Select a work of art that has influenced the way you view the world and the way you view yourself. Discuss the impact the work has had on you.

Chinese calligraphy is highly symbolic. The word “困” consists of two components represented symbolically—a small tree caught within a sealed box. The idea conveyed through this hieroglyph is simple enough: entrapment, constraint, dilemma, predicament, and paradox.

Calligraphy has always been considered an important form of art in Chinese culture and children are taught to practice calligraphy before they even learn to read and write. This is because calligraphy is viewed as an effective way of cultivating one’s personal temperament. A person who practices calligraphy throughout his life is highly revered—the perseverance and discipline allows him to exercise self-restraint and create harmony between his self within and the physical world without. For an accomplished calligrapher, there would be elaborate rituals prior to each calligraphic undertaking – washing his hands or body, burning incense, and playing gentle and tranquilizing music ……

I did this calligraphy of mine while I listened to Hip-Hop and R & B (Rhythm & Blues). It was part of a large-scale calligraphy and painting exhibition at my school that I organized as a student union official. I listened to American black music in order to derive inspirations—to give vent and release to something trapped inside me but was unquenchable. I searched for themes that could embody my outlooks about this world and about myself.

I recalled a scene when I visited a most time-honored Buddhist temple in Southern China. Pious disciples bowed in front of a smiling but mute oversized golden-plated Buddha, praying for eternal blessings in this world of uncertainties. The disciples were caught in despair and fear, and the monks just made use of the powerlessness and helplessness of the disciples to sell spiritual comfort in exchange for the generous monetary donations. They have already betrayed their faith in this age of commercialization and secularization, abusing the piety of the disciples and satiating their inner contemptible gluttony.

I cannot forget how, on so many occasions, well-dressed and fat-bellied people in the streets turn an indifferent eye to the beggars and turn a deaf ear to their moans and pleadings. Engulfed in their egocentricism, everybody seems to be trapped in his or her personal cosmos where the pleading look for help from the dispossessed and the underprivileged accounts for nothing.

As I turn on the TV and watch international news on CNN, I see how children in Palestine and Israel are startled from their dreams by the bullets whistling through their windows or rockets exploding in their rooms. They cannot afford to have dreams but are haunted by nightmares even in the brightest daylight. Out of sheer horror in their heart, many Palestinians become human bombs. Mutual fear fills the hearts of both the Palestinians and the Israelis who are trapped in an endless cycle of victimizing and being victimized.

“L'enfer, c'est les Autres (The hell, it is the others),” says Jean-Paul Sartre in his one-act play Huis-clos (Behind Closed Doors). It suddenly dawns on me that man himself is a prison house and we are trapped in our own selves because of the common foibles of humanity. Entrapment is both a condition of human existence and a philosophical theme frequently contemplated on by both western and oriental thinkers. But man also endeavors to break up this prison house. The Afro-Americans have created their soulful music to release the impulses in their heart toward freedom. The Chinese invented calligraphy to find a way out of their inner limitations to achieve harmony with the external world.

Of Black music and Chinese calligraphy, there is so much in common in their common pursuit for freedom. I produced my calligraphy on the theme of “困”. I did not follow the rigid rules of Chinese calligraphy to make the character look formally pleasing, but made the frame of the box disproportionately thick and heavy in order to emphasize the suffocating condition man is in. The little tree looks thin and feeble. The calligraphy is by no means a masterpiece but my renderings have given the work an aesthetic of its own. By this work of calligraphy, I want to not only point to a condition of human existence most of us are caught in but also to highlight the need to break up our status quo.

I do not want to be controlled, fettered, or manipulated by any mental or physical constraints. I wish to go to a new surrounding where I can meet new people, see new things, receive new ideas and make new friends. I want to make new discoveries, search for my true self, and create a faith that can bind me most meaningfully with the rest of the world. By that time, this bondage is a state of total freedom.

　（申请人书法作品略）

　　中国书法具有极强的象征意涵。比如“困”这个字，看起来像是一棵小树，被禁锢在一个密封的盒子里。这个象形文字承载和传递的意义甚为简单：困顿，制约，困境，窘况，悖论。

　　在中国文化中，书法一直被视为一种重要的艺术表现形式。孩童甚至在学习阅读和书写之前，就被教授着去练习书法。这是因为，练习书法被看作陶冶性情的一种有效方式。对于书法，一个在一生中勤练不辍的人是令人钦佩的——练习书法所需要的那种特有的坚毅与自律，使他能够很好地进行自我克制，并且在其内在的自我与外在的物质世界之间，实现一种天人合一的和谐境界。对于任何一个有造诣的书法家而言，每每进行书法创作之前，都会有一套繁复的仪式：洗礼，焚香，演奏柔和静谧的音乐……

　　在创作上述书法作品时，我一边还在听着Hip-Hop（美国黑人街头说唱音乐）和R&B（节奏与布鲁斯）。该作品是一场我作为学校学生会干部所组织的大型书法绘画展的一部分。我聆听美国黑人音乐，以便从中获取创作灵感——为心中长久郁积却又无法抑制的情绪寻找突破口，使其得以宣泄。基于这一点，我所欲寻找的，是某些能够表现我对这个世界以及对于我自身看法的素材与主题。

　　我想起参观中国南方某个历史悠久的佛寺时的场景。佛寺里有个巨大无比的镀金佛像，笑而不语。虔诚的信徒们跪在他面前，在这个充满不确定因素的世界里祈求永恒的祝福。这些信徒们内心充满绝望和恐惧，而寺庙里的僧侣们则利用这些信徒的无力与无助，兜售着精神上的慰藉以换取慷慨的金钱募捐。在这商业化和世俗化的时代，这些僧人早已背弃其信仰，滥用信徒的虔诚来满足自身可鄙的贪欲。

　　我不会忘记，在那么多的场合，穿着考究、大腹便便的行人对路边的乞丐视而不见，对他们的悲吟和乞讨充耳不闻。他们完全一副自我中心的模样，每个人好像都被禁锁在他们的个体世界里，那里，来自一无所有、孤立无助的弱势群体的求救眼神，不值一文，无人理睬。

　　当我打开电视观看CNN国际新闻时，我看到巴勒斯坦和以色列的孩子们是如何被穿堂而过的子弹或自天而降的炮弹爆炸声所惊醒。他们不能拥有梦想，相反，即使在光天化日之下，也时时刻刻被噩梦所吞噬。纯粹出于内心的恐惧，许多巴勒斯坦人沦为人肉炸弹。无论是巴勒斯坦还是以色列人，内心都充斥着对对方的恐惧，因而，他们全都被禁锢在一个没完没了加害与受害的死亡循环中。

　　让·保罗·萨特在他的独幕剧《密室》中说道：“他人即地狱”。这突然使我明白，由于普遍的人性弱点，每个人本身就是一座监狱。我们被囚禁在自己给自己设定的自我牢笼里。囚徒困境既是人类生存的一种必要条件，又是经常为东西方思想家所苦思冥想的一个哲学命题。但是，人们也在努力冲破这一牢笼。美国黑人创造出他们的心灵音乐，以此释放他们内心深处对自由的向往和冲动。中国人发明了书法，以此寻求打破物我界限，实现内心与外部世界的真正和谐。

　　黑人音乐和中国书法，在共同追求自由方面，有着许多相通之处。我的书法作品以“困”字为主题。在创作过程中，我并没有严格按照中国书法的清规戒律，来使这个字看起来具有某种形式之美，而是将外围的框架处理得非同一般的厚重，以此来凸显和强调人类所处环境的那种令人窒息的压抑感，而盒子里面的那棵小树看起来瘦小且又羸弱。这个书法作品绝对称不上是一幅杰作，但是我的处理手法却赋予了其自身独特的审美特质。通过这幅书法作品，我不仅仅是想指出我们每个人所深陷其中的存在困境，而且也想突出强调冲破这种现状的必要性。

　　我不想被任何精神的或者物质的制约因素所控制，束缚，或操纵。我想置身于全新的环境，在那里，我能结识新人，欣赏新事物，接受新思想，结交新朋友。我想去作出全新的发现，寻找真实的自我，建立一种信仰，能够将我和世界所有其他的一切有意义地捆绑在一起。届时，这种捆绑将转而变成一种纽带，一种彻底的自由境界。