Chinese Cinderella (20 page)

‘Besides, China is a huge country with a vast population and an ancient culture. Though life has to be lived forward, it can only be understood backward. Reading Chinese history will enlighten you in ways no English writing can.

‘I predict that in a hundred years from now, the world’s many languages will be distilled down to three: Chinese, English and Spanish. Chinese will never disappear because China’s population has a unified written language.

‘Above all, there is the wisdom and magic of our language itself. When you read a Chinese book, try to look at the characters and think about them. I have met many who appear to know a good many Chinese words, but never actually grasp the true meaning of any of them.

‘Let me give you the example of just one character
(bei) to illustrate my point.

‘In ancient times, cowrie shells were used as units of money and were exchanged for goods and services. In time, a hole was drilled in these shells and a row of shells was held together by a string. A string of shells was called
(bei). Look at the character
(bei) carefully. Does it not resemble a row of shells held together by a piece of string knotted at the end?

‘I agree that Chinese words are more difficult to learn than English. We do not have an alphabet and there is no correlation at all between our written and spoken language. In fact, I once met a Frenchman who could not speak a word of Chinese but wrote and read Chinese so well he worked as a translator of Chinese law at the French consulate in Shanghai. Chinese is a pictorial language, not a phonetic one. Our words come from images. The meaning of many characters is subtle and profound. Other words are poetic and even philosophical.

‘To go back to
(bei). Because the word evolved from something that was “valuable” in ancient times, modern Chinese words containing the component
(bei) are associated with finance or commerce in some way. Take the word
; it means “to buy”.
means “to sell”. Place the two words side by side
(buy‐sell) and the term means business. Now, what is the essence of business if not buy‐sell? Regardless of what commodity you are trading, if you wish to be successful in business, you hope to buy low and sell high. Otherwise you are in big trouble. This is universally true regardless of what business you’re in.

‘Look at
again. What is the only difference between the two characters? Compared to
(buy), the word
(sell) has the symbol
on top. What is
? The word
means earth or land. If the essence of business is buy‐sell, then its most important ingredient is
(earth or land). Should you go into business one day, keep this in mind. Everything else can be made better or cheaper or faster, but not land. It is the only commodity that can never be duplicated or replaced.