An Australian psychotherapist practicing in Shanghai incorporates Buddhist and Taoist concepts, as well as Eastern mindfulness training. A Russian graduate student in international commerce sings Peking Opera and Huangmei Opera. An American college student studies language and calligraphy for the summer.

They are among the increasing number of people drawn to China not only to learn Chinese but also to steep themselves in Chinese philosophy, arts and culture. They come for personal development.

Psychotherapist Malcolm Hunt from Australia has lived in China for eight years, including five years at a temple near Tianmu Mountain in Zaoxi Town, Zhejiang Province. With more than 20 years in mental health field, today he counsels expatriates in Shanghai, many of whom are under stress over relocation, a new culture, personal relationships and old problems they thought they had left behind.

In his view, more and more people are coming to China to experience Eastern culture. “Twenty years ago, many visitors came to see the scenery and sights, 10 years ago they came to do business, and more are coming to experience the culture,” he tells Shanghai Daily in an interview.

He occasionally gives talks at the Shanghai Institute of Language and Culture. 

A Buddhist since 1986, Hunt says he was greatly influenced by a Buddhist master when he first came to China and was distressed over the failure of a personal relationship.

“I personally experienced the mindfulness approach to be one that was freeing as well as logical. I have further refined my own practice of mindfulness and meditation for the past five years in a temple in Zhejiang,” says Hunt, who took vows.

“When I was in Australia, my mother and father were interested in Chinese art and opera,” Hunt says. Though my mother could not speak Chinese, she would take me to see Chinese opera whenever it was staged. In my teens I was drawn to Taoism and poetry in translation.”

Hunt says Chinese culture can best be understood not as a single culture but as cultures within a culture. “Each region has its particular signature yet there are behaviors and ways of doing things that can be described as very Chinese.”

He is drawn by China’s thousands of years of history and contributions to world literature, as well as the “strong sense of community and belonging,” which is palpable in Chinese society. “The more I have absorbed Chinese culture into my blood stream, the more I have felt part of society, as it is the Chinese nature to welcome you into their family of friendships,” he adds.

Draw of Chinese culture

The draw of Chinese culture is evident at his temple in Zhejiang where foreigners came to experience Chinese Buddhist and rural culture. “Many flew thousands of kilometers just to do this one thing. As China has made it easier for tourists to come here, I think many are coming to see for themselves that China is a culturally rich and peaceful nation, with much more to offer the world than just exports.

“My passion is to promote Chinese Buddhist culture in its breadth of art, music, poetry and teachings,” Hunt says. “I hope to be a bridge between East and West.”

Ekaterina Svitaylo from Tomsk, Russia is fluent in Chinese and can perform excerpts from classical regional operas, such as Peking Opera and regional Huangmei Opera popular in Anhui Province.

The woman in her 20s was a finalist in the 6th Chinese Bridge Proficiency Competition for Foreign Students in China hosted by China Central Television and the Confucius Institute.

This year hundreds of foreign students from around 200 colleges participated. It is aired on CCTV 4 and the final will be staged from August 20 to 29.

Contestants introduce themselves, demonstrate a talent, such as singing, and chat with the judges, in Chinese.

Svitaylo is unable to be in China for the finals this month. “It’s a pity but my love for China’s diverse and brilliant culture is unending,” she tells Shanghai Daily.

Today she is a post-graduate student in international commerce at Shanghai University.

“I love wandering the tree-lined streets of downtown Shanghai and I have visited a Russian orthodox church there,” she says. She also enjoys the Bund with its classic European architecture.

Svitaylo can perform excerpts from the classical Huangmei Opera “The Female Consort” as well as the Peking Opera episode “Su San Leaves Hongtong County.”

She has had voice training so singing is not too difficult, she says, “but the real challenges are the complicated body movements, gestures and facial expressions. Even finger movements have nuanced meaning.”

High-pitched Huangmei originated in Huangmei, Hubei Province more than 200 years ago and became especially popular in Anhui.

Svitaylo now plans to learn Huju Opera, which dates from the early 19th century, in Shanghai dialect.

Universal problem

“Protecting cultural heritage is a universal problem,” she says of the updated,  condensed and modernized Chinese operas.

“In Russia, classical music and opera are also losing the young audience, so art lessons and troupes of Russian folk dance and music are performed in primary and middle schools. College students attend classical music concerts of great Russian composers.”

Noting that Chinese culture emphasizes restraint, she adds that Chinese men are more low key than Russian men who are more straightforward in conversation.

Also she observed that in Russia, where Ceylong red tea dominates, Chinese green tea is becoming popular, and some Russians decorate their homes following Chinese feng shui principles.

She herself drinks Chinese red tea in the morning for energy and in the afternoon a cup of Pu’er for digestion. She enjoys Hong Kong actor Chow Yun-fat’s TV action series “The Bund.”

 American Alex Lindahal, from Rochester, Minnesota, is on his first trip to China and last week attended a calligraphy session at the Shanghai Institute of Language and Culture. He already had two semesters of Chinese language study during high school in the States and now is taking several weeks of language.

He became interested in Chinese culture in middle school when his history course included history of East and Southeast Asia during discussions of the cold war era.

Compared with other languages, he found Chinese relatively easy.

He says there’s a big difference in the way Western or Chinese culture is presented.

“Much of Western culture is pushed onto people from all areas through globalization and mass marketing, but the same isn’t true for Chinese culture. There is much more modesty about the culture, focusing on preservation rather than expansion. In this way, the culture has better retained its depth,” Lindahal says.

Fluid interaction

“China’s increasing importance in many areas attracts people from different academic fields and they want to learn Chinese to interact fluidly with their peers in China,” Lindahal says.

“I am definitely planning to return sometime in the future,” he says. “I’m not much of a city dweller, so next time I want to spend more time out in the countryside and in nature areas, especially in western and southern China,” he says.