摘要：

文化是人类智慧的结晶， 而文字正是传承文化的载体，因此作为记录文字的书写工具在文化的传承与发展过程中发挥了至关重要的作用。不同文化背景下的书写工具具有不同的特点，本文以代表中国文化的毛笔和代表西方文化的钢笔为例，从钢笔毛笔的起源、发展、材质、使用方式及其在现代社会的现状等方面比较了两者的文化内涵差异。在全球化的背景下，中国的毛笔渐渐被钢笔代替，而毛笔也以其独特的魅力得到了西方人的青睐。同样中西方文化也在不断地发生融合碰撞，在这个过程中人们应该如何面对，这是一个值得思考的问题。

关键词：毛笔；钢笔；中国文化；西方文化；文化差异

Abstract:

Culture is the crystallization of human wisdom, and the character is the carrier of culture heritage. And the writing instruments which can record the character play an important role in the course of culture development and transmission. In the background of different cultures, the writing instruments have their special characteristics. This paper with the writing brush representing Chinese culture and the pen representing the western culture, discusses the differences of culture connotation between China and western world from the aspects of origin, development, material, usage and status of the two writing instruments in modern society. Writing brush in China has been replaced by pen while the westerners are attracted by the charm of writing brush with the trend of globalization, and there are conflicts and integration between Chinese and western culture. Therefore it is necessary to think about that what people should do in this situation.

Key words: writing brush; pen; Chinese culture; western culture；cultural differences

1. Introduction
1.1 Research background
With the development of our society and technology, the communication among the world people becomes more and more frequent. Thus, it is very important for people to learn the difference between Chinese and western culture so that they are able to understand more about each others’ culture and avoid the culture conflicts as much as possible.
When it comes to culture, it is easy for people to think about the words and characters, and the words and characters are associated with the writing instruments, which can be regarded as the carriers of human civilizations, conveying the diverse attitudes and values of people with different culture backgrounds.
As Gu Hongming(1915) puts it “In fact, the Chinese pen or pencil which is a soft brush, may be taken as a symbol of the Chinese mind. It is very difficult to write or draw with it, but when you have once mastered the use of it, you will, with it, write and draw with a beauty and grace which you cannot do with a hard steel pen.”, he compared the Chinese culture and western culture to two kinds of things, that is, the wring brush and the pen. Writing brush, with its unique cultural deposits and flexible technique of expression, has participated in the development of Chinese traditional art culture and spirit. Pen, as one of the gems of wisdom of western people, contains the wisdom and perspiration of numerous inventors. Every improvement of the pen has significant meaning in the development of writing instrument history. And the pen is an important represent of the western writing instruments. Thus it is reasonable to compare the divergence of Chinese and western culture in the aspect of writing brush and pen.