I was first introduced to Min-zhan Lu’s “From Silence To Words” over the summer as reading material for my independent study on the Perceptions/Pre-Conceived Notions of Standard Academic English on Faculty and Students. I remember being so astonished upon learning that just like how there exists a “Standard English” in the United States, there existed and exists a “Standard Chinese” in China. In my annotated bibliography for the article, I wrote about how Lu wrote that was a member of Bourgeoise and since her father was familiar with British firms, he spoke English. Her father’s fluency in English “opened the door for his success” while her paternal grandfather, who was well versed in classical Chinese, kept losing good paying jobs because he couldn’t speak English” (438).

Now, after the Chinese Revolution in 1949, when China was making the transition from a semi-feudal, semi-capitalist, and semi-colonial country to a socialist country, a Standard Chinese was adopted as the official language of China. Standard Chinese became the language of the dominant group, the Proletarians, and “acquiring the discourse of the dominant group was, to them, a means of seeking alliance with that group and thus surviving the whirlpool of cultural currents around them” (444). Originally, I was only thinking in terms of standardization and the effects of that standardization for people. Lu wrote that Standard Chinese “restrict[ed] my ability to participate in the discussion” (444), and I immediately connected it to the idea that standardization hindered her communication of ideas, beliefs, and connections. But upon rereading the article, I now realize how Standard Chinese and Standard English are sort of reversed. In the United States, Standard English was created by rich caucasian people, particularly men, to silence the voices of others including women and people of color. However, in China, Standard Chinese was created by the middle class and poor because they were the dominant group, and it was a way to help them connect to one another. It’s interesting that Lu wrote that learning and speaking Standard Chinese was a “means of seaking alliance with the dominant group” and a means of “survival” because she was a wealthy person, and standardization usually implies the reverse: a series of rules created by wealthy people.

Either way, I think the key thing to look at here, is the idea of standardization. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “Standard” is defined as “an authoritative or recognized exemplar of correctness, perfection, or some definite degree of quality”; “a rule, principle, or means of judgement or estimation”; “a criterion, measure”. What started out as a way for people to engage with and connect with one another, became a means of making others uncomfortable and inflicting judgement. Lu writes that in school she learned about how the American and British Imperialists were the “enemies” of China, and one day her aunt was criticized and was almost labeled a “Rightist” because she was caught talking to her husband in English. From then on, Lu had to becareful to only use Standard Chinese publicly and English at home. Speaking English was “Anti-Revolutionary” in China, an act of resistance by Lu’s family. I understand that the country and political climate was different from the United States. But any sort of standardization leaves people out. In the United States, my mom has often been told to “speak English” at work when she is caught speaking in Hindi or Gujarati. I know that people are forced to write and speak a certain way, in Standard English, and if they do not, they are often penalized for it: my mom is discriminated against for speaking a language that’s not English, students in the academy either fail or get low grades on essays and tests because they can’t “write” properly. All of this leads to more violence, and a world that is dominated by a “I’m right and you’re wrong” mentality.

Lu advocates for a trickster method to be adopted into classrooms because when she was a student, she was not given agency and ownership of her thoughts and wasn’t allowed to code mesh because her teachers and parents “contrived to provide a scene free of conflict for practicing my various languages” (445). Instead of pretending that conflict doesn’t exist, we should embrace that conflict so a dialogue can be created to discuss the conflict. Learning other languages provides a worldview approach to education where students and teachers can learn about other people, places, and cultures. The world is transitioning into and forming a virtual consciousness. Businesses are expanding across the globe, people are using social media to connect with others and market themselves, in this age of coronavirus, the world is functioning online. By code meshing, we can learn to respect people from around the world and can help people foster connections as well as become more understanding of the circumstances that people are coming from.