Hallo Zev dan rekan KoKiers, ni hao ma?

Setelah menampilkan artikel berbahasa Inggris dan Italia, kali ini Kolom 20/20 menampilkan satu artikel dalam bahasa Chinese yang disertai dengan cerita dalam bahasa Inggris dan dilengkapi dengan kata pengantar dalam bahasa Indonesia (phew..!)

Bagi saya bahasa Chinese adalah bahasa asing. Saya tidak pandai berkomunikasi dalam bahasa Chinese, tetapi saya senang mendengarkan lagu2 berbahasa Chinese.

Ada satu lagu yang maknyes di hati setiap kali saya mendengarkannya, yaitu: "The Moon Represents My Heart", ada di Playlist berikut ini:

"n? wèn w? ài n? y?u du? sh?n, w? ài n? y?u j? f?n?,w? de qíng y? zh?n,w? de ài y? zh?n, yuèliàng dàibi?o w? de x?n… " (You're asking me how deeply I love you, how long lasting is my love: My affection is real, my love is also real.. The moon represents my heart)

Selanjutnya.. kita baca cerita Lizzie berikut ini. Cerita yang sangat menarik, disertai foto2 jepretan Lizzie dan dituturkan dengan sangat rapi dan teratur.

Untuk Lizzie, many thanks for the article. I enjoyed reading it and I loved the photos, especially The Yangtze River, awesome!

Minta maaf kalau ada susunan huruf Chinese yang tidak urut atau bahkan terbalik upside-down (walah) karena aku nggak ngerti Chinese character.

Rekan KoKiers selamat membaca sambil menikmati lagu kesukaan Lizzie dari Playlist.

Xie Xie… (Juwita)

                                                                     __________________________

"Zhong Guo, shi wo de di er gu xiang"

(By: Lizzie – China)

In my childhood, China is a very distant and mysterious word. For one Overseas-Chinese born and grew up in Indonesia like me, all the impression about China was limited in Louis Cha’s martial arts novels and melodies of some Chinese songs. I had never imagined that I could be a Chinese or will be linked to any relations with Chinese.

Ten years ago, I came to the United States. In the multicultural society over there, I found that I always been drawn by the Americans into the circles of the Chinese people, because I have an oriental appearance. Through some of my Chinese friends , slowly I started to understand the meaning of the word " China " Comparing to their behavior and attitude, I had recognized how far or close I am to the word “China”.  

I approached the Chinese so closely since I met my husband, one pure Chinese from Nanjing, China. We were working and living in New York City, talking in English and eating Western food everyday. But we never sedulously felt or emphasize that we have the connections with China or Chinese, however China started quietly getting closer and closer to my life. And the Chinese words started insensibly melting into my spoken language.

When I was small, I liked to follow my parents to hum one Chinese song called "the Chinese heart". I still can remember the lyrics “Blood flowing in my heart, surging forward to the Chinese voice". Since I met my husband, I realized that it’s the so-called fate, and it’s also the said unique genes for all Chinese. That is true; the Chinese cultural memory was melted in the Chinese blood. Wherever you are, once the conditions arise, it will be inspired immediately.

Forbidden City

 Forbidden City

Now, we are living in China. Well, I am so close to China, because I stand on her land. I have never seen so many Chinese people which talk in a variety of dialects, live in totally different styles, do things, dress and even food in different ways, but they are Chinese.

 Temple of Heaven

Before, the familiar landscapes I viewed on television, movies or photos such as the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, Confucius Temple, Shanghai's Bund, and the Changan Avenue in Beijing and so on, suddenly become so fresh and strange when I really have been there.

Confusius Temple

Confusius Temple

Confusius Temple

Ming Tomb

Ming Tomb

          I have never been so loving this country like today, because I feel like a woman with her feet on the ground, I feel safe and I feel warm. One of my friends told me, only by standing on Tiananmen Square, you can really feel how great to be a Chinese. Now I have to say that as long as you have the Chinese blood in your body, wherever you are in China, anything here will get you deeply touched and moved, by her broad Streets, lively crowd, rich culture and beautiful scenery and so on.

Busy Street

Shanghai 

             China has long history of 5,000 years, and the Chinese language is very difficult to learn. As said, if you have learned 3000 Chinese characters, you can read the Chinese newspapers, and you would be so called half-Chinese-intellectual. It sounds too easy and shouldn’t be difficult for those people like us who are able to remember tens of thousands of English vocabularies, especially for someone like me, so confident about my talent for Chinese. However, when I came to China, I have been encountered great troubles.

First of all, it’s the pronunciation. In New York, we often spoke in Cantonese and Mandarin was only been used occasionally . Even though, the Chinese friends of mine thought I was very remarkable. Since I came to China, I suddenly found out that my pronunciation is not so perfect. After a period of time, I felt my confidence of speaking Mandarin was entirely built on my friends’ guessing and surmising. Indonesian people mainly exposed to Mandarin through some popular music. In fact, the Indonesian-Style Chinese phonetic is completely different from Chinese Pin-yin. For instance, we used to spell the character  as Chung instead of Zhong; is spelling of Yi, instead of Ie, and so on. Those very beginning memories of phonetic obstruct our Chinese study. Now, it’s almost impossible to correct those errors which is repeated in our memory for thousands of times.

