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Mutual Mandarin |
About the Background for the Application It has been the policy of the Chinese to regard all foreigners as
"barbarians". One Chinese emperor in the 1400's ordered all the
country's ships above a certain size to be burnt - there was no reason for the
Chinese to travel anywhere. A fleet larger than all the European fleets combined
was thus destroyed, and it was not the Chinese but the Portuguese and the
Spaniards who conquered the oceans of the world. China has for centuries been a
'closed' country, and this has marked both the Chinese people's view of the
world and of themselves, as well as the rest of the world's view of the Chinese. Because of its enormous population, but also because of the development
potential represented by China, there is reason to assume that China will come
to play a central role in the world's development during the next century. There
was thus a need for breaking down some of the "Chinese walls" and make
contact with people in China. Greater knowledge about each other has always been
decisive in the fight against prejudice throughout the history of humankind.
This was an important background for Mutual Mandarin approaching IFAS
with regard to developing a research project with the objective to research
the possibility for, and the necessity of, establishing connections between
people in the western part of the world and people in the People's Republic of
China. "This concerns a research project, which has - as its most noble objective - the relationship between "regular" people in two very different parts of the world, and the development of this relationship for their mutual benefit and for the benefit of all humanity. The connections, which have been established during the last years between China and the western world, take place between the Chinese government in its traditional vertical structure and capitalistic multinational companies in so called joint venture projects. This is not a people's contact, but a purely economic contact. Cultural agreements also exist between the modern China and a number of western countries, but these do not take place on the level of the broader population neither. The present project can not build on experiences of others, because none have been made. What is needed is innovative thinking and research efforts - partly to break away from the traditional thinking about what an exchange between nations and people is, and on what levels it should be taking place, and partly to break new ground and find the methods for how the exchange of knowledge, experiences, ideas and productions can take place in the future. The projects is at the one and the same time material/commercial and cultural/charitable. With the one crucial for the other." The Hypotheses Advanced
it could be shown that
The Practical Course of the Project The two researchers studied Mandarin as a fixed element of their activities during the following years - with 20 hours of education weekly at the university and 3-4 hours of self studies every day. After the first year the researchers had learnt 2,100 characters and knew how to write the 700. They could understand 70% of the radio news and 40% of the TV news (they speak much faster on TV than on radio). They could read normal newspaper articles, understand their meaning and translate them exactly with the help of a dictionary. They could participate in normal conversations and understand between 70-80% of the content. After the first three months of concentrated language studies, they started the other tasks of investigating questions such as: 1. The relationship China/Denmark and China/the rest of the world 2. The school, education and pedagogic 3. The products, production, business sector 4. Art and culture The approach used by the researchers was to travel every weekend and holiday and make investigations in selected areas of China. China is an enormous country. There are great differences in climate, geography, culture, language and economy from region to region, from province to province. The researchers therefore attached importance to visiting as broad a spectrum of China as possible. One travel went from Shanghai and south to Hangzhou - then over the mountains into the country through Jiujiang to Wuhan. From here by boat down the Yangtze river to Nanjing and back to Shanghai. 1000 km of this travel took place on bicycle. Another travel went to Yunan far towards the north, in the mountains close to the Mongolian border, where Mao and his army ended their Long March. The return travel was along the Yellow River. One travel was to Lüshun (former Port Arthur) which is located at the tip of a peninsula west of the North Korean border. Here they visited a study companion from the university. One travel went south to the Hainan Island, to the capital Haikou and out into the rural areas at Huangzhu - an area located in what the Chinese call "Special Economic Zones" - areas with their own tax and custom rules, and which were a kind of experiment with the economic development of the country. At that time there were 8-12 such areas all over China. The researchers also visited the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone north of Hong Kong, as well as the big wheat growing areas around Dezhou, halfway between Shanghai and Beijing. Through many concrete examples the researchers demonstrated that the Middle Kingdom is not at all as closed and self-centered, as it is often described. They established that there is a big need for contacts and exchange of experiences and knowledge between the regular people in China and regular people in other places. Time after time the researchers experienced that the average Chinese knew nothing about the world outside China. They encountered a big and broadly based interest to approach new things. This was true on the streets of Shanghai, where one couldn't move around as a foreigner without at least ten Chinese asking "How are you?" and would like to have a chat with you - partly to get more knowledge and partly to train their English abilities. It was true far away in the rural areas, where no Europeans had ever been before. All over they met friendly, curious and inquisitive people, wishing to make contact, to exchange experiences and ideas, to ask questions and get answers and to share their daily lives with the visitors. On their travels through China during this period, they visited 41 schools factories, agricultural cooperatives, 120 families and numerous individuals. The objective of these visits was to investigate the possibility of establishing exchange projects, and to get an insight into daily life, ideas, experiences, production and culture of the Chinese. In connection with each visit reports were prepared, video films produced, photos taken and materials collected. A concrete list of proposals for exchange projects was drawn up based on these investigations. The researchers produced eight video films with the titles: "The Peasants in Angais", "A Family in Haiping", The Small Handbag Factory in Haiping", Shanghai Tractor Factory", "Translation of the TV News", "About China's History", and "Pictures from a Street in Shanghai". Mutual Mandarin had chosen schools, institutions and associations connected to the School Cooperation Tvind as its collaborators. One of the reasons for this was that these schools had many years of experience in working with people of all ages and from many different parts of the world. This would mean a possibility of establishing exchange projects within the areas of primary schools, teacher training colleges, energy production, agricultural production, development aid and art. Besides this the schools connected to the School Cooperation Tvind had a long tradition of disseminating the newly found knowledge and the acquired experiences to other people through lectures, meetings, educational programs and arrangements. Thus there was a series of valuable experiences with exchanges between people. The researchers had after an additional year of language studies stopped counting the number of characters they had learnt. They could now understand 70-90% of the TV news, read Chinese newspapers, and get around in Chinese. They got between 80 and 95 points of 100 possible for their written work, and had a good pronunciation. In June '89, the episode on the Tien an Min-square in Beijing took place. This meant suddenly changed conditions and an altered mood in the country. In a letter to IFAS the researchers gave an account of the internal development in China at the time. One of the things they wrote in this letter was: "Right now it is not possible to have a free exchange of ideas, visions, experiences and methods, as wished by and aimed at by Mutual Mandarin. The propaganda of the press and the increased pressure on the population make a free exchange impossible." The board of directors of the Foundation was in agreement with IFAS and Mutual Mandarin about finalizing the project. At the same time it was clear that the project actually had been carried out with regard to trying out the hypotheses advanced. The research project Mutual Mandarin has had a big impact on people both in Denmark and in China. The researchers provided schools and institutions in Denmark with large amounts of information - in the form of letters, reports, articles, photos and videofilms. Lectures were held during visits to Denmark. Visits of two delegations took place, where students from Denmark visited China. The Traveling Folk High School in Bogense started special travel courses to China, and used the acquired research experiences. A Chinese artist, Wang Jing, had an exhibition of her work of art at Dronninglund Art Center in Denmark - she herself traveled to Denmark, held lectures and taught students in the Chinese art of painting. The two researchers have in addition, through their diligent outreach work and numerous personal contacts with hundreds of Chinese, been good "ambassadors" for Denmark and made it possible for these Chinese to get to know people from our part of the world. Later on, one of the researchers has settled in China and operates a furniture factory with production of Scandinavian designed furniture. |
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