A personal and academic exploration of Chinese Culture

My decision to spend a year in Singapore was founded on a strong desire to experience living in Asia. My own heritage coupled with an overall interest in this part of the world were my two main motivations when applying to NUS. In addition, the chance to experience this part of the world from both an academic and personal perspective seemed like an opportunity that could not be missed. During this first semester I have engaged with Chinese language, history and culture in several ways.

The most obvious way that this has occurred has been through learning Mandarin, which has been difficult yet highly rewarding. I have found that the Singaporean style of weekly assessment has aided my progress immensely and has given me a strong foundation, which I hope to build upon in the future. Learning about the history behind certain Chinese characters has provided me with insight into China’s past. As an example the Chinese character for ‘surname’ is made up of two components, one parts means ‘woman’ and the other means ‘giving birth’. This character dates back to a time in Chinese history when recognition was only given to women in the family and surnames followed the maternal line.

Throughout the course I have also had several thoughts about Mandarin and its influence on ‘Singlish’, the Singaporean dialect. Once common phrase that Singaporeans use is “can-cannot?” when asking if something is possible. This, I have come to realise, has arisen from a Chinese way of forming questions, where the affirmative and negative forms of the predicate are placed next to each other in the sentence. Overall I have found that learning Chinese has allowed me to better understand aspects of Singaporean culture that I previously found bizarre and confusing.

Whilst in Singapore I have had the opportunity to familiarise myself with Chinese legends and folklore. One place that many people told me to visit was Haw Par Villa, as they said it would provide a quirky and entertaining afternoon out as well a lesson in Chinese mythology. The brothers who created ‘Tiger Balm’ built this theme park in 1937; it was intended as a place where traditional Chinese values could be taught. Although the park has since become quite run down, the ‘Ten Courts of Hell’ still offers a very graphic and detailed explanation of the Taoist and Buddhist depictions of hell. Although I was shocked by some of the dioramas I certainly learnt a lot more about mythology than if I had just read about it online. My knowledge of Taoism and Buddhism has since expanded through my World Religions module, and I have fortunately learnt about much less gruesome aspects of the religions.