KUALA LUMPUR: British actress Rosamund Pike, best known for her roles in Gone Girl and Die Another Day, recently celebrated a major milestone in her family.
Her 12-year-old son, Solo Uniacke, won the global championship in a Chinese language competition.
According to the South China Morning Post, this victory in the Chinese Bridge contest – a prestigious international language competition – has garnered widespread admiration online.
The competition, held annually by China's Hanban to encourage Chinese language proficiency among international students, took place this year in Tianjin, China.
Competing under his Chinese name, You Zijun, Solo claimed the title for primary school students.
This was his second entry in the contest, marking a significant achievement for the young language enthusiast.
Solo, along with his younger brother Atom (Chinese name You Ziyuan), both speak Mandarin fluently.
They learned the language with the help of their father, Robie Uniacke, a businessman who taught himself Mandarin.
Pike, an Oxford University graduate, has fully supported her family's dedication to Mandarin, sharing her own journey with the language in interviews and on social media.
Pike, 45, first introduced her Chinese name, Pei Chunhua, while promoting the 2014 Hollywood film Gone Girl in Shanghai.
Her partner, Robie, chose this name to honour her commitment to Chinese culture.
The name is phonetically similar to "Pike," with "Pei" as a common Chinese surname.
"Chun" means honesty and "Hua" means China, which is also homophonic to "flower", symbolically resonating with Pike's openness to Chinese culture.
Over the years, Pike has become popular on Chinese social media, not only for her acting but also for her enthusiasm for the language.
The award-winning actress has humorously shared Mandarin idioms, including one she learned from her children that translates to "taking your trousers off to fart" – a comical equivalent to the English phrase "gilding the lily."
Her appearances on Western television, such as The Graham Norton Show, where she shared these idioms, have been warmly received by Chinese audiences.
During the Lunar New Year in 2021, Pike sent greetings to her Chinese fans in a Mandarin video, wishing them "all your cows produce calves" – a playful nod to the Year of the Ox.
Her language skills and cultural awareness have endeared her to Chinese fans, who affectionately refer to her as "Sister Pei."
In the promotional video for the Chinese Bridge contest, Pike, identified only as "You Zijun and You Ziyuan's mother," congratulated participants and extended her best wishes to all families involved.
Solo, who began learning Mandarin at three, expressed his commitment to the language, saying he hopes to one day be known as "the first Chinese with blonde hair."