Doubts raised about using Putonghua as medium of instruction for Chinese language
Policymakers prefer Putonghua, but top student Susane Wong and teachers have their doubts
Seventeen-year-old Susane Wong Yui-hin recalls being drawn into the magical world of Chinese literature after reading the Legend of the Condor Heroes by Jin Yong, a gift from her parents 11 years ago. Jin's wuxia (swordplay) novels are immensely popular in the Chinese-speaking world and have been adapted into many films and television series, which her dad enjoys watching.
"My parents had to stop me from reading more Jin Yong when they discovered that I had developed myopia," says Wong. "I was in Primary Two then."
However, Wong grew up to be a voracious reader. In secondary school, she volunteered to work 90 minutes each week as a librarian. "I'd discover books I want to read when I'm sorting them out and I'll see what new books have arrived before they are on display," says Wong.
Wong is among the top scorers at this year's Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) examination. Besides Chinese language, Chinese history, and Chinese literature, she got 5** in English, mathematics, economics, liberal studies and an "A" in Spanish.
"What Susane has achieved is the consummation of what she's taken in over the past 10 years," says Gary Lam, her Chinese teacher at St Paul's Co-educational College. "Language is purely a means to an end, which is acquiring knowledge. It is an empty pursuit to learn a language without developing a passion for history, literature, philosophy and culture."
Wong spent her primary years at C.& M.A. Chui Chak Lam Memorial School in Yuen Long, where Chinese classes were taught in Putonghua, but she had already started learning it in kindergarten. The language skill made it easy for her to transition to the secondary school, as the lower forms also use Putonghua to teach Chinese.