Hollywood star Rosamund Pike has professed her deep affection for Chinese language and culture. - Photo: SCMP
BEIJING (SCMP): British actress Rosamund Pike’s 12-year-old son won the global championship at a Chinese language competition, gaining the respect of many people online.
On October 28, the Chinese Bridge contest announced You Zijun from Britain as the global champion of its latest Chinese proficiency show for primary school students, held in northern China’s Tianjin municipality.
The contest is held by the Chinese government-run Hanban annually to promote Chinese language among international students. It is the second time that You entered the contest.
It later transpired that You, whose real name is Solo Uniacke, is the elder son of Pike and her partner, businessman Robie Uniacke.
Both Solo and his younger brother, Atom, whose Chinese name is You Ziyuan, are fluent Mandarin speakers who learned from their self-taught father.
Pike’s son, You Zijun, has been crowned a global champion for his proficiency in Chinese. --Photo: Instagram/chinesebridge2002
Pike, 45, graduated from Oxford University and made her film debut as a Bond girl in the 2002 film Die Another Day.
She won international acclaim for the 2014 psychological thriller Gone Girl, directed by David Fincher, co-starring Ben Affleck.
She won her first Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in the Motion Picture Comedy or Musical category in 2021 for the film I Care a Lot, before and after being nominated three times for the award.
While promoting Gone Girl in Shanghai, Pike announced her Chinese name Pei Chunhua, and insisted that the Chinese media use her Chinese name otherwise “it would disrespect Chinese cinephiles”.
The three-character name given by her partner was phonetic to her English name.
While Pei is a common surname in China, Pike explained that Chun means honesty and Hua means China and is homophonic to “flower” in Chinese, which echoes with her first name.
Pike had since made her name on mainland social media for her deep love of the Chinese language and culture.
When she appeared on the Graham Norton show in 2021, she said she had been learning Mandarin from her children, and shared one rather rude idiom she recently learned, tuo ku zi fang pi.
Meaning “gilding the lily”, Pike literally translated it as “taking your trousers off to fart”, drawing laughs from other guests as well as Chinese online observers.
Hollywood star Pike has gained respect and support from Chinese people around the world. -- Photo: Instagram/chinesebridge2002
In the same year, during the Lunar New Year in February, Pike published a video of her giving new year wishes in Mandarin.
She appears shy but speaks quite fluently, humorous wishing “all your cows produce calves”.
Pike and her family’s love for Chinese has won them affection in the country.
Some Chinese people called her Sister Pei, the same way as they respectfully refer to women in China.
It is the fourth year Chinese Bridge held a competition for primary schoolchildren, and the 17th year it held competitions for Chinese-learning students from all around the world.
In the promotional video published by the contest organiser, Pike, who was only introduced as “You Zijun and You Ziyuan’s mother”, congratulates all contestants and their parents and teachers, and wishes them good luck.
Solo said he started learning Mandarin at the age of three, and had mastered more than 400 Chinese characters. The number of the frequently used characters in modern Chinese is 3,500.
He said he would continue learning Chinese until people regard him as “the first Chinese with blonde hair”. - SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
