Abstract: Chinese writing is important research material for the classification of world writing systems.From 13th century to early 19th century,increasingly detailed studies of Chinese writing in the West promoted the formation and evolution of the world's writing classification.Specifically,from the early Western perspective,Chinese writing underwent a development process from being“discovered” to being “categorized” and finally to having an “independent status”.Initially,the West recognized that Chinese writing is different from alphabetic writing systems in its way of conveying meaning.Subsequently,the West classified Chinese writing and Egyptian hieroglyphs into the same category,with Chinese writing assisting Egyptian hieroglyphs in establishing the dichotomy between “hieroglyphs” and “alphabets”.As research further deepened,Chinese writing was viewed as independent “marks” as well,leading to the establishment of a tripartite classification of world writing systems:Egyptian hieroglyphs,Chinese writing,and alphabetic writing systems.In this tripartite framework,Chinese writing secured its independent status and became typical material supporting new types of writing systems.

Key words: Chinese writing, writing types, the nature of Chinese writing, cross-cultural research, Western Chinese Writing Studies