Wèishénme Xuǎnze Zhōngwén (为什么选择中文) | Why Chinese?
Cover photo: My People Tell Stories Founder, Dr. Danielle Brown, at tie-dye experience in Wuzhen, China. December 2024. Chinese character pictured: 染 - Rǎn - Dye.
Zài Zhōngguó (在中国), or “In China,” details my almost three-week trip to China in 2024, and uses that trip as a springboard to explore a wide range of topics – travel, culture, history, the arts. Most importantly, I hope this blog will serve as an opportunity to celebrate our global humanity. The blog reflects my own thoughts and recollections. Please forgive any errors or omissions. Respectful corrections are appreciated. 谢谢。
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Anyone who knows me well, knows that I love to learn, and I love languages (我爱学语言 - Wǒ ài xué yǔyán). If I could learn them all, I would. Mostly, because I like to talk – a lot. I sometimes wish I could download a program – like in The Matrix – that would give me the capabilities to speak every single language in the world. No lie. So, although my sudden urge to learn Chinese in late 2023 may have come as a surprise to some, wanting to learn Chinese wasn’t that odd. Still, a lot of people found my choice in language curious, to say the least.
I’ve been asked countless times, “Why Chinese? Why not study Japanese or Korean?”
Like I mentioned in the first entry in this series, my sudden desire to learn Chinese and travel to China in 2024 can’t really be explained, other than to say it was “intuitive.” But I always imagined that one day I would learn an East Asian language, if only for the challenge.[1]
But why not Chinese? In today’s world, learning Chinese makes more sense to me than learning Japanese or Korean, if only based on numbers. Until recently surpassed by India, China had long held the record for being the most populous country in the world. And although strained relations between the United States and China means that, as a whole, we in the U.S. are less familiar (and perhaps not as concerned) with what goes on there, the same cannot be said for other countries.[2] China has made inroads into many parts of the world. This was apparent to me as early as the “aughts” while I was conducting research in Trinidad & Tobago (T&T) for my dissertation on parang music. I recall T&T having many construction contracts with Chinese companies at the time, including one construction project related to the relatively new University of Trinidad & Tobago (UTT). There also was a noticeable wave of “new Chinese” in Trinidad, distinct from the local “Trinidad Chinese” population descended from earlier migrants who came to Trinidad in several waves beginning in 1806.[3] But Trinidad & Tobago is not the only Caribbean nation with established ties to China. China’s footprint is all over the region.[4]
While having knowledge of a Chinese presence in the Caribbean (both historical and more recent), I was less familiar with a well-established Chinese-African connection. It was only in early 2024, when I started preparing for my eventual trip to China, that I realized that the ties between China and Africa are substantial. Well in advance of my trip, I started doing research on the experiences Black people have had while traveling in China. I figured as a Black woman (who, try as I may, can’t blend in), it would behoove me to learn as much as possible about how I might be perceived and received so far away from home. My research found me bingeing on YouTube videos, many by Black content creators who had either visited or were living in China. I was surprised at how many Africans had made China their home. Some were there temporarily for studies, but many were living in China permanently. Especially in the city of Guangzhou (Canton),[5] the capital of Guangdong Province, there is a sizeable population of Africans. Unfortunately, I could not fit Guangzhou into my itinerary, so nothing to report there. But I hope to travel to the city during my next venture Zài Zhōngguó (在中国).[6] I did see and meet some Black folk in China! And I gave a few requisite head nods, too. IYKYK. 哈哈。I’ll write more about my experiences traveling through China as a Black woman in future posts.
Back to the original question of “Why Chinese?” China has a heavy and growing presence in the world. This was made evident by the “Rednote - Tik Tok Refugee Affair” [7] that occurred shortly after my return to the U.S from China. In January 2025, as a Tik Tok ban in the U.S. loomed, thousands of U.S. content creators migrated to the Chinese app 小红书 (xiǎo hóng shū, literally "Little Red Book"), known as Rednote in the U.S.[8] Many content creators even began learning Mandarin. And it seemed like after 24 hours of practice, some of them sounded better than me after a whole year of study! 哈哈[9]
But “Why Chinese?” was never a question I had to answer for myself. The only question I had to come to terms with was, “Which Chinese?” - Mandarin (普通话 - Pǔtōnghuà) or Cantonese (广东话 - Guǎngdōng huà).[10] I always imagined I would learn Cantonese, because during the 1980s and 1990s, when I was growing up in New York, Chinese was synonymous with Cantonese. However, with shifts in population, including a growing Mandarin presence in the city, and really the world, I opted to learn Mandarin.
Okay. I think I’ll leave it here for now. Lot’s more to talk about, including how I've been learning Chinese! But we can talk about that next time. 下次再见! (xià cì zàijiàn) See you next time!
Notes:
[1] In 2002, while living in Spain - part of a year-long Watson Fellowship studying salsa in Europe - one of my classmates (同学 - tóngxué) at the language school I attended was from Japan. I remember thinking how hard it must be to learn Spanish (西班牙语 - xībānyá yǔ) from a language that was so different. (My classmate did speak English, but again, English is vastly different from Japanese). At least when going from English to Spanish, there are words that are similar enough that you can recognize them (e.g. nación/nation, teléfono/telephone). Anyway, after watching my Japanese classmate tackle a truly foreign language, I decided that I would one day take on the challenge of learning an East Asian language.
[2] It seems to me that the average American is not too concerned with China except as it pertains to purchasing consumer goods. (A lot of products sold in the U.S. say, “Made in China.”) However, China is much more on the radar of those engaged in business, including small businesses. When I started My People Tell Stories in 2014, and especially during the process of publishing East of Flatbush, North of Love, I became aware of just how much small businesses in the U.S. were getting supplies from China, especially via sites like Alibaba.
[3] The topic of Chinese migration to Trinidad deserves its own post. Despite knowing a decent amount about that migration, during the pandemic, I realized there was much more to learn. In 2021, I taught a virtual graduate course at Stanford University. During a conversation, one of my international students from China informed me that the “Mother of Chinese Dance” was a Trinidadian, named Dai Ailian. (真的吗 - Zhēn de ma. Really? How come I had never heard of her?) Dai Ailian’s story is a fascinating one that I may take up in another post.
[4] Our 2023 travel tour to Panama included a trip to Panama City’s Chinatown, where in one shop our Jamaican and Trinbagonian travelers found lots of familiar snacks and goodies that they had grown up eating. These foods had been brought to the region by Chinese migrants who traveled there in waves, starting in the early 1800s. But besides these historical ties, more recent ties with China, especially economic ones, have developed over the past couple decades.
[5] Many Chinese migrants to Trinidad and other parts of the Caribbean came from the Canton region, that is Guangzhou.
[6] 对。我打算回来。
[7] My somewhat dramatic term for the events that took place.
[8] Not to be confused with the book, 毛主席语录 (Máo zhǔxí yǔlù), literally Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, that has often been referred to in English as “Little Red Book.”
[9] The “Rednote - Tik Tok Refugee Affair” is a whole thing, and truly deserves its own blog post. Coming soon.
[10] And these are not the only two languages in China. There are others, and many more dialects.
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