118 replies to this topic

[orchid_dreams]

ok, i'm going to be brief. our family came to new zealand when i was 8. that time i have only finished standard 2 in china. but after i came here, the university my dad worked at had heaps of chinese literature and history books, and i became very interested in them. i suppose the great numbers of sit-coms i watched such as the romance of the three kingdoms and many other historic sit-coms made me have such great interest in chinese history.

and this is why i'm here now...

[CARDINAL009]

Watching old Chinese movies and wondering how accurate it is.

[snowybeagle]

Watching old Chinese movies and wondering how accurate it is.

Probably as accurate as old American/European movies.

I have always been an avid reader ever since learning to read.
Read everything from children stories, fables, myths, legends, historical anecdotes etc.

The distinction about history is that the stories I've read are either related or could be put into a common timeline (universe), while the same cannot be said about other stories.

Thus, reading history is like reading part of a very very long story/epic.

While I have interests in both Chinese history and non-Chinese history alike, Chinese history also have a special place because it reveals to me how I come to be today, and how there are certain traits or associations to being a Chinese :
- why am I not in China?
- why are fellow Chinese portrayed in a certain way in the movies/fiction? Not always very nice.
- what are those strange things around my grandfather's house?
- why didn't I get to be the viking or robin hood or zorro or cowboy unless I was playing with other Asian kids?

Of course, one of the most striking thing about Chinese history is the various complex official institutions and elaborate everyday etiquettes among the nobles and commoners that had been around since ancient times, long before these type of stuff appeared in European history - made me feel Chinese civilization was quite "civilized" way before many others.

In comparison, history of other cultures of the same era were very much more about warfare, warfare and warfare, with some "civilities" interspersed here and there. What I realised later after reading more was it was the writers of those historical books designed for kids who did not know much else to write other than warfare.

[Zhou Yu]

it was a prcess for me... i began with dynasty warriors (the game)... then i read all of the bios of the characters in the encyclopidia of the game... then i found this forum and started pulling info from online sites

[stranger]

the way i became interested in history is different from all of you
when preparing a exam to go to senior middle school from junior middle school, chinese history is one of the subjects to be tested, it is 33 points of the whole 690 points.
i didn't work hard enough on history, so i had to work very hard on it, in the last year of my junior middle school life, i have to recite many things on it, such as who lead the 5.4movement? in which year it took place? at first, i found it boring, but after deep thinking, i found it interesting, because i have many opinions that is different from our teacher and our textbook.
then i came to study in shanghai from henan province, i find it useful to learn much history knowledge, bacause shanghai people are talking about history everywhere.

[Mok]

My turn:

I am a 3rd-generation SBC (Singaporean-born Chinese). I identify myself as such because I view myself as an overseas Chinese whose great-grandfather sailed to Singapore from Guangzhou around the 1900s.

That makes me Cantonese, and I am proud of my language and people. This is not chauvinistic sentiments but rather a deep appreciation of my heritage. I intend to find my clan and formally join it. (My great grandfather was naturally a member but somehow it died off with him.)

I am, like Yun and Elisha, a Christian. To reconcile my Chinese heritage with my Christian convictions can sometimes be a struggle but I am in the process of sorting out what I believe in and what I don't - but the fundamentals of my faith remain strong.

I was educated from P1 to P4 in Poi Ching Primary, a SAP school. I took Higher Chinese and I always remembered Chinese as being a fun subject, thanks to good teachers and the conducive environment. At home, my parents and relatives reverted to speaking Cantonese among themselves and that is how the foundation for my Cantonese was laid.

After P4, I switched to an American-based homeschool programme and completed my education (equivalent to A Levels) in this programme. Sadly during these years I was affected by the current mentality that anything to do with Chinese was uncool. Basically I dropped it and since it wasn't a required subject at school, ended up taking French and Spanish instead but could hardly read or write a word of Chinese.

It was only when I was 15, while reading Adeline Yen-Mah's Falling Leaves, that I had an epiphany of sorts. She wrote something to the effect that no matter how good you speak English and act like a Westerner, you will always be viewed as a Chinese because of your features and colour of your skin.

How true! And how sad that a native Chinese had almost lost her heritage - how would she preserve it for her progeny, not to mention future generations?

That was the stimulus for me to get up and do something about the appalling state of my knowledge.

