*Digest The Food You Eat Otherwise*
Kalibangaon gyod ka!

Chinese language may be written in Hanzi(Han Chinese characters) but
it's not 'pure' Han language as it appear. Even the Han people is a
mixture of peoples that have become Han Chinese. The Chinese language
has for thousand years survived, not because of its purity but of its
integrity. It has kept its uniqueness, it's own rhyme and form. It has
changed and adapted too but according to its own course and term. It has
adapted various words and influences from Buddhist India,from the
traders traversing the Silk road, Jingjiao Religion from Central Asia (a
branch of the early days’ Christianity from as as early as the Tang
Dynasy (618-907 AD) and reentered in the 15^th century Christianity from
the West), and influences from the Mongols(Song dynasty) and
Manchurian(Qing dynasty) period ,from the many ethnic minorities
themselves, from the Soviet Union, and from the Western powers (
initially through Japan ). We will see more on how it adapts to English
and internet language.

Far from the misjudgment of being puritanical of their language, the
mainland Chinese have even simplified (less strokes) their writing
system to make it easier to learn. This of course, is a sacrifice among
Chinese. It caused a lot of disagreement and pain especially to many
Chinese in the world, who believed that the simplification has distorted
the beauty and visual clarity of their written language. A notable
example is the simplified form of 'ai' (love) which lost the picture of
'xin'(heart) in the process of simplification. The Chinese in
Hongkong,Macau,Taiwan,Singapore and other overseas Chinese continue to
use the Fantizi (the complicated form).

The open door policy in 1978 opens the gate for the world to come to
China just as it opens for China to join the World. China has joined the
WTO since 2001.
Many Confucian institutes are now being established around the world,
especially to share the language and culture of the Chinese people. It
is 'soft power'.


"The chief executive of Confucius Institute Headquarters draws an
analogy from war times. "It's like a continuous campaign, one battle
leading to another. Before you have the time to clear the battleground,
another battle has started."

She is talking about the opening of Confucius Institutes around the
world. At the end of last year, there were 100 institutes, but by the
end of last month the number had reached 209, that is, one in every
three days."(/China// Daily/ December 12, 2007)
[http://www.china.org.cn/english/culture/235386.htm]


"There have been so many applications from all over the world. We have
been very selective, but we still granted 100-odd of them."
.....We don't need to push foreigners to learn Chinese. Instead, we are
being pushed by them to accommodate their need."

One such Confucian institute is in Ateneo de Manila.




*Why does Chinese language (Mandarin) survived for thousand of years and
still is flourishing?*

It had time to build up its language and culture undisturbed for a long
time. It had time to build itself a glorious cultural achievement, gave
them a sense of pride as the 'center of the world'. As it survived for
thousands of years so it seeks continuity for thousands of years ahead.
It's vision is far reaching. They see the past of thousand years, and
sees way ahead in the future. They don't look at the heaven for
immortality but at the continuity of the family as the promise of life
after death. It's an obligation to continue the family. A failure to
carry on the name of the family is an unfilial calamity. Who would light
incense and bow to their ancestors? As they record their ancestors name,
they record everything around them as well, even about the
stars,(Chinese astrology)the plants(chinese medicine), etc. Writing is
central to their own culture.Calligraphy, the art of writing Chinese
characters is equivalent to painting, at least. Some appreciate it more
for it breathes life to other Chinese arts, like Chinese
painting,poetry, pottery,stone carving,plays and Beijing opera,music and
songs,etc. Those unable to read or write are considered 'without
culture'. Hanzi(Mandarin characters), the writing system has undergone
changes, innovations through out the ages, from an early pictograph to
the present simplified Chinese. During the modern China, Mao even
attempted to replace the Chinese characters with phonetic Roman alphabet
to get in line with the phonetic world, to take down the language
barrier, to hasten development. This attempt failed. The ordinary people
couldn't read the Pinyin or the romanized phonetic written form.
Nevertheless, the Pinyin, is being used now as complementary tool
forlearning Hanyu(Mandarin).

Chinese absorbs and adapts foreign influences into its own unique
cultural and linguistic body. It has made Buddhism its own. They have
the memory of the glory of being number one. How could they forget their
pride, their glory as the 'center of the world'? This confidence
shattered by the shame of colonization by Japanese and western powers
have since been recovered in their successful revolution. Now, they are
the lord of their own land. Even those who came to subdue and conquer
China (Monggols and Manchurians) eventually became absorbed by Chinese
culture and language. Thanks to the importance the big population of
Chinese gave to their language and culture, they won over their
conquerors. The conquerors became Chinese.

*Now, how would the Chinese face the influence of the English language
and other foreign languages?*

They learn English, yes and other foreign languages too. But most people
understand them, through translations. Foreign books are translated into
Chinese or published with the original language side by side with the
Chinese translation. The Chinese language go along with the scientific
and technological progress in the world. As new inventions appear, new
foreign word appear. So thus, a new Chinese translation of the word
subsequently appear.World movies are translated into Chinese, dubbed or
subtitled. During translation they undergo different stages, starting
from copying the word( i.e. OK), or imitating the sound of the word
'demokelasi'(democracy),but after understanding the real meaning of the
word,then they translate it into their own Chinese word according to the
rules of the Chinese language system. It has to be short and visually
understandable in Chinese characters even if the pronunciation could
only be guessed. A new foreign word would evoke new competing
translations until the people settle on an appropriate one which they
would regularly use. In some cases two words for the same thing would
co-exist like 'dian nao'( electric brain) and 'jisuan ji' (computing
machine) to refer to the same word,'computer'.

