摘要
Calvin Wee first set foot in China at the age of 14—not for a diplomatic forum or a youth initiative,but on a week-long school trip to Guangzhou.Yet even then,the experience left a lasting impression.“We visited a local school and sat in on several classes,”he recalled.“The math lessons stood out—the students’intensity and focus were striking.In Singapore,we study hard,but this was on another level.”That early glimpse into China’s education system stayed with him,and years later,it resurfaced as he began to engage more deeply with the Chinese language and culture.A pocket-sized wuxia xiaoshuo(martial arts novel),picked up on a whim in a Guangzhou bookstore,opened the door to martial arts fiction—and sparked a lasting interest in Chinese literature and,eventually,China Studies.
