My parents, aunties and uncles and family friends in China 2005

My parents, aunties, uncles and cousins, with family friends in China, 2005

Ever since my mom retired, she finally had the time to do something that her father, my grandfather had told his children to do,

See China before you die.

It had something to do with how we should understand where our bloodline came from to better understand our place in this world.

I remember once having an interesting discussion with him about the need for a Chinese to know how to speak Chinese. I appreciate the advantages of knowing the language myself, and being able to appreciate the TV shows, movies and music produced by the Chinese diaspora around the world. However, I do not believe that a Chinese need to know how to speak Mandarin or the other dialects to be culturally aware of our race.

Basically my grandfather thought that a Chinese who doesn’t speak it is not a true Chinese. My argument was that it was more important that the person accepts and understands certain values like respect for family and elders. I mentioned something similar a while back on a post by Blinkymummy about Chinese snobs who look down on other Chinese who don’t know or don’t grasp Mandarin as well as they do (also a follow-up).

I commented:

Language is one thing and inner values are another. You don’t have to speak Mandarin to still be a “Chinese”, and vice-versa just because you speak Mandarin doesn’t mean you are a true “Chinese”.

Although I may disagree with my grandfather about the need to know the language, I don’t disagree with him about getting to know the motherland. Even though I was born in Malaysia and now naturalised as an Australian.

So back to my mom … she and dad are heading off to China again, using Shanghai as their base and going on a 1-week tour with some of her sisters to see the Chinese countryside. Meanwhile, my uncle working in Shanghai has been urging me to go visit him there. He knows that although I may not dig natural beauty and scenery, I do dig big city life.

I haven’t decided where I want to go for my end of year holiday yet. I have the old standby of Malaysia and Singapore, but I’m now tempted to check out Shanghai, and maybe even Taiwan. Suddenly like my parents I feel like soaking up some of that “Sons of Dragons” stuff.

Taipei, Taiwan

Xi Men Ting, Taipei (Phil~ @ flickr)