Since language is a cultural system through which we express the ways we conceptualize our experiences, language learning requires sustained cultural experiences and mutual understanding. Within the framework of prototype semantics and the model of cultural conceptualizations which prove a useful approach for understanding the relationship between language and culture in L2 writing, this study presents the argument that L2 writing involves new systems of cultural conceptualizations by providing examples of writings of Chinese learners of English. In the adoption of analytic frameworks of cultural, conceptual categories grounded in the theory of prototype semantics, the study conducts qualitative textual analyses of L2 texts and discusses how prototypical categorizations that have originally been associated with their L1 have an effect on the English writings of Chinese L2 learners. The study concludes with a discussion of some possible implications of the process for intercultural sense-making in the L2 writing context. (Purdue University · Konju National University)