Plunge into China
Swedish writer tells her readers that the best way to understand a different culture is to live it and accept the differences
By Xiao Yang
LEARNING Chinese seemed impossible for Catarina Lilliehook several years ago when she first found a Chinese language learning book in a bookstore in Stockholm. She was shocked by the strange pronunciation and complicated way of writing Chinese characters.
"This language is totally different from European languages, which usually share some similarities in pronunciation and word spelling,” Lilliehook said.
Walking out of the bookstore, Lilliehook believed that she would never learn Chinese, because it was too difficult, and far beyond her imagination.
Today, Lilliehook not only speaks very fluent Chinese but writes in Chinese as well. In 2004, she published her first Chinese book under the name Li Lin. "Rediscovering China" vividly depicts her more-than-three-year experience in China.
“This book aims to help Chinese learn more about Westerners by making cultural comparisons between the East and the West,” she said.
Lilliehook felt that China's rapid opening up process attracted foreigners from every walk of life. "We are warmly welcomed in this country and we come here to know China better, so I hope that China will also know what its foreign guests are like," Lilliehook said.
Cosmopolitan attitude
Unlike people who prefer to live a regular and stable life, Lilliehook is always longing for an adventure. "I am a cosmopolitan who loves travelling around the world;" she said.
At the age of 18 Lilliehook went to Britain alone, where she lived with a local family and worked as a nanny for a year. During this period, she accumulated experience in different aspects of life and endeavored to improve her English.
In the next few years, she took up various jobs in several countries, making money for travelling. "In my time alone, my ability to deal with things has greatly improved, for you cannot always count on your parents to solve problems in your daily life," Lilliehook wrote in "Rediscovering China".
Even though she experienced life in places of distinctly different cultures, Lilliehook always settled down in her homeland, Sweden, until she met her husband.
"After we were together, the first thing we talked about was starting a new life in a foreign country. We cannot spend our whole life only in one country," Lilliehook said.
By that time, Lilliehook had tired of her routine in Sweden – nothing could arouse her excitement. "I used to visit South Asia and had a good time there, so I knew I would like to live in an Asian country. Since I never had the chance to visit East Asia, it became a great temptation for us to seek a new challenge in China," Lilliehook said.
An old saying states that the first step is the hardest. Both Lilliehook and her husband realized that it would not be easy to move to a country far away from Sweden. “I had no idea how long it would take me to learn to speak Chinese and find a job there," Lilliehook said.
She recalled that five or six years ago, many Swedes did not know much about China because of the long distance and huge cultural differences separating the countries.
"It is a strange feeling one gets thinking of China. We often associate China with old things, for instance, Chairman Mao Zedong and the 'cultural revolution' (1966-76)," Lilliehook said.
That was why the Swedes were greatly surprised when they first visited Beijing, Shanghai and other modern cities in China.
"On my first day in Beijing in 2001, I thought I was an extraterrestrial," Lilliehook said. "I could not understand what people were saying or doing."
Lilliehook went from knowing nothing about the complicated language to fluency in Chinese in about three years. “I made marvellous progress when I studied in Beijing Normal University," she said.
In order to improve her Chinese, Lilliehook forced herself not to speak English in China and she spent more time with overseas students from Asian countries instead of Western countries, because Western students preferred to speak English together. What she wanted was to practice conversational Chinese.
Promotion of understanding
More than four years have passed since Lilliehook moved to China. She lived in Beijing in the first three and half years, then came to Shanghai when her husband was transferred here for his job.
"Thinking of the past years, I have got used to many things in China, some of which I can accept and some of which l understand better now. I am starting to enjoy my life in China," Lilliehook said.
When she first studied Chinese, she could only memorize how to read and write the characters. But as times passed, she gradually began to understand the deep meanings of these characters, especially Chinese idioms.
"I like Chinese idioms very much and sometimes I am really curious who created this language of rigorous logic. Each idiom has very few characters, but is endowed with deep philosophical meaning," Lilliehook said.
To learn about the extensive land and dense population, Lilliehook and her husband went to Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Yunnan Province. Tibet Autonomous Region and other places in North China.
"What foreigners know about China, in fact, is a very small part of it. Now, my mind is filled with it lot of impressions about China. To know more about this complicated country, four years is only a start. I need another four years," she said.
Wherever she visited in China, Lilliehook felt that the old things were the best, especially furniture and architecture. "I witnessed the amazing development of Beijing within three years. But some changes tend to be Western-oriented," Lilliehook said.
"We like China's uniqueness. If many things we see in China are quite similar to those in Western countries, why should we come here'?"
Lilliehook is working on her second book, in which she hopes to introduce China to Swedish readers. "Mainly it is stories of my life in China. Readers will know how to 'exist' in China after reading it," Lilliehook said.
"The mutual understandings between different cultures are helpful for decreasing national misunderstandings and violence. More importantly, people will become more tolerant of each other."