english does help us read english original works, but chinese helps us learn a true china. chinese characters are an inseparable part of chinese culture. only by characters can chinese literature send off its brilliance. some modern translators have tried to translate classical chinese literature into english. i was unlucky enough to have heard a so called "poem" of li bai. i still doubt even now whether it is a poem of li or just a prose created by the translator himself. i want to cry, for li bai, for chinese literature and also for the ignorant "translator". maybe, he just wanted to introduce chinese culture to the whole world, but what he has done is just killing it. to learn a country`s culture,especially its classical culture, the first thing is to learn its language. opinions through translators sometimes can be helpful,but sometimes, they can be fatally misleading. since we are chinese, why do we give up our mother tongue and learn our own culture through a foreign language? if so, several years later,not only the foreigners but we ourselves will be unable to understand our culture. by that day, chinese culture will die, china will die, and we will just be a group of "foreigners" with dark eyes and yellow skin.
by now, i think i have found the answer to the question.we had better use the english original works when we learn courses like western economics and western philosophy. as for the chinese culture or the chinese history, we should stick to our own language.