When someone immigrates to the USA, the expectation of Americans is that the new immigrant will learn to speak English and will learn to behave in culturally appropriate ways. When a foreigner moves to China, the expectation of Chinese is that the new “resident” will not learn how to speak Chinese and will not learn to behave in culturally appropriate ways. Most foreigners I’ve met in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China have come planning to learn Chinese. In Hong Kong, most quickly discover that there is no need to learn Chinese since many Chinese in Hong Kong speak English well. In China and Taiwan, that’s not as often the case. Of the people who try to learn Chinese, the majority toss in the towel after a single course. Of those who continue, few become fluent, and only a handful become literate. I’ve been wondering if learning Chinese is like the mountain that will take generations to move.
The idiom is 愚公移山 Yúgōng yí shān (The foolish old man who moved the mountain.) Although not directly derived from the Dao De Jing, it is certainly Daoist in thought and dates back to at least the 5th century BCE.
There was an old man who had spent his life living in a house on the opposite side of a hill several hours from the nearby village. Having been to the top of the mountain many times, he knew that the distance between his house and the village was much shorter as the crow flies. So, when he grew old and his famly no longer needed him to work at home, he decided he would move the mountain. He started digging with a shovel, a bucket, and a hoe, and people wondered what he was doing. When he said he was going to move the mountain, everyone laughed and called him crazy.
But the “foolish” old man knew better and kept on digging. He understood that he would never be able to move the mountain by himself. His sons and his daughters would need to continue his work and their sons and daughters as well. It may take several generations, but in the end, the mountain would be moved.
Growing up in the USA, most people don’t have a “move the mountain” mentality. When planting a new lawn, most Americans want grass that is ready to roll around in, in a few months. We plant vegetables and fruit with the idea of harvesting at the end of one season, and plant trees that will provide shade in 5 years. In China, people plant trees and shrubs, and flowers that may take years or sometimes decades to mature.
China is not the mountain, Chinese is. Each bucket of earth represents understandings that keep non-Chinese speaking and culturally illiterate people walking around the mountain. The old man wasn’t foolish. Neither was he old. And neither was s(he) necessarily a man.
Chinese Odyssey 22
The US and China
were in this together
A curious friendship,
some interesting weather.
Kids all over China
learned English with zest.
The same was not happening
here in the West.
The Panda in the Room PD 