Have you even been trying to explain something to a friend, or a colleague, who just doesn't seem to be getting what you are saying? You may be from a similar background, even be from the same home town and went to the same high-school, you even speak the same language but you just can't seem to impress upon them your point?

Well don't blame them for being stupid! Language draws on all kinds of things – not just grammar. The problem is that everyone takes with them different assumed information and understandings that just don't transfer well sometime. And when you try to have the same conversation with someone from China, your problems start to multiply. What is missing from your text book is Culture. This is the key to understanding the Chinese language in particular. When faced with the Chinese language, you have a challenge of not just trying to digest the fast evolving contemporary culture, but also the still deeply entrenched effect of over 5000 years of Chinese civilisation.

It was at one of my many social gatherings that I had one of those epiphanies that seem to come every now and then in the struggle to learn the beautiful language we have all seemed to devote out time to.

You see I am lucky enough to live in the same city as an eccentric philanthropist with a passion for Chinese art. The White Rabbit Gallery is famous in Sydney for housing the single largest private collection of contemporary Chinese art in Australia, maybe even the largest outside China itself! Not only do they display this art for free but they run a number of free cultural activities including free Chinese lessons for kids, movie club and… book club.

For this particular book club we read the ironically names “Socialism is Great” by 张礼家. It seemed to be a rather unassuming book, being the memoirs of a worker in the new China, however what it lent to me what not simply the interesting story of a young woman growing up in a post reform China, but it was actually one of the most insight books into the Chinese culture I had read in a long time.

Reading this book you get to stand on the other side of the language barrier and life the life of a Chinese person. What 张礼家 gives you is a small taste of a lifetime of experience growing up Chinese. Not only that, but she really hit's the nail on the head! I mean there are some real gems of knowledge in this book that throw a light on some of the smaller, hard to explain and otherwise impossible to experience, aspects of Chinese culture.

*孔子Who can explain Chinese culture without mentioning this guy. For better or worse he has a finger in every pie from language, social order, and even cooking! 张礼家 gives you a personal perspective on his effect.

*Idioms. We all know they are a huge part of Chinese culture. Even when some isn't using an idiom, they like to 'invent' them (deliver a salient point as it if they were as poetic as an idiom). Here are just two examples:
生米煮成熟饭 Raw rice is cook (what's done is done).
杀鸡吓猴 Scare the monkey by killing a chicken (make an example of someone).

*出头的椽子先腐烂 The rafter that sticks out is the first to rot. They say the French had a word for everything. Well the Chinese have an expression for everything! 张礼家explains to you, in a very effective way the Chinese ingrained uncertainty about being different, or going against the norm. She doesn't tell you about it, she lets you live it for yourself.

* I was once in a class with mostly Chinese-born students. When asked who has heard their mother say they love them, no one raised a hand. 张礼家's story give you a little insight into the meaning of love and family

* Almost on the same note, 张礼家 tries to explain why the Chinese had to borrow 罗曼蒂克from English! Romanticism in China is relatively new, despite thousands of year of prose.

* It's never nice to be told you look fat, but it's something you will have to get used to. This is China 101 – Honesty is not always culturally transferable. 张礼家will walk you through it.

* Her string of boyfriends all act as 'ambassadors', representing a microcosm of Chinese society at the time. Other delightful tales usually come from her 奶，the old bound-foot and superstitious granny with the strangest ideas and a comforting resolve.

*The change that China has gone though in the last 30 years is dramatic, and within living memory of many Chinese. It’s hard to imagine this kind of metamorphosis. But with this book you don’t have to.

* Lastly, you get to pick up a few choice words. Probably retro by today’s standards and just a little dialectical we have 凑合 (perhaps the Chinese equivalent of the Lion King's Hakuna Matata) and 惹眼 (eye catching).

It's simply the truly unexplainable that makes this book a lesson, not just light entertainment. Literature is the window to culture; you could try and read translated philosophical musings of great men throughout Chinese history, or even commit to memory the prose of a thousand Chinese authors. Personally, I haven’t the time nor the inclination. However if you manage to pick up a book this year, make it a story like this one.

By far the best reason is that after a long day of memorising new words, I can relax in bed, sit up, and read a good book- and not lose time for studying! So I suggest the next time you get study fatigue, head down to the book store and ask the clerk for memoirs, and fiction written by Chinese authors. Share it with your study but and get talking and sharing. I guarantee by chapter twenty you will be inspired enough to tackle anything!

Culture was meant to be shared!