(Ecns.cn)--Growing up with complete exposure to Western culture, but later known as a devout adherent to traditional Chinese culture, Gu Hongming (1857 to 1928), was a talented linguist and a man of letters. Though he passed away decades ago, he remains a topic of modern times.
Born in Penang, Malaysia, Gu Hongming was the second son of a Chinese rubber plantation superintendent, whose ancestral hometown was Tong'an, Fujian Province, China, and his Portuguese wife.
Cultural chameleon
Since he was born, Gu was exposed to an environment of foreign languages like English and Portuguese. At the age of ten, the owner of a British plantation who was fond of Gu, took him to Scotland for education.
There, under the guidance of the plantation owner, he read many of the Western classical literatures by William Shakespeare and Francis Bacon. With hard work, he managed to become fluent in English, German, French, and Chinese, and understood many other languages like Latin, Greek, and Italian.
In 1873, based on his academic excellence, he began studying Literature at the University of Edinburgh, and graduated in the spring of 1877 with an M.A. He then earned a diploma in Civil Engineering at the University of Leipzig in Germany, and studied law in Paris, France. In 1880, he returned to Penang and soon joined the colonial Singapore civil service, where he worked until 1882.
As a descendant of Chinese people, Gu's father always told him that no matter where he was and what kind of language he could master, he was still a Chinese who could never let go of his own identity.
In the year 1882, he went to Hong Kong to learn Chinese and traditional culture. Though he made much progress after several years of painstaking research, he still could not gain full understanding of the profound ancient classics.
With a solid foundation in mastering the Chinese language and the help of some Chinese officials who he met during years of study in Hong Kong, in 1885, he went to the Chinese mainland and was invited to the government of Zhang Zhidong in Hubei Province, to be in charge of Western affairs.
Gu was highly praised and entrusted with heavy responsibility. In 1905, the "Huangpu Jun Government" in Shanghai appointed him as Superintendent. He then served in the government for three years.
From 1908 to 1910, he served in the Imperial Foreign Ministry then as the president of the Nanyang Public School, the forerunner of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In 1911, he resigned the latter post as a sign of his loyalty to the fallen imperial government.
