Language

[Luis M. Chong L.]

Dear Ye Qi:
    I am even more dissapointed with your reply, which seems to confirm my stance in this matter. First of all, I may not be as fluent in Chinese as you, but for your information, I am a novelist, journalist and historian, with many articles written in Chinese.
    Now, speaking of self-esteem and culture, I could be more than sure that in this regard I am stronger than you. As you could note, my name is harmonious mixture of Oriental and Western cultures, which I am proud of carrying both in my blood. In the Chinese part of my name, I carry the long tradition of China's Imperial past. Nowaday, Chinese language (in Mainland China) has been so twisted after the Cultural Revolution that there is nothing to talk about self-esteem. How could you relate your ancestry if you even changed the way of transliterating your name into a Western language. How could we (Chinese) speak of impartiality in scholarly and scientific endeavour if we switched to tne Romanization system just because Wade and Giles were foreigners? Did you know that your transliterated Chinese name is unreadable in many languages (like Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Afrikaans, and so on).
One thing is to cherish our own culture and traditions, something I could assure you that I do treasure as much as you. But, another thing is to force those aspects into scientific endeavour.
It's a pity that few erudites exist nowaday. However, one should try to emulate their sense of learning, and not limit yourself into a short-term intellectual debate.

Luis M. Chong L.
Lab. of Entomology
Dept. of Biology, CNSC
P.O. Bix 30-250
Taipei, Taiwan, China

e-mail: lmchong at collector.org



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