In ancient Chinese,one character could stand up by itself, with its own
meaning. But now pairing of characters to make a word is practiced. They
translate foreign words into Chinese terms so as to be understood by the
masses, for example new words like Min zhu (people as lord/democracy),
dian nao (electric brain/computer). The formulation of the characters
gives the people a clue what a computer is even if one hasn't seen one
before. The written language (Chinese characters/Hanzi )plays a big role
in preserving the integrity of the language. Any foreign language word
has to be written in Hanzi, thus translated and absorbed into the
written system. Even a foreigner's name has to be translated into
Chinese to be recognized and pronounced by a Chinese. They appreciate
the rhyme and beauty of the sound and form of their own language. To
keep the integrity of the language, translation is necessary. Without
the active process of 'digesting' the foreign words, the whole body
system of a language will suffer diarrhea as its speakers only eat
foreign food without digesting or translating them into their own body
system and without benefiting from them. These languages and cultures
have lost the sense of their own body as the point of reference. So
where have their hearts,mind and soul gone to?Could their own elders and
their own masses recognize themselves in the mirror of the official
language or writing system of their own country?


In principle, for the Chinese, the language and cultural body is the
point of reference to which they welcome, eat, digest and absorb foreign
helpings. They continue to digest and integrate them into their system
especially the scientific and technological influences. Not all foreign
food and influences are good, so they try in their best judgment to
welcome the best and reject the worst. The Great Firewall of China
blocks some websites in China. Nevertheless, the bits of negative
influences help strengthen the Chinese immune system. But they have to
open up. In their history, they swing back and forth from opening
themselves to the world or isolating themselves from the world. They
flourish every time they open up, but decline every time they isolate
themselves from the world. The present 'open door' policy witnesses a
fast developing China. Openness brings its danger and fortune. But,
isolation or puritanical tendencies or fear of the foreign rather brings
stagnation and death to the language. China is not making such stupid
mistake. On the other hand,ethnic linguistic groups could learn from the
Han Chinese how they use and flourish their culture and language.

In China, the government helps to build up the ethnic minorities,
providing them education, including Foreign education(English) and
education about their own language and culture. One of the first things
the new government of China did after establishing in 1949 was to rename
China as Zhonghua(Chinese peoples), a multi-ethnic state and enshrined
this identity in their constitution, and freed the diverse ethnic
peoples from feudalism and slavery, from the warlords and bandits,
helped them establish autonomy, run themselves locally according to
their customs and traditions, sent teams of linguists and researchers
all over the country to help them create their writing system and
improved them scientifically(towards international standard) for those
with existing written system like the
Dai,Yi,Naxi,Lahu,Lisu,Jingpo(Kachin),Zang(Tibetan), ethnic groups etc.
The government trained leaders from the ethnic minorities to lead their
people. The principle of one body, diverse peoples is applied.
Autonomous governance in ethnic regions and central government's
leadership is at work. Just as one country two systems is also a working
experiment. They pour a lot of support, financial and otherwise, to
develop the lot of the ethnic groups. The media is used. Books,
magazines, newspapers about ethnic groups or written in ethnic languages
are published. Movies concerning ethnic minorities are shown.
Celebrations of different ethnic festivals attract lots of tourists.
Ethnic cultural show are daily occurrence on TV. Education for ethnic
people are subsidized greatly. At least 14 nationalities universities
mainly for the research,study and education of ethnic minorities are
established, and mostly run by ethnic people themselves. The Yunnan
Nationalities museum is the biggest in Asia.


The Chinese have reflected well after their shameful defeat during the
Opium war(1840s) in the hands of the imperial forces that have been
imposing themselves to China during its weakened and corrupt Qing
dynasty. Some Chinese saw that their country could be lost to them as
the 'foreign devils' are breaking up their country into pieces (Yunnan
to French influence; Guangxi and Guangdong to British; Hankou to British
and French; Shanghai to British,French,American influence; Tsingdao to
Germans; Manchuria to Japan). The onslaught of foreign influences could
be damaging to the country if they couldn't discover how to face and
manage them. They realized that they lost the war because of the advance
technology of the western powers. To manage the foreigners the Chinese
had to learn the foreigner's technologies and methodologies. With all
the ethnic peoples, all of them had to unite against their common
imperial and abusive enemies. People would say that Mao gave them
liberation and Deng Xiaoping gave them food. It's the use of their own
unique situation, culture and history in adapting a foreign communist
ideology integrated in Mao's thought that won them liberation. It's
Deng's 'Socialism with Chinese characteristics' that gave them economic
development. He is known for more pragmatic sayings like, "It doesn't
matter if the cat is white or black as long as it catches mice". Also,
the 'One country, two systems' which successfully broke the impasse in
the negotiation with British contingent that brought back Hongkong
successfully into the arms of the mother land in 1997. Finally, China
has cleaned up the last vestiges of shame suffered from the Imperial
powers. Macau, soon followed. Now, China is harping on the language of
harmony. They know that you could hardly bring food to the table and
enjoy them if there's no harmony? They must have learned the value of
stability and harmony painfully throughout their thousands of years of
history. Yet, they continue to learn from their experiences and from
others. Confucious said, '"When three persons walk together, one of them
can surely be my teacher." Hu Jin Tao, the president have said this too
when invited to speak in the Japanese congress, "xianghu jie jian"
(let's mutually borrow mirrors).

So, let's borrow a Chinese mirror, their experience, to see what lessons
we could learn from them to improve our own local situation. One thing
for sure, our body is our own. Use our own. That if you fail to digest
the foreign food you eat, your linguistic and cultural body system will
be wasted away by cultural diarrhea. It takes over your whole system as
you run back and forth to the CR (or WC in China). Digest. Otherwise
kalibangaon gyod ka!

Akoy