imomus

You're viewing

imomus's journal
Create a Dreamwidth Account Learn More

Reload page in style: site light

Hisae had to renew her visa, so we jumped aboard the Berlin-Warszawa Express and went to Poznan. It was my first trip to Poland. Here, in the form of a radio programme, are my first impressions. As a Polish pope dies Hisae and I watch Wong Kar Wai's 2046 in Cantonese with Polish subtitles, look at paintings, sit in cafes, admire the architecture, read design books, lie in the sun on the central square... and try to figure out why the local skinheads are wearing White Power Poland t-shirts when we can't see a single non-white person in town.

Poznan Radio (mono mp3 file, 39 mins 17 secs, 17.9MB)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

imomus.livejournal.com

You know, I'm convinced that the next pope will in fact be Chinese. And I'm absolutely appalled at the prospect of the destruction rampant Christianity might wreak in China as a result. Christianity is not a universal philosophy. It has no right to displace Confucianism and Buddhism. It does not make societies better, or people happier.

From: (Anonymous)

A worrying proportion of the 150,000 (?!?) people in China teaching English are Christians. I've heard that some organisations offer to pay the schools and universities half their salaries to take them on. Whether this is known by the authorities or just another form of corruption I'd love to know.

There is a George Bush supporting munchkin here at our school who I have seen waddling into class with books of scripture. Probably as a result, I've had students in the class tell me smugly 'I'm a Christian'. I just refuse to acknowledge they've said it. I get the feeling that a lot of their classmates actually admire them - as the only other two 'young' teachers here are bible bashers and have been here a couple of years, the students see it as cool and western. Just last week, one of them wished me a 'happy easter' with the rejoinder 'although I'm not a Christian'. The feeling that I'm surrunded by people who assume that I am one just makes me want to sink into the ground and burrow my way out of here!

Incidentally one of the bible bashers, who has a banner with REAL MEN LOVE JESUS on it hung up above the Union Jack in his apartment, told a group of us once that the previous day he had told a Chinese woman asking for money for her baby 'to go and work'. Showing a remarkable command of the language (I think this was the real reason he told us the story) he said to her 'I have hands, I have a job. Go and find work to feed your family.' He then apparently procedeed to tell his class of 60 maritime students what he'd said. They all cheered.

That's the kind of Christianity that will catch on here - pitiless contempt for the 'weak', mixed with this kind of sickly cynical sentimentalism that appeals both to the communist leaders and to churchgoers the world over. An example of this western-style cynicism, after the tsunami someone in Beijing had a bright idea - now that China's just another capitalist country, how about making a charity record to raise renminbi for the victims? Now if We Are The World and Band Aid brought tears of rage and helplessness to your eyes, the video would have made you howl.

From:

sarmoung.livejournal.com

It's unlikely, but we'll see (err, no pun intended!). Christianity has had its chances before in China: the so-called Nestorians from around the 7th century (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/eastasia/781nestorian.html) (with some later encouragement during the Yuan Dynasty), the subsequent Jesuit missions (http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/vatican/romechin.html) from the late 16th century and Western missionary activity (such as the China Inland Mission under Hudson Taylor (http://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/biorptaylor.html)) in the 19th and early 20th.

I don't think China had anything particular to fear from Christianity in these forms and I suggest, turgid hymn singing and dour countenances aside, that people like Taylor did their bit to reduce rural immiserification where they found it. The Jesuits came to an end in China because those back in Rome didn't appreciate the sorts of accommodations and compromises those there were making along the way. In particular, the Rites issue, which stemmed mostly from domestic Roman misconceptions about Confucianism. I've no idea what the Nestorians were up to, but it can be suggested that their Syriac Christianity was no more foreign to China than the earlier interloper of Buddhism and became similarly adapted (http://www.abc.net.au/rn/relig/ark/stories/s772906.htm) across time to local cultures.

Nevertheless, each of these events are pretty much a footnote in Chinese history and, certainly until now away, precedent would suggest things either adapt to the Chinese palate or they're spat out. With some reservations, I'd suggest that certainly Buddhism, and to a lesser extent, Confucianism have already been displaced in China. I don't suggest that a framework doesn't remain, but perhaps no much more than that of Christianity in the contemporary West. Or maybe I'm just too eager for the restoration of the Imperial system. Who knows, all those online Chinese gamers might try to recreate earlier historical periods on the ground one day.

I'd disagree that Christianity isn't a universal philosophy, or rather I don't see how it's any less universal than any of the others on offer. Given time, current missionaries might have their zeal thwarted or at least bent by China and something quite unexpected and novel might just come of it. I suspect not and, as a Christian, I'm fearful of most of their activities for it's not Christianity as I recognise it, but then not much is. Nevertheless, history (if I can appeal to something so abstract) suggests that China is all too capable of shaking off its unwanted fleas when required.

Thanks for the post on Poznan. My memories of late communist Poland seem very grey with occasional flashes of the ubiquitous yellow. It seemed the only colour manufactured on any scale at the time. I don't even remember the delicious Polish ice-cream being so luridly coloured.

I blame the Teutonic Knights. Malbork (http://www.zamek.malbork.pl/en/historia/indexh.php) is well worth a visit if you head east from Berlin again.