[Thailand] Sae Kwan Suprachai, Shanghai Ocean University
Though I had never been to China before, there was a deep feeling in my heart when I was a child: Thailand is my motherland, and China is the second hometown for me and for my family as well.
This sentiment might have come from my mother. In my childhood memories, she often told me stories of China and she would say that she had been away from China for so long. Now I still have vague memory of her embracing me in her arms. Her smile was so amiable. At night, before going to bed, she would narrate anecdotes of her relatives and friends in China and show me many of her photos taken with her Chinese friends when she was young. These helped develop my strong interest in China when I was a child. I was looking forward to my own visit and experience there.
This desire has accumulated day by day as I grew up, so I chose to come to China to learn Chinese. After I studied in an international school in Thailand for a period of time, my family came to China, my second hometown.
The magnificent scenery of China, which looks like a traditional Chinese ink painting, is refreshing and delighting. I am deeply fascinated by its beauty: the endless extension of sea into the sky, the gentle breeze and bright sunny day, the rows upon rows of buildings… everything is so dazzling. China is just as gorgeous as what I have imagined since my childhood.
Here, I became a student at a local school where I started to learn pinyin and Chinese characters. I truly experienced the unique glamour of the long-standing, extensive and profound Chinese culture. In the Chinese language, the same character can be pronounced differently, the same word may have distinctive meanings and there are countless idioms.
Times flies, and my friendship with Chinese students has grown stronger. We learn about the geographical environment, eating habit and daily life of each other’s country, and I have become more and more outgoing.
An old Chinese saying goes, “Food is of overriding priority”, which I think shows the Chinese people’s particular attention to their dietary diversity. The unique food cultures of different regions in China contribute to the formation of eight major Chinese cuisines.
In classes Chinese teachers also told with us that the technological developments in China today: the world’s first 5G railway station, the domestically produced single-aisle passenger jet, the supercomputer, etc. I have also witnessed China’s development of information technology and the rapid growth of economy. My teachers often shared with us the circumstance of China back to their own school days when there were few electric devices, communication facilities or network.
The only way to entertain oneself was to play with the peers in the neighborhood. Transportation was not that easy as it is today. Cash transaction was the only payment method. Just within a dozen years, the development of China is miraculous. Now, you can watch movies, make phone calls and do searches via internet. You can use the smartphones for taxis booking and route navigation. You can make payments by means of Alipay, WeChat, bank cards, etc. I had envisaged the rapidness of China’s development when I was in Thailand, but not until now have I realized what “China speed” is.
When it comes to “China speed”, what I must mention is the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. When the whole world was in the mire of the pandemic, the Chinese government in the first place sent its expert medical teams to the epidemic-hit areas. In the fight against the epidemic, many ordinary heroes have emerged.
They had their own families to take care of but still, they came forward bravely and selflessly. With the unity of all Chinese people, the pandemic in China was quickly under control and the normal life was resumed. This is the “speed” not be possibly seen in any other country. As an international student, I would also like to express my gratefulness to the ordinary heroes for their significant contributions.
China is my second hometown. I have witnessed its development, its prosperity and its peacefulness. I believe that China will continue to achieve extraordinary achievements in more fields in the near future. It will keep on pursuing the friendly and cooperative relations with other countries and helping to promote their economic development. This would be a creditable accomplishment and I am looking forward to it. I am so proud of the achievements of China, my second hometown and I am excited for its bright future.
The story is from "My Beautiful Encounter with China" Essay Competition organized by the Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchanges (CSCSE).