Five years have passed since and I am happy (and a little proud) to be able to say that I have been enriched in ways I never thought possible - being able to communicate to my grandparents, discovering the delights of Jin Yong and Chinese poetry, to the beauties of my ancestral land.

As for my thoughts on China - I love it as the land of my ancestors but I don't support the current government. In fact, for me the land is the land, and I love the land and its glorious history and what will be its even brighter future.

Singapore is the land of my birth and will remain as such. I owe political loyalties to Singapore. I am merely more aware of my cultural heritage - the government encourages racial integration, but there can be precious little of that until individual races have a deep knowledge and appreciation for their own cultures.

P.S. I read the ancient Greek and Roman classical texts, the Ramayana and Bhagavad Gita as well. I am not a chauvinist when it comes to culture. I have but re-discovered mine.

[Centaur]

I am also a third generation SBC (Singapore borned Chinese). I guess my interest in Chinese history had been nurtured by my mother, who loves Cantonese Opera. Cantonese Opera makes up a greater portion of the entertainment of the day. I was just a little kiddo then, but heck, it was fun to see people chopping up others and then at the same time listening to my mother talking about heros and heroines, entangling me with webs of stories. It was from these stories that my interest for history came. It of course started with Chinese history and then soon, it spreaded to history of other civilization.

I believe what made it important for me to appreciate Chinese History was when during my younger years in school, I was signed up by my parents for Chinese as my 2nd Language. I had trouble with it and I told my parents I wish to switch to Malay. My father told me that, I am a Chinese and if I don't know how to read and write Chinese, it makes me rootless tree. I don't quite understand him then, and I thought he deliberately forced me to Chinese, just to torture me. It was many years later that I realized that he was right. I would have become a rootless tree if I had not learnt to read and write Chinese. I know that to this day, my command of Chinese had lost out to English, but then, I did not have any difficulties reading road signs and novels in Chinese. For this I have to thank my father for it and I have to thank my mother for infusing into me the love for history and drama.

[Mok]

I am also a third generation SBC (Singapore borned Chinese). I guess my interest in Chinese history had been nurtured by my mother, who loves Cantonese Opera. Cantonese Opera makes up a greater portion of the entertainment of the day. I was just a little kiddo then, but heck, it was fun to see people chopping up others and then at the same time listening to my mother talking about heros and heroines, entangling me with webs of stories. It was from these stories that my interest for history came. It of course started with Chinese history and then soon, it spreaded to history of other civilization.

I believe what made it important for me to appreciate Chinese History was when during my younger years in school, I was signed up by my parents for Chinese as my 2nd Language. I had trouble with it and I told my parents I wish to switch to Malay. My father told me that, I am a Chinese and if I don't know how to read and write Chinese, it makes me rootless tree. I don't quite understand him then, and I thought he deliberately forced me to Chinese, just to torture me. It was many years later that I realized that he was right. I would have become a rootless tree if I had not learnt to read and write Chinese. I know that to this day, my command of Chinese had lost out to English, but then, I did not have any difficulties reading road signs and novels in Chinese. For this I have to thank my father for it and I have to thank my mother for infusing into me the love for history and drama.

Well, nice to meet another SBC!!! And glad that you joined our club too!

Cheers, Mok

[yongzheng freak]

I am also a SBC. It's great to know fellow SBC who are also keen on chinese history - most of my peers just give me strange looks whenever i get started on the subject or when i tried to ask them if they want to go watch operas.

Anyway, I grew up speaking mainly english and watching shows like 'Ming Your Language', 'Allo Allo', "Get Smart' etc.... so you can imgaine the culture shock i suffered when i finally started school. I remembered telling the teacher that i did not have a chinese name simply because i was required to write it down and i really have no clue how to do that or even that i had one (family only called me by my english name).
Needless to say, i failed miserably at chinese.... and i had to suffer insults by my chinese teachers - which you will experience when you're terrible at chinese and you're in the school system in the late eighties and early nineties and have the penchance of arguing back.....which did not help my grades at all....

Then came the last straw.....we were reading about this chap called Zhuge Liang and i innocently asked if it was what the ancient chinese called chocolate. That question made my friend whom i asked burst out laughing till tears came to her eyes and earned an evil eye from the chinese teach. My 'dear' friend told the teach what i had asked to avoid a scolding and, as a result, earned me an insult and the nickname of 'banana' In revenge, i read what i can about the chocolate chap (english translation, of course) - i was in primary school.

