By KENNY CHEE

WHILE waiting at a bus stop some weeks ago, a poster depicting a stylised Monkey God from the Chinese classic, Journey To The West, caught my attention.

Part of this year's Speak Mandarin Campaign, the poster asked which comic-book series was inspired by Journey To The West.

Looking at the list of three options and the Monkey God image, I could not help but chuckle because the answer was obvious - Dragonball. The main character in the Chinese classic, the Monkey God, appears only in Dragonball and not the other two listed comics.

But if not for all the Chinese lessons I struggled with as a kid, I would not know Dragonball as well as I do now.

You see, back when I first learnt of the series, English versions of the Japanese comic and anime were not readily available - most of them were in Chinese.

So if I couldn't understand Chinese, I would have missed out on Dragonball, one of the most popular comic and anime series of my time.

Thank goodness, I did not.

In fact, I continued to read other Chinese-language comics even though there were English versions available for some.

One such series was The Celestial Zone by Singapore comic artist Wee Tian Beng. I initially read the comic in Chinese, and even though I found out later that there was an English version, I chose to continue with the Chinese one.

No doubt, it made for a more difficult read - considering my standard of Chinese - but the English version did not have as many details as the Chinese one.

For one thing, all the cool-sounding Chinese names of the characters and martial arts simply lacked the same panache in English.

Also of great interest to me are Chinese-language wuxia, or swordplay, video games and television dramas like The Return Of The Condor Heroes, an adaptation of China-born author Louis Cha's famed novel.

I was so inspired by one wuxia game I played that I wrote an academic piece on ancient Chinese bronze artefacts from the dynasties of Xia to Zhou.

I am grateful for having a basic foundation in Chinese that has given me access to the Chinese culture and entertainment linked to the language.

But I have come to realise that it is the pop-culture trappings of comics, anime, TV serials and video games that have kept me in touch with the Chinese language all these years, even though I have not been using the language as much as I did when I was a kid.

And it appears many young Singaporeans are now interested in these entertainment forms as well. Just look at the tens of thousands of visitors at last year's Anime Festival Asia and the Games Convention Asia.

With many parents and teachers struggling to get their children or students interested in the Chinese language, it might not seem so bad a thing to get the young and restless minds to indulge in a bit of Chinese- language pop culture which they enjoy.

It could reinforce what they learn in school - without them realising it. And because of the interest in pop culture, they might also end up using the language well after they leave the school system.

For now, I still have my reservations about picking up my first Louis Cha wuxia novel in Chinese. The heavy text is daunting.

However, I hope that some day in the future, I would be able to read The Return Of The Condor Heroes in Chinese, as missing out on the original descriptions of the cool moves would be too much of a waste and certainly less fun.

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