How my Chinese heritage sparked my desire to learn Mandarin 我的中国传统如何激发了我学习普通话的愿望

How my Chinese heritage sparked my desire to learn Mandarin

Editor's note: With its unique cuisine, fascinating language and distinctive culture, China has something for everyone. In this series of features, we hear from several students at Cardiff University about just what led them to study Chinese.

Myths, legends and ancient history are popular topics among children around the world. Bedtime stories told to kids often include such stories and serve to both passively educate youngsters on the history of their own culture as well as inspire their curiosity in the world, potentially setting the stage for their future education, willingness to learn, and perhaps eventually their careers. As a child, my parents started me on Greek myths and legends, followed by the Romans and aspects of their culture which pervade Western society today.

For almost as long as I can remember, my Chinese heritage has been apparent to me. My father is Chinese in origin, having been born in Hong Kong to parents from the Chinese mainland, but he moved to the U.K. at a young age and grew up here. He never forgot, however, his Chinese roots and the stories he learnt at the knee of his grandmother, which he in turn passed down to me in my adolescence. His stories taught me of a rich new world — to which I had close relation — of history, philosophy, and a completely different world view. Yet it was always understood that this new world, so bountiful in stories of history and culture which I had always enjoyed so greatly, would be largely inaccessible throughout my time at school, due to a largely Western-centric education that is to be expected at a Western school.

As such, it became evident to me that if I wanted to have greater access to this world, I would have to study the Chinese language — and preferably Mandarin. My father, being a Cantonese speaker, could not help in this regard and so I had to turn to other media. My hope was that this endeavour would bring me closer to my heritage not only through a far greater understanding of China’s culture, but also by feeling a closer proximity to its people and my forebears. As a member of the Chinese diaspora, I feel it is my duty to learn all that I can about Chinese culture and history so that I might one day pass down this knowledge myself.

My journey along the path of learning both Mandarin and about China began in perhaps the best possible way — in the country itself when I spent several months living with family and was fortunate enough to travel and visit historical sites and places of cultural interest. In so doing, I was able to garner a taste of Chinese culture and attempted to plunge myself wholeheartedly into every aspect that I could — a truly superlative experience that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Not only could I practise my admittedly rudimentary Chinese language skills in the places I visited, but I was also able to feel a true intimacy with the country and culture of my forefathers.

Perhaps the most memorable part of my time in China was being able to visit places mentioned in the stories I had been told as a child. Those stories which had once felt more removed from my everyday life, at once became tangible and more defined as I explored the places linked with them.

I continue down this path to this day, and hope to learn and explore much more once I have the chance.

Nick Ng is an undergraduate student in Modern Chinese at the University of Cardiff.

我的中国传统如何激发了我学习普通话的愿望

编者按：凭借其独特的美食，迷人的语言和独特的文化，中国拥有适合每个人的东西。在这一系列专题中，我们听到了卡迪夫大学的几位学生关于是什么促使他们学习中文。

神话，传说和古代历史是世界各地儿童的热门话题。告诉孩子们的睡前故事通常包括这样的故事，既可以被动地教育年轻人了解自己文化的历史，也可以激发他们对世界的好奇心，从而可能为他们未来的教育，学习意愿以及最终的职业生涯奠定基础。小时候，我的父母让我开始学习希腊神话和传说，其次是罗马人及其文化的各个方面，这些方面在今天的西方社会中弥漫开来。

几乎从我记事起，我的中国传统对我来说就是显而易见的。我的父亲是中国人，出生在香港，父母来自中国大陆，但他很小的时候就搬到了英国，并在这里长大。然而，他从未忘记他的中国血统和他在祖母膝盖上学到的故事，这些故事又在我的青春期传给了我。他的故事教会了我一个丰富的新世界——我与这个世界有着密切的关系——历史、哲学和完全不同的世界观。然而，人们总是明白，这个新世界，在历史和文化故事中如此丰富，我一直非常喜欢，但在我上学的整个过程中，由于西方学校的主要以西方为中心的教育，基本上无法进入。

因此，我清楚地意识到，如果我想更多地接触这个世界，我必须学习中文——最好是普通话。我的父亲是一个讲广东话的人，在这方面无能为力，所以我不得不求助于其他媒体。我希望，这项努力不仅能让我更接近我的传统，不仅能对中国的文化有更深入的了解，还能让我更接近中国人民和我的祖先。作为中国侨民的一员，我觉得我有责任尽我所能学习有关中国文化和历史的知识，以便有一天我可以自己传授这些知识。

我沿着学习普通话和关于中国的道路的旅程也许以最好的方式开始 - 在这个国家本身，当时我与家人一起生活了几个月，并有幸旅行并参观了历史遗迹和文化景点。通过这样做，我能够获得中国文化的滋味，并试图全心全意地投入到我所能做到的每一个方面 - 一个真正最高级的经历，我将在我的余生中珍惜。我不仅可以在我访问过的地方练习我公认的基本汉语技能，而且还能够感受到与祖先的国家和文化的真正亲密关系。

也许我在中国最难忘的部分是能够访问我小时候被告知的故事中提到的地方。那些曾经感觉离常生活更远的故事，在我探索与它们相关的地方时，这些故事立刻变得有形，也更加明确。

我沿着这条路继续走到今天，希望一有机会就学习和探索更多。

Nick Ng是卡迪夫大学现代汉语专业的本科生。