A Korean Mother’s Chinese Dream

By Liu Dongli

How would a fifty-yearold housewife who spent a quarter of a century doing housework make use of the rest of her life? Dancing in the park with her peers? Taking walks with her grandchildren? Or perhaps windowshopping at the mall?

A Korean mother named Kang Sun Hee made a shocking decision—to leave Korea and chase her Chinese dream in China.

Kang was born in Gumi City,Gyeongsangbuk-do Province, the hometown of the former president Park Chung Hee. Her father was a huge fan of Chinese culture and language, and was obsessed with Chinese characters. Influenced by her father, Kang Sun Hee started learning how to write Chinese characters when she was in junior high school. In 1985, she was admitted to Chungbuk University,where she majored in Chinese.

After graduation, Kang Sun Hee got married and had children,living a normal life like the other Korean women she knew. She devoted all her life to her family.Unconsciously, 25 years came and went.

Despite time passing by, in the thousands of days and nights she spent as a mother, she never gave up her Chinese dream. She attended private Chinese classes given by the local professors whenever she had time. She learned a lot about classic Chinese literature. Classics like the Great Learning, the Doctrine of the Mean, the Analects of Confucius,Mencius, and Gems from Chinese Culture were treasures to Kang.Time seemed to be fleeting when she immersed herself in these masterpieces.

When her kids all went to college, Kang suddenly was left with just herself to look after.She started to think for herself—why couldn’t she change her role from a mother and wife to an independent individual? After consideration, she made a bold decision: she was going to head to China and learn Chinese.

“What? You will go to college in China?” Kang’s husband and kids were stunned when they learned about the decision.

“Go to college? At your age?”her husband disagreed.

“You should enjoy your life now. Why do you have to make yourself so busy?” the elder son could not understand her.

“You can learn Chinese in Korea. Why do you have to leave home and go to China?” the younger one was unwilling to let his mother go.

年近半百、已在家专心相夫教子25年的家庭主妇，会如何打发自己的晚年时光呢？是和同龄人一起跳广场舞？还是带着孙子逛公园？抑或是冲进商场“抢黄金”？

韩国妈妈康善喜做出的选择让所有人大吃一惊：离开家乡，不远万里来到中国学习汉语！

康善喜出生于韩国前总统朴正熙的家乡庆尚北道龟尾市，父亲是个中国迷，对汉字情有独钟。受家庭影响，康善喜初中、高中时认真学习写汉字，并于1985年进入韩国大邱庆北大学中文系学习。

大学毕业后，康善喜和大多数韩国妇女一样，结婚生子，成为一名全职家庭主妇，专心照顾丈夫和两个孩子的起居生活。这一过，就是25年。

然而，在这近万个日夜中，康善喜心里藏的“汉语梦”，却从来不曾熄灭过。只要有空，她便钻进当地专门教授汉语的私人书堂，学习中国古典文学。手捧着《大学》《中庸》《论语》《孟子》《古文观止》等中国古代经典著作，康善喜视为珍宝。在这些浩瀚的书卷中，康善喜甚至能将时间遗忘……

终于待到两个孩子先后上了大学，丈夫也忙于自己的工作，康善喜似乎一下子“闲”了下来。她开始思考自己的人生——为何不能将自己从“女人”的角色转变成一个“人”的角色。思忖良久，为了心中那个蠢蠢欲动的“汉语梦”，她做了一个大胆的决定：去中国，学汉语！

“什么？你要去中国上学？”当康善喜将这一想法告诉丈夫和孩子后，得到的是三双瞪大的眼睛，还有三张惊讶得合不拢的嘴。

“你都这个年纪了，还要上学吗？”丈夫不同意。