A Research On The Influence Of Chinese Characters On Malaysian Chinese’s Culture Identity

Over a hundred years ago, Chinese migrated from China to Malaya Peninsula, facing the strange region and environment, the impact of multi-culture and the choices of a wide variety of languages, they gradually experienced from having no sense of belonging to developing sense of belonging and today, they become Malaysian Chinese. They were confronted with complicated political environment and arduous survival condition, yet they still stick to the Chinese culture and tradition, from food, costume, residence and transportation, festival activities to thinking patterns and emotional values, everyone of them has always maintained a strong sense of culture identity. Throughout these hundred years, Chinese have been working extremely hard and they contributed in various ways to preserve the root of Chinese, they even sacrificed themselves to defend Chinese education. Among the many countries in Southeast Asia. Chinese education encounters ups and downs and it was even abolished. However in Malaysia, under the great efforts and uphill struggle of the Chinese community, Chinese education not only sustains but thrives in this country, this reveals its strong vitality. All these phenomena cause the writer to think:Is there a close correlation between the strong culture identity among the Malaysian Chinese and the immortal Chinese education? How the thinking pattern through acquisition, formation and the use of Chinese characters can form the psychological basis of Malaysian Chinese’s culture identity?In order to clarify’the questions above, the writer used Chinese education in Malaysia as the background and did a lot of research in suburbs. He did a thorough research on Malaysian Chinese’s history of migration, the fight for Chinese education, Chinese’s ethnic consciousness, traditional thinking habit, costume, food, residence, transportation, festival activities, basic values and so on and so forth. Firstly, through references and field study, the writer teased out the history of Chinese education in Malaysia, analyzing the development and present situation of Chinese education which acts as one of the three pillars (Chinese delegations, Chinese education and Chinese newspapers) in Chinese community. Then, from the main body of culture identity as the core of Chinese education-he did investigations and analyses on the influence of the use of Chinese characters on Malaysian Chinese’s sense of culture identity. In this part, anthropology questionnaire, field work, verbal report as well as comparative analysis method were used. From different angles, that is, Chinese delegations versus individual, material versus spirit, Chinese educated Chinese versus English and Malay educated Chinese, the writer analyzed the influence of the use of Chinese characters on sense of Chinese culture identity, thinking pattern, emotional value and behavioral expression. Then, the writer concluded that Malaysian Chinese’s culture identity which can grow continuously has a great relationship with the thinking significance and emotional value due to the acquisition of Chinese characters in Malaysia’s Chinese education. Malaysian Chinese’s culture identity plays a vital role in protecting and promoting Chinese education in Malaysia. Hence, how far have the acquisition of Chinese characters and the formation of thinking characteristic through the process of acquiring Chinese characters influenced Malaysian Chinese’s culture identity where there is Chinese culture blends with western culture? Through what kind of mechanism can this made into reality? In this process, how Chinese characters that characterize figures, classification and characteristic of self-reflection can form an ethnic’s cultural psychological field and further agglomerate culture identity?Therefore, the writer focused on the uniqueness of Chinese characters, using reference analysis method to analyze references on the thinking significance of Chinese characters, the cognitive psychology of Chinese characters, the characteristic of Chinese characters semiotics, the cultural function of Chinese characters as well as the relationship between Chinese characters and culture identity, he found out that Malaysian Chinese’s culture identity can be preserved through symbolizing their culture, especially through acquisition of Chinese characters as the core in Chinese education and the use of Chinese characters to achieve its objective. Language is the main element of culture identity and writing is the material fundamental of a language. The writer started from the original meanings of Chinese characters, explaining clearly on the relationship between the creation, tolerance, cultural function of Chinese characters and Chinese characters and thinking, comparing the backgrounds of the creations of eastern writing and western writing and their formation of thinking, the different values, and eventually obtaining the uniqueness of Chinese character thinking. Playing a role as the gene of Chinese culture, Chinese characters have been used since a few thousand years ago and their imagery features can still be remained, combining physical forms of the ethnic group thinking pattern and integrating cultural custom as well as the beauty of nature as a whole. This forms a unique way of oriental thinking feature and emotional value, and therefore, influencing Chinese ethnic group’s cultural psychological field and strengthening the culture identity of this ethnic group.Finally, the writer aimed at the advantages and predicament of those Malaysian Chinese who search for their root through Chinese education, pointing out the future of Chinese education in Malaysia. Through comparing and contrasting how different thinking patterns are formed under the process of acquiring Chinese characters and alphabetic writing, this research explored the strengths and weaknesses through the process of learning three languages in Chinese schools, analyzing how Chinese education which uses Chinese characters as the core can overcome its weaknesses by acquiring others’strengths. Not only they can acquire the nutrient of Chinese culture based on Chinese characters as the gene, but also let their brains obtain the shaped function of rational logic through the process of learning western alphabetic writing and therefore, reaching the stage of ’combination of Chinese and western’, and ultimately, promoting all-round development of human beings, therefore, fundamentally preserving Chinese’s culture identity.Chinese character is an important carrier and the gene of Chinese culture, it is also an important logo to Chinese culture identity. It is even the important means and spiritual force for Chinese to look for identity and establish individual legal status. This is something to do with the way of life and the values of Chinese. Most of the scholars explained the functions and roles of language and culture identity through the use of dialect. This research is based on analyzing the uniqueness of how Chinese thinking pattern and values are formed under the process of acquiring Chinese language, how behavior is formed under this foundation, the background of multi-lingua environment and the integration of eastern and western cultures, further explaining how Chinese character thinking strongly forms the Malaysian Chinese’s culture identity. On the one hand, it enriches culture identity theory and on the other hand, under the background of globalization and multi-lingua environment, providing referable theoretical basis for Chinese’s culture identity and acknowledgement.