Chinese in SE Asia drifting from heritage
- Source: Global Times
- [22:35 December 03 2009]
- Comments
Along with China's rise, the status of the Chinese language is growing. But a nonnegligible fact is that the second, third and even fourth generations of Chinese immigrants in these countries are less and less interested in Chinese.
The first generation might forever bear in mind the Chinese customs and etiquette they learned in childhood. But their kids are not obliged to learn difficult Chinese, within the changed sociolinguistic environment.
Learning the new national language or English becomes more practical – that's the language they need to merge with classmates, pass school exams and get into first class colleges.
Consequently, the more they are pushed to learn Chinese by parents or the government, the more resistant they become toward this "difficult"language.
Meanwhile, since China's college education is still not as attractive as that in Western countries, parents are willing to encourage their children to study English and seek further development in Western countries.
Even if learning Chinese becomes easy and fun, parents will still choose to send their kids to Englishspeaking schools. Few Chinese in South Asia are able to speak Chinese dialects today, as their parents or grandparents once did.
Thus, even though the kids want to learn Chinese, they will be taught just like an American or European, who barely has any foundation in the language.
They will also find Chinese tones hard to pronounce, not to mention the difficulty of understanding China's long history and classic literature. As the generations change, cultural identity will fade away.
Will Chinese language simply lost among these overseas Chinese? No, but will be preserved and acquired largely due to utilitarian thoughts.
Just as Lee mentioned in the speech, learning Chinese is accompanied by "potential market value."In other words, it facilitates getting onboard China's economic express.
Guo Xi, director of the College of Chinese Language and Culture of Guangzhoubased Jinan University, said after a recent visit to Singapore: "The government's goal is to foster old China hands to promote exchanges with China.
"In the future, Chinese will become a second language in the entirety of Southeast Asia. The language will become a tool to bridge communication with China, not a natural carrier of Chinese culture."The Chinese language may help strengthen a "Great China economic circle."But this circle probably won't become a cultural one.
The author is a reporter with the Global Times.
chenchenchen@ globaltimes.com.cn