Second, the Mandarin has four tones, i.e. every Pin-yin has four different tones, and each tone has a different meaning. If you made a mistake on those tones, other people do not understand what you’re talking about. Besides, every character will joint with another to composite the Chinese vocabulary, and it’s also means one wrong, all wrong. Please imagine, if you got one wrong tone, it’s already hard to understand it; if you add other character behind it, there is definitely no way to recognize what is that all about.

You see, it is so difficult to speak in Mandarin, and together with writing, it is the toughest job in the world. Chinese characters come from hieroglyphs and with development and changes over thousands years, we got the simplified Chinese characters today. In comparison to the traditional Chinese characters used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, the simplified Chinese characters look much easier. As said that this language reform was made by Chairman Mao. He is really great, not only because he had liberated all Chinese women, but also liberated the language. Although the Chinese is simplified, it’s still very complex. It’s elaborated into details, for instance, to write one character with longer or shorter lines could cause a lot of real troubles. But if you have enough imagination, you still are able to guess what is that, such as (sheep) looks like a sheep's head; (country) symbolizes a king in palace surrounded by city walls; (family) refers to a piglet in custody under a house roof; there is one more character (safety) which means the safety when a woman is in the house and so on.

In fact, those are not the most difficult points for learning Chinese. In my opinion, the expression way is the hardest point. Although there are numerous Chinese grammars, the Chinese don’t like to follow the rules most of the time. In China, there are many tones or vocabularies with different meanings or polysemy. You will be very confused when you find out one vocabulary has a certain meaning in this situation, but in another, it means something in a totally different way. Some people say that Chinese are very implicit; in fact, I think it’s related with their language.

Last but not least, the language that is inextricably linked with culture. For instance, the logically rigorous German brings up the philosophers; the exquisite French is closely related with literature and art; the enthusiastic Spanish connected with dance and music; and the Chinese which blends fineness with vagueness, nurtures many educators and businessmen. Generally, when you come to China same as to other countries, you should learn to speak a few Chinese words such as: Ni Hao Ma? Xie Xie! Zai Jian! ( How are You? Thank You! Good Bye! ).Exotic Food

I would like to say something about the Chinese food. A long time ago, I thought there are plenty of tasty snacks wherever you go in China. In New York, the Americans made a English vocabulary “Dim Sum” specially for Chinese snacks. Dim Sum looks like English, but sounds like Cantonese. I didn’t know Dim Sum is only belonging to Cantonese and unable to be found out or afforded in other cities until I’ve been here in China. China is a big country where are too many tastes such as spicy Sichuan, sour Shanxi, sweet Shanghai, salty Shenyang. Every city has its own unique dishes. Let’s talk about spicy food, the spicy food in Sichuan is quite different from Hunan; the spicy food in Nanjing is also different from Guilin. Coming back to the Dim Sum, in Nanjing where I’m living, I can’t find out Dim Sum excepting in Hong Kong style restaurants. Here, all local snacks we can afford are Rou Bao Zi (steamed bun with stuffing of minced meat), Guo Tie (fried dumpling), Ya Xue Tang (duck blood soup), Mei Hua Gao (plum pudding) and so on. Although those local snacks look so different from Dim Sum, they taste same delicious. When we go out travel, please don’t think of the food we always used to eat. We have to go there try out some local specialties. That is the only way to truly appreciate China's infinite variety of fantastic phenomena.

Moreover, I would like to share a simple dish that requires only the most basic arsenal of Chinese ingredients: Steamed Fish. Chinese prefer their fish whole – head, tail, skin, and often fins, all intact. Compared to fillets, fish cooked in its own package, so to speak, is much juicier and more flavorful.

Steamed Fish

Ingredients:

1 medium-sized white fleshed whole fish, around 750g (such as sea bass or red snapper), on both sides of fish, cut deep incisions across width at 3 cm (1”) intervals.

Salt

2 stalks scallions, rains and cut into 2 or 3 sections, then slice lengthways into thin strips

3 or 4 slices ginger, rains and julienne it.

2 cloves garlic, rains and chop it.

2 tablespoons soy sauce (better use Lee Kum Kee – Seasoned Soy Sauce for Seafood)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Method:

1.       Sprinkle with salt inside and out.

2.       Insert ginger into incisions – any excess can be placed inside fish.

3.       Place fish in a steamer, Steaming it on a hot heat for about 8 minutes.

4.       Add oil to wok, stir with garlic, heat till sizzling.

5.       Place fish on a serving dish. Pour soy sauce and place scallions strips over fish.

6.       Pour sizzling oil over the scallions strips and serve.

                      China deserves everyone’s visit. Same like Indonesia, China has varied ethnic groups. Every city has its special characteristics and landscape. Even we can only get a passing glance at the scenery, we may need to spend one or two years. Therefore, we need to follow our own preferences to select our favorite destination, and then all we need to do is open our mind, just like a sponge, to accept every person and everything around us. Then, I guarantee you will find out something similar to our experience but actually totally different course of life. 

             Welcome to China! 

MODERATOR - Penggagas KoKi : ZEVERINA

Pembaca "KOLOM KITA" (KoKi) entah di Bontang, Inggris, Bali, Belanda, New Jersey, Kuwait, Australia, atau di Kediri, silakan berbagi peristiwa seputar kehidupan sehari-hari. Kirimkan artikel dan foto melalui form "Kirim Artikel", jika mengalami kesulitan kirimkan melalui email: zeverina@kompas.co.id ; zeverina.koki@yahoo.co.id ; kokizeverina@gmail.com