My Journey Of Chinese Culture & Language
Over Forty-years Interacting with The Chinese People, Languages, and Cultures
My journey with the Chinese culture and language is a long and winding road. A road that sometimes shot up like a roller coaster only to tumble at gut-wrenching velocities.
Here, I clarify the path and how I gained status to speak to Chinese culture and language from an American perspective—bridging the gap of misunderstanding that currently exists around China, in America. You may say that I am a China sympathizer. I am not. I perceive the differences from a place of learning with extensive experience in both cultures and languages. You may say I’m brainwashed. I am not. Consider someone who comes to the U. S. speaking little English, growing to cultural-linguistic fluency, even in Spanish, and achieving an appreciation of the people and the country for who they are and how they live. Yet, understanding Americans may do things differently from their home country, and recognizing that it works for America.
My tangible credentials:
Lived and worked in Chinese speaking countries over 20 years
Managed multinational businesses in China
Negotiated and interpreted high-level meetings with Chinese officials
Received a BA in language and literature from a Chinese university
Received an ACTFL Mandarin OPI at Superior level
Assessed by the DLPT 5 listening and reading–Department of Defense language proficiency test
Received a job offer from the NSA to work as a Mandarin Chinese language instructor
My story:
I never had the desire to learn Chinese, nor did I have any special interest in living in China. But, I always had a desire to learn a language and culture to rival that of my American upbringing.
My first interaction with Mandarin was in the 1970s in Dallas, TX. Where I frequented a small Chinese mom and pop restaurant and found myself fascinated by the Taiwanese family-owned business. The only challenge was, they didn’t speak English.
So, I purchased a book, “Chinese in Ten Minutes A Day,” believing it was possible to learn enough to communicate with them easily. After a while, I learned enough to ask for tea, rice, and to greet people. The owners took a liking to me and my expression of interest in their language and culture.
After a few months, they christened me with a Chinese name - “康德,” saying that it was a name they wanted to give the son they never had.
Eventually, I left Dallas and moved to San Diego for work. Prior to leaving, my restaurant friends gave me a slip of paper with a phone number for a cultural foundation in Taipei, Taiwan written on it. They told me I could contact the foundation anytime, and they would arrange a family visit for me in Taiwan.
Several years passed, and I continued learning Mandarin. By now, I had moved to San Francisco for work, and I suddenly had the urge to go to Taiwan. I found the slip of paper, made a long distance call, and as my friends told me, they agreed to arrange a family visit.
On January 10th, 1984, I landed in Taipei, Taiwan, for a two-week family visit. Never would I have imagined what a direction-changer it would be in my life. Twenty-four years later to the day, on January 10th, 2008, I wrote an article speaking to the people of Colorado and the United States. (You can read the article here)
While in Taipei, I attended Mandarin Chinese classes, and worked as the Concierge at the Taipei Ritz (Ritz Landis Hotel), a prominent hotel for international businesspeople.
The Chinese have a different approach to finding answers to questions or looking for ways to solve problems than we do. They look back in time. Because they have such a long history and have amassed thousands of years worth of literature, they search for options from past historical events, stories, or philosophical writings containing similar elements or situations and draw from the wisdom imparted by their ancestors on how to deal with challenges.
However, Americans, mostly, look for fresh new answers to problems. Thus, we take more the blank-slate approach, imparting to the younger generation, to not view their elders or predecessors as bearers of wisdom and sharers of experience. We also lack a broad expanse of philosophical and historical writings that span the evolution of American civilization that we can look back on for how to approach challenges from different angles expressing varying outcomes—some successful and some not. These are things the Chinese have readily available to them from within their collected works and historical writings.
In all honesty, it is difficult to rival up to seven-thousand years of continuous culture. And a writing system that has recorded and expressed life, death, war, and peace; compiled canons and literary collections left by various thinkers following the trains of thought of a handful of renown classical philosophers and strategists for some three-thousand five-hundred years.
Consider the Yi Jing 易经 (AKA Book of Changes or I Ching), it is the earliest known foundation of the Chinese worldview and it holds potent influence on the Chinese language and cultural expression. They compiled it prior to having a writing system using single long lines — to represent yang, and two-part lines – – to represent yin. Thus, in the Yi Jing, yin-yang—the balancing of two opposite aspects—holds an important place in the development and evolution of Chinese cultural thought and language.
Just consider, in China, a contradiction as something to be lived with, whereas in America, it is something to be fixed.
The present state of US-China relations boggles the mind, mainly caused by vastly different worldviews and histories. U.S. culture—founded on Judeo-Christian ideals, and that of China—founded on Daoist, Buddhist, and Confucian ideals. Our two worlds are like that of water and oil. And Chinese culture is inherently water as per the writings of 老子 Laozi.
In the 道德经 Dao De Jing, Laozi refers to water as the most upright of all elements to learn from and emulate. Water adjusts to its environment. It nurtures the world around it, but it also possesses the power to slowly and methodically move mountains and create valleys.
In 孙子兵法 The Art of War, 孙子 Sunzi said, “知己知彼 Know Self, Know Others.” The most basic pretext for grasping how the Chinese engage. They learn. The Chinese are avid learners and extract from their thousands of years of history and experience to meet the present. The Chinese put forth effort to learn about those with whom they interact. In order to meet them where they are, should we not also be well-versed in Chinese language, culture, and thought? Should we not also keep our friends close, and our enemies closer? Should we not understand why they react as they do, what it means, and best practices for successful response? If our responses are not bridging differences but creating more problems, then perhaps we should revisit our strategies.
In my writings, I share insight, wisdom, and perceptions I’ve gained, as an American, through my experiences living in Chinese society, working with, and engaging the Chinese as friends, co-workers, and strangers. This includes cultural insight from my reading of books–written in Chinese–by renown Chinese scholars and thinkers from the regions of Taiwan, Hongkong, and Mainland China. Each sharing their perspective and insight into the underlying cultural foundation of Chinese historical writings, thought, and philosophy and how it endures in today’s expression of Chinese culture.