zimatravels

This is a continuation of the previous post.
Mary:  “The average Chinese mind is essentially orderly, and never dreams of questioning rules…their faces are impassive, smiling with a surface smile that gives no indication of the feelings behind.”

Me:  Events in China between your visit and mine have held much sadness and repression of