As Chinese is becoming one of the most influential languages next to English , I think , in the epoch of internet ,any serious , smart non-Chinese intellectual should spend 3-4 years on learning it , just like any Chinese college student in China who has to spend years on learning English nowadays .Many people already talked about the advantages of mastering the language in terms of economic benefits , here , I want to elaborate some points that most people miss.
I once watched a film called “2010” , based on a famous fiction written by Arthur C. Clark , which tells us a story about how Jupiter becomes another new sun in our sky . The emergence of the Chinese culture at this moment , I think , is another wonderful , historic event in human history similar to it.
It is totally different from the event that English took the place of French in the 19th century as the international language ( in Europe), or the emergence of Japanese economy and her language that attracted many westerners in the70- 80’s of the last century .In the Japanese case, people were mislead to think that Japan is the main symbol of the Eastern culture ( in fact , besides China ,neither India nor Japan can claim that ) .
The communist took over the political power in China in 1949 and later her extreme Marxist (in fact , pseudo-Marxist ones ) policy during the same period just overshadowed the impression that Chinese culture was receding , if not dying ; in fact , the truth is , it only went “underground” temporarily and waited patiently for its rebirth.
You need not to be a lover of the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)or Zen Buddhism in order to devote yourself to learning Chinese language and culture. There are so many elements in it that you can’t afford to ignore . For example, the Yin/Yang theory is too important to be missed by anyone who already senses the truth that , from the western medical heritage , you can never solve practically the issue of life ,aging and death of human beings .
I once watched a film called “2010” , based on a famous fiction written by Arthur C. Clark , which tells us a story about how Jupiter becomes another new sun in our sky . The emergence of the Chinese culture at this moment , I think , is another wonderful , historic event in human history similar to it.
It is totally different from the event that English took the place of French in the 19th century as the international language ( in Europe), or the emergence of Japanese economy and her language that attracted many westerners in the70- 80’s of the last century .In the Japanese case, people were mislead to think that Japan is the main symbol of the Eastern culture ( in fact , besides China ,neither India nor Japan can claim that ) .
The communist took over the political power in China in 1949 and later her extreme Marxist (in fact , pseudo-Marxist ones ) policy during the same period just overshadowed the impression that Chinese culture was receding , if not dying ; in fact , the truth is , it only went “underground” temporarily and waited patiently for its rebirth.
You need not to be a lover of the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)or Zen Buddhism in order to devote yourself to learning Chinese language and culture. There are so many elements in it that you can’t afford to ignore . For example, the Yin/Yang theory is too important to be missed by anyone who already senses the truth that , from the western medical heritage , you can never solve practically the issue of life ,aging and death of human beings .