中国文化的首要特色是什么?或说是儒家文化,或说是稻米文化,或说是重食的文化……我个人则愿意说,首先是汉字文化。1994年,我在纽约资深的华美协进社演讲,一位当地的听众问:“为什么华人都那么爱中国?”我回答,第一,我们都爱吃中国饭菜。第二,我们都爱汉字写的唐诗宋词。我的意思是唐诗宋词是汉字的范本:整齐、音乐性、形象性、同音字的联想与发挥、对称或对偶性与其辩证内涵、字本位的演进性质等,都令人神往乃至痴迷。我们永远无法用 What is the primary characteristic of Chinese culture? Or is it Confucianism, or rice culture, or a culture of heavy food? ... Personally, I would like to say that the first is Chinese culture. In 1994, I gave a speech at a senior Chinese and American society in New York. One local listener asked: “Why do Chinese people love China so much?” I replied: First, we all love Chinese food. Second, we all love Chinese poetry and poetry. My point is that the poems of Tang, Song and Song are models of Chinese characters: neatness, musicality, figurativeness, associations and performances of homophones, dialectical connotations of symmetry or duality, and the evolutionary nature of the characters. All these are fascinating and even obsessed. We can never use it