English and globalization: Perspectives from Hong Kong and mainland China

Extract

Kwok-kan Tam & Timothy Weiss (eds.), English and globalization: Perspectives from Hong Kong and mainland China. Hong Kong: China University Press, 2005. Pp. ix, 276. Hb $35.00.

“Has English become the ‘cultural SARS’ and ‘king of terrorists’ for Chinese people? Are we Chinese really facing a new ‘Opium War’ against English?” ask the authors of a recently published book, The English demon (Zhu & Yang 2004), which denounces English as a new form of opium, invoking the painful image of the history of Western invasion of China. Comparing English to opium, a substance that is believed to have been used by the Western imperialists to intoxicate the Chinese people and to have caused two wars between China and Britain, is a clear indication of growing hostility toward English in China. At a time when China has just joined the World Trade Organization, has successfully competed for the opportunity to host the 2008 Olympic Games, and is rapidly growing into a powerful global economy, the hostility toward English seems puzzling. After all, English is the language for international trade and communications and thus a necessary medium for China to express its desire for globalization. Why this resentment, then?