What will be shall be

The beautiful language

狼牙月 伊人憔悴
我举杯 饮尽了风雪
是谁打翻前世柜
惹尘埃是非

缘字诀 几番轮回
你锁眉 哭红颜换不回
纵然青史已经成灰 我爱不灭

This is a song sang by Jay Zhou entitled 发如雪. But its not about Jay. This is written by Fang Wen Shan who is undoubtedly one of the most talented song-writers around. Just look at the beauty of the words. Tell me, can the English language do something as beautiful as this?

Chinese words to me is beautiful because they are a thousand ways to describe something unlike the English words which are quite limited. Can anyone translate the above into English? Even so, will it be as beautiful?

The Chinese culture, unfortunately is going down the slumps. Many youngsters nowadays prefer to speak English rather than embrace their own culture. There are even many Chinese who couldn't speak Chinese let alone write. Chinese don't know how to speak Chinese? Have you heard of Ang Mo who cannot speak English? Or Malays who cannot speak malay?

Is it the Western influence that is so prominent everywhere? Or is it the education? English language may be very important since it is the international language but shouldn't we emphasis the importance of knowing our own culture? This is something that belongs to us but yet we are treating it as a hassle. Many may argue that chinese words are very difficult to write compared to English. But this is OUR language.

Most younger generation don't even read the Chinese papers because they cannot understand what its writing. Its a real pity because at the rate its going, perhaps come 1000 years down the road, the chinese culture could be lost forever. It may sound a bit far-fetched but look around you, how many people can actually write proper Chinese? They may be able to in Secondary school but once graduating from there, how many still can?

There is a common misconception that the Chinese are inferior to Westerns. Even typical Aunties like my mother when shopping will go "Eeee..made in China one, don't buy better". Well, Nike products are also made in China but they are one of the biggest if not the biggest sporting company around. American brand? Superior?

When I worked part-time at Sports-link before I got enlisted, I sold shoes of a China brand. According to some of my customers who hail from China, this brand is BIG in China, like Adidas in Germany. However when other customers heard that this is a China brand, they will shun and make remarks like "I think I go inside see the American brand better". Its funny how some products despite being almost the same quality but just because of the country it hails from, can fetch a much higher price.

While I am not a huge fan of mushy love songs, Fang Wen Shan always had me enchanted with his expressing of the words. Like this below.

我给你的爱写在西元前
深埋在美索不达米亚平原
几十个世纪后出土发现
泥板上的字迹依然清晰可见

我给你的爱写在西元前
深埋在美索不达米亚平原
用楔形文字刻下了永远
那已风化千年的誓言
一切又重演

Mushy indeed but with a delicate touch of substance. Not the typical I-love-you-but-you-don't-love-me-why-like-that stuff. I honestly wonder how this piece of song/poetry can be translated into English.

Let's hope that one day the future generations will learn to appreciate the beauty of their own culture and understand where they really come from. It's a real shame not to.

posted by malmoncolo @ 3:42 AM