Why Chinese? Most of my friends do not know how much Chinese culture has influenced me. It is a similar story to how Japanese culture has shaped me. Although for the past few years Chinese influence on my life has waned somewhat as I focus a lot of my time on computers and networking. But lets roll back down on memory lane.

I grew up in Thailand and when I was a kid, Chinese wuxia series were hugely popular. I use to run home all the time from school to watch the series. Yet I watched them dubbed in Thai so I never even knew their real names. Even now in my head I can remember some story lines and cool stuff that I wish I can find to watch it again. At the same time of my fascination with the series, Chinese movies also entered my imagination. This of course is mainly movies from Hong Kong. Actors such as Jackie Chan and Jet Li really kicked ass and who doesn’t like any of their movies. The more darker and fantasyish movies like the bride with white hair, fallen angels, and the blade captured the essence of what I considered cool and gritty back in the days. Of course, I still recall when stormriders came out and blew my mind and most of my friends who are into Chinese movies. One of my newer goal in life is to play the newer updated game in Chinese and actually be able to play it.

Chinese culture also made an entry into my gaming habits. There were of course the mindless hack and slash like Dynasty Warriors series but those I never really played much. The one series of games that captured my imagination was a similar game to civilization (which sucked me up). It was called Romance of the three kingdom which was based off the novel. Since I couldn’t read Chinese I played the translated version which was old but was incredibly addictive. From this game I learned of that period of Chinese and became familiar with many of the great characters such as Lui Bei, Cao Cao, Zhuge Liang, etc. I used to create characters in game based on my friends and then of course try to take over China with them. Looks like there’s a new ROTK11 is translated into english. I gotta make some time for that.

When I got to the US, and during my period of isolation, I went deep into Chinese entertainment. This was mainly in the form of HK movies. I bought many dvds (ordered 30 at a time from HK) and watch many of the classics and became familiar with many famed Chinese directors such as John Woo, Wong Kar-wai, Tsui Hark, Ronny Yu and Zhang Yimou. I became huge fans of actors/actresses such as Brigitte Lin, Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Gong Li, Chow Yun Fat, etc.. I wasn’t just into action and fantasy now. I started delving more and more into artsy and dramatic movies and started to appreciate the more intricate stories woven into these masterpieces.

After this eventually I got to the point where I bought and read the translated novel of Romance of the Three Kingdom which was comprised of 4 books. Since I have always been interested in ancient history (At one point I wanted to be a history major), I started reading Chinese history and listened to recorded college lecture such as The teaching company’s lecture on Chinese history. Of course I also became interested in politics and social issues during this period so I read the more recent history on China. I read biography by Jan Wong on China and read up on Mao and try to understand modern China. One day I saw Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn being interviewed on cspan about their upcoming book. I snatch up the book which was called China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power. Of course the situation in China is moving so fast that half of these books are probably outdated. In any case, I am fully aware of China and especially its rising economic might.

I don’t know what are the reasons for many of the people who learn Chinese in my class. Most probably are learning it because its a smart thing to do with the growth of Chinese power. For me though its both a practical and genuine interest in Chinese culture. I also consider Mandarin a beautiful language (although Thai got it beat for now) and it is a challenge for me. Its actually the first language I will study to learn because the 3 I speak right now I obtain just by growing up around them. Hopefully I can learn well and use the resources I have to improve my Chinese. It definitely is a long commitment.