That was the start of my romance with chinese history.

[King Piankhy]

Unlike most people here, playing games got me here. Oh and karate. Those martial arts movie are the truth. Ever since I played DW3 I wanted to learn more about them. So I ended up playing ROTK. After that there was nothing I didn't know about the TK era. I played Kessen and DT as well. Anyway my love for these games brought me to Koei. (I'm Lord of Dreams there) I learned a very hard lesson. I always that most of the novel were true. But debating with people there had definetly changed me and I now I rely on historical facts wheather then the novel. But what brought me here was that I heard this place has alot of smart people. I'm hoping this is true because I love a good debate. So bring yourself down to the TK thread and I'd be happy to drop this knowledge on you.


Oh and Grand Lady Marhall MOK is a very friendly person. Just wanted to say that

[Genghis_Khan]

Well, I was Chinese living not in mainland China
My grandpa migrate to Malaysia sometime early 1900's
So, I guess I am interested in knowing more about my root
but I think everything start when I was young, and my grandpa use to tell me about the WWII Japanese story
and he use to discuss Water Margin and Romance of the 3 kingdoms with my elder brother which at that time I have no idea what they talking about.

Well, I guess it all start from games...
Then there was Romance of the 3 kingdoms tv series from China and Genghis Khan which are the 2 favourite history series i have ever seem and it tell me in details about the story.

Then when I grow up I started to play computer strategy games, and I use to play ROTK from version II until IV or V (i think) which was in English and from there I started to find out more about those character and what they were doing... but too bad KOEI ROTK never come out with english version any more other than in PS2. I use to be so addicted to the games when I once play from 10pm to 10am. I have lots of friends who were addicted to the games at that time too, they even eating while playing the games...

But after going to the college and then working, I have stop play those games at it takes lots of times to complete the games...

and one day when i was searching for some Chinese History to read on the net, I found the Kongming.net website which link me to the Shen Zhou forum (which do not let me upload my on avatar) and from there I move on to Chinese History Forum which I think is more structure (it let me at least load my own avatar and it also give us fanciful Chinese ranking.. hehe).

King Piankhy, any new 3 kingdoms games to intro ??

Edited by Genghis_Khan, 02 May 2006 - 09:13 PM.

[King Piankhy]

Are you asking me what was the first ROTK game I played? If so then it was eight. Then I bought seven. After that I bought 9 and 10. I'm waiting for the newest one to get here. Unfournately I'll probaly have to wait 5 months before it gets to the states. I heard you can arrange marriages. Anybody played it yet?

[bewoulfxiii]

i became interested in ancient chinese warfare from playing the game Dynasty Warriors. i went to kongming.net and started reading all the bios then i would read the history pages on the game and i became extremely interested. my favorite war to study is the american civil war but, the three kingdoms era is a very very close second. the idealism and spirituality involved in chinese warfare is incredible. This game led me to read The art of war and zhuge liengs mastering the art of war. i also bought the 5 volume set of ROTTK and wish to find maps (like my civil war maps) of the three kingdoms china. things like routes taken. how they lined up their formations i.e. attacking defending, camps, and marches. for me it is more fuel for my imagination and less a scholarly studyt that even a word) anyway i am genuine it my quest for detailed maps. have a good one.

[xu huang]

I begin to take notice of Chinese history when I played Romance of Three Kingdoms on the Sega console, then on RTK2 on PC. I believe quite alot of people begin the same way like me. When I was in Sec 1 and Sec 2, almost all my grades were on the brink of failing, with the exception of History. My grades were like 50 plus, then my History will be around 90.

However, in secondary school, we were only taught Singapore and South East Asia history. The only times we touched on China was when we talked about the Chinese immigrants and the Tong Men Hui.

In 1994, I bought Romance of Three Kingdoms novel and started reading. Subsequently, whenever I go bookstores, I would normally buy any books on history, be it China or other countries. Now, my job takes me to China, HK and that really gives me alot of chances to buy lots of books. Normally when I come back from overseas, my luggage will be full of books.

Till now, I am still reading San Guo Zhi, which is taking a long time...Hopefully when I'm done with that, I'll go onto another period of China, but I have not decided which period. Maybe I go into the Warring States period. I'm more interested in ancient China history.

Don't talk to me about the Mao Zedong period. I know nuts about that period.