同小异，即“小时候会”、“小时候学习，现在还会一点点”。
可见，书法在他们的文化教育中有重要地位，并对他们关于文化的理解相当有重大的影响。从西方的角度看来，书法的那么重要的地位是一件很有意思的事情。在西方，书法本身不是美术，而只是文字的写法，因此书法并没有进行在文学之外的发展。然而在中国，书法是特有的美术形式之一，其发展不仅能反映文字的变革，而且能显示从文学、美学乃至哲学都受到的影响。
由此，连最基本的书法字也具有丰富的文化含义。我身为西方学生，学习写出那么文化丰富的字既是一个挑战，也更是一种荣誉。我决心一步一步克服挑战，学会书法。对我来说，第一步是理解字体的异同。下面的这个“天”字你觉得是隶书还是楷书呢？
Jef Naomi Remijsen - Exploring Chinese culture and promoting cultural understanding between China and the West.
Student of Chinese Studies at SOAS, University of London
“Can you write Chinese calligraphy?” I’ve been asking this questionto my Chinese friends recently, all of whom have answered that they could -orat least when they were in elementary school. I’m sure I would receive a verydifferent answer if I were to ask any of my friends about western calligraphy.People in the west, myself included, seem to see western calligraphy as nothingmore than good handwriting.
In order to understand why calligraphy is so much more prominent inChina than in the west, I recently started studying calligraphy. As soon as Istarted, I was struck by the many cultural influences manifested in even the mostbasic characters. The writing method, style and visual impact of a characternot only conform to the standards of a particular script, but also show theinfluence of exemplary calligraphers and even the subconscious of the writerthemselves.
Therefore, the prominence of Chinese calligraphy is based on itscultural connotations as well as its aesthetic. Writing such culturallymeaningful calligraphy is an honour as much as a responsibility to accuratelyrepresent this culture. While I have a lot to learn before I can achieveaccuracy and authenticity in my calligraphy, I’m ready for the challenge!