[Vietnam] Đặng Thùy Dung, China University Of Geosciences(Wuhan)
If you give me a crayon and ask me to paint China, I would like to select a red one when I was 5 years old. As far as I can remember, whenever people around me talked about China, I would think of Chinese restaurants and Chinese shops everywhere in Vietnam. These venues were always pasted with red papercuts on windows and red couplets. A pair of red lanterns were hung under the shop sign. My parents told me all Chinese people like red color as they think it symbolizes good luck. “Oh, red China! I do remember.”
If you give me a crayon and ask me to paint China, I would like to select a yellow one when I was 10. At the age of 10, our school had a Confucius class and we got a pretty Chinese teacher. She taught us Pinyin, Chinese characters and told us historical stories of China. From her I learned that China has such a long history with yellow as a very powerful color.
Some emperors of ancient China were dressed in yellow, because it is the color of dragon that represents light and power. From her, I knew an emperor named Li Longji, who brought China into the “Great Reign of Kaiyuan.” During his reign, many countries sent people to China to study. “Oh! Yellow China! It was already so powerful thousands of years ago.”
If you give me a crayon and ask me to paint China, I would like to select a blue one when I was 13. In 2014, I always read some online reports about China’s environment. Some of them said that the sky in Beijing was gray, which they claimed to be smog and lead to many health problems. I was really worried about Chinese people living in Beijing, especially my Chinese teacher who had been back to Beijing.
I don’t want her to get sick because of smog and wished she could come back to Vietnam. I emailed her but was told my concern was no necessary as the sky in Beijing is the same as in Vietnam. I didn’t believe it until I watched a video about APEC meeting broadcasted on TV. A reporter of Vietnam was reporting news in a square of Beijing and behind him the sky was crystal blue. The pure and enchanting blue is the same as what you can view at the seaside of Vietnam. I need not worry about my Chinese teacher anymore. “Oh, blue China! It is not like what other countries described.”
If you give me a crayon and ask me to paint China, I would need more than one when I was 18. I won scholarship and came to Wuhan in China’s Hubei Province for preparatory study. As soon as I entered school, I was surrounded by a large stretch of green. I thought so many trees could only be seen in universities of China; Unexpectedly, when I settled down in my dormitory and strolled around Wuhan with my compatriots, I found that the whole city was woven with green. Both roads and alleys are planted with trees. The green everywhere makes me feel that Wuhan is a city in the forest. Besides green, I would also select gray color to paint cities in China.
It is not because the sky in Wuhan is gray. Instead, the sky here is as blue as Beijing showed on TV five years ago. I use gray because there are too many gray overhead bridges. I’ve never seen so many cars on the road in any city of Vietnam, which are like dragons flying freely. If you ask me what color is proper for painting Chinese people, I will say without hesitation, “Give me an orange crayon please.” Why? Orange is the color of the sunshine, which makes you feel warm and kind. When I just arrived in China, my pronunciation of Chinese was not good enough.
Though I learned Chinese for a long time, I seldom communicated with others in Chinese in my daily life except I had to in class. I felt a little embarrassed every time I spoke Chinese outside school. I bought milk tea outside and was asked by the vendor, “Where are you from? I guess you are from Guangxi, aren’t you?” I replied, “In fact I am an overseas student from Vietnam. I am sorry that my pronunciation isn’t good.” The vendor was very surprised and expressed my Chinese was fluent.
He even said my putonghua is better than many Chinese people. From then on, I no longer felt inferior for my pronunciation and even took the initiative to participate in the school reading contest. I found no matter where I speak with Chinese, they always warm my heart with praise. “Oh, Chinese people are of the color of the sunshine.”
I am 19 years old this year. Last year I passed the preparatory examination with a full score in Chinese. Though I had to kick off my university life online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I do know I will see China very soon as Wuhan is now the safest city in the world. When I return to Wuhan, I will carry on painting China with crayons for my family and country fellows.
The story is from "My Beautiful Encounter with China" Essay Competition organized by the Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchanges (CSCSE).
