My name is Sarah Brooker, I'm from Arizona in the United States.

我的名字是宋晓莉，我来自美国亚利桑那州。

I did my undergraduate research mostly in seals, because I personally found them extremely interesting.

我本科主要研究印章，因为我个人觉得它们非常有意思。

And seals are one of the many ways that Chinese arts does that.

而印章是中国艺术的众多方式之一。

I chose to come to China to do my undergraduate degree because I figured if I'm going to study Chinese history,

我选择来中国读本科是因为我想如果我要学中国历史，

I should do it in China and be able to learn the language a little bit better.

我应该在中国学习，并且能够更好地学习语言。

So when I was trying to choose my Chinese name, I randomly chose a number and looked it in the list of 100 surnames, and it ended up as being Song.

所以当我想取我的中文名字时，我随机选择了一个数字，然后在百家姓里找对应的数字，结果是宋。

One of the first moments that I was really getting interested in China  is when I was 9, during the 2008 Summer Olympics here in Beijing.

我第一次真正对中国产生兴趣是9岁那年，在2008年北京夏季奥运会的时候。

I watched the opening ceremony as a child and I remembered just being totally in awe and completely fascinated by the opening ceremony,

小时候看开幕式，我记得当时彻底被开幕式惊艳了，

specifically seeing the scroll unwinding and seeing the moving type as well during the opening ceremony.

特别是在开幕式上看到卷轴展开，看到活字印刷的表演。

The whole experience just really sparked my interest in China.

整个经历激发了我对中国的兴趣。

I initially got interested in seal studies during my history of the silk road class.

我最初对印章研究产生兴趣是在丝绸之路历史课上。

During one of the classes on documents, we were looking at a document from the Dunhuang caves.

在一节文献课上，我们看到一份来自敦煌石窟的文献。

And in the middle of the document was a seal from a French museum cataloging the item.

在文献的中间，有一枚来自法国博物馆的印章，对这件物品进行了编目。

But it was in round and blue, which is very different from a lot of the seals you see in Chinese culture, which are square and red.

但它是圆形和蓝色的，这与你在中国文化中看到的印章非常不同，中国印大多是方形和红色的。

So I asked my professor why are Chinese seals square and red like that, if most the other seals in Europe are round.

所以我问我的教授，为什么中国的印章是方形的和红色的，但是欧洲的大多数其他印章都是圆形的。

He didn't know the answer.

他不知道答案。

So I started researching by myself and I found at least in English literature, the seals are extremely understudied.

所以我开始自己研究，我发现至少在英语学术界，对印章的研究非常少。

I worked with professor Zuo Lala on my undergraduate thesis, focusing on Song and Ming dynasty seals,

我和左拉拉教授一起完成了我的本科论文，主要研究宋明时期的印章，

trying to understand the way we can talk about seals studies in English.

试着理解我们如何用英语谈论印章研究。

How do we think about them, are they images, are they text, or are they maybe both.

我们如何看印章？印章是图像吗？是文字吗？或者可能两者都是。

And I think this research was very rewarding in a sense that it gave us a way to understand seals in English language literature,

我认为这项研究在某种意义上是非常有益的，因为它给我们提供了一种理解英语文学中印章的方法，

but it was one of the first to really explore how do we do methods for seals studies outside of China.

但这是第一个真正探索我们如何在中国以外进行印章研究的方法之一。

And I've since started using those methodologies and that way of thinking to expand my research now at Yenching Academy,

从那以后，我开始使用这些方法和思考方式来扩展我现在在燕京学堂的研究，

to study more about Chinese epigraphy and bronze and stone study, or Jinshi.

更多地研究中国金石学，就是青铜器和石器的研究。

I think with this, in terms of study in "China and the world" and "the world and China", you get a better view of what China really is.

通过学习中国和世界、世界和中国，你可以更好地了解真正的中国。

It's very easy to say China is just one thing.

很容易说中国只是某个方面发展得好。

But looking at China and its interaction with the rest of the world gives you a much fully view of how China developed.

但看看中国及其与世界其他地区的互动，你就能更全面地了解中国是如何发展的。