“When I was young, I told my mother that I would go to China to learn Kung Fu one day. She didn’t believe it at the time. When I got there, I immediately called her and said, ‘Mom, guess where I am, I’m at the Shaolin Temple!’” says Max Yollando, a young man from the Cote d’Ivoire, sharing his love for Chinese culture.
At the time, Yollando was a student at the Felix Houphouet-Boigny University in Abidjan. Encouraged by his passion for Chinese culture, he joined the Confucius Institute to study Chinese. In late 2016, he had the chance to visit the temple in Henan province on a three-month exchange (交换). Yollando truly fell in love and felt sure that it was the place he had dreamed of since childhood.
After returning to the Cote d’Ivoire, Yollando continued to practice Chinese and study traditional culture. In 2017, he returned to the Shaolin Temple and remained there for several years.
Yollando says the most impressive things he noticed in Chinese culture are the love of work, respect, and recognition (认可). “Coming to China to study made me more disciplined and hardworking. Before, I was a little lazy, but the Shaolin Temple taught me to be on time and thankful.”
At the end of 2022, when he completed his studies at the temple, he began working at a Shaolin cultural center in Zambia. The first of its kind in Africa, the center is home to 30 orphans (孤儿), who are taught Chinese language and traditional Chinese culture, including Kung Fu, as part of the lessons. For Yollando, the purpose of studying Chinese culture was to be able to return to Africa to introduce Chinese values to people in his country.
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