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Mother tongue: anchor of our life and spirit
Mother tongue: anchor of our life and spirit By Prof Tu Weiming LANGUAGE, spoken and written, is the most fundamental of all cultural abilites. Man is a cultural animal, and the use of language is indispensable for a human being to learn about himself, understand his fellow creatures, and comprehend Nature. Our mother tongue is the medium through which we express feelings, convey messages, and form ideas while living in this world. This is an indisputable statement. What can be done to make the Chinese language, both spoken and written, one of the cultural resources that ethnic Chinese in Singapore feel proud of? This should become the common concern of all public-minded intellectuals who care about society, political life and cultural affairs. Chinese Malaysians have achieved a great deal in promoting their mother tongue. In recent years, Chinese students from Malaysia have won prizes in international debate contests and essay-writing competitions held in Taiwan. They have earned accolades from the cultured circles of various Chinese societies. This shows that, given an able leadership with a consensus reached by the elite, plus the strong wishes of the families concerned, a Chinese community can do a good job in passing down its native language through persistent efforts even under not-so-conducive circumstances. It must be emphasised that being able to converse, read and write a letter in one's native language is only the first step. Further upgrading is needed to make Chinese a major medium through which Singapore's public-minded intellectuals can discuss important national and even globalissues, pass down and enrich their cultural heritage and record their delicate and profound thoughts. In this age of the Internet, English accounts for 70 per cent of the world's total volume of communication, French accounts for 5 per cent, while the other major languages including Chinese share a mere 5 per cent. Considering that Chinese－mainly Mandarin－claims the world's largest number of speakers, its share in global communication is far too small. I hope that Singapore's public-minded intellectuals, with a global vision who will be playing an active role in academic pursuits, government and non-government affairs, mass media, business, religion and social activities, will help create greater scope for the development of the Chinese language. We must bear in mind that language, spoken and written,is more than a useful tool. It is also the anchor of our life and spirit, namely, our deep-rooted cultural identity. (The author is a professor at Harvard University and a member of International Advisory Panel on Culture, Lianhe Zaobao. Translated by Allen Zhuang) 母語(yǔ)是安身立命的助緣 杜維明教授 文化能力的基本工夫是語(yǔ)言文字。人是文化動(dòng)物，因此運(yùn)用語(yǔ)言文字是任何一個(gè)人在學(xué)習(xí)認(rèn)識(shí)自我，理解他人和了解自然的過(guò)程中都不可或缺的條件。母語(yǔ)成為我們生活世界中表現(xiàn)感情，傳達(dá)信息和進(jìn)行思考的媒介。這本是不刊之論。 如何使華語(yǔ)華文成為新加坡華人社會(huì)引以自豪的文化資源，應(yīng)是關(guān)心政治、參與社會(huì)和重視文化的公眾知識(shí)分子的共同事業(yè)。 馬來(lái)西亞的華語(yǔ)華文的提倡近年來(lái)在國(guó)際大專辯論會(huì)和臺(tái)灣舉行的征文比賽中，獲得文化中國(guó)知識(shí)界同聲贊揚(yáng)，充分顯示只要領(lǐng)導(dǎo)有方，社會(huì)賢達(dá)有共識(shí)，華人家庭有強(qiáng)烈的意愿，通過(guò)細(xì)水長(zhǎng)流的積累，即使大環(huán)境很差，成績(jī)?nèi)源笥锌捎^。 必須強(qiáng)調(diào)的是，能夠用母語(yǔ)談天、讀書和寫信是第一步，接著便需要進(jìn)一步提升，讓華語(yǔ)華文也成為新加坡公眾知識(shí)分子在討論家國(guó)天下大事，進(jìn)行文化傳承和創(chuàng)新以及記錄精致思維的重要資源。 在網(wǎng)際網(wǎng)絡(luò)的時(shí)代，英文媒介的比重已在百分之七十，法文約占百分之五，包括中文在內(nèi)的其他主要語(yǔ)言，才合占百分之五，但是普通話（華語(yǔ)）仍是世界口語(yǔ)人數(shù)之最，這個(gè)對(duì)比太懸殊。 希望將來(lái)新加坡具有全球視野的在學(xué)術(shù)、政府、媒體、企業(yè)、民間、宗教和社會(huì)運(yùn)動(dòng)中，扮演積極角色的公眾知識(shí)分子，能為華語(yǔ)華文創(chuàng)造發(fā)展的空間。我們必須牢記口語(yǔ)文字不只是工具，而且也是我們安身立命（深層文化認(rèn)同）的助緣。 （作者是哈佛大學(xué)教授、哈佛燕京學(xué)社主任、新加坡《聯(lián)合早報(bào)》國(guó)際文化咨詢團(tuán)成員。）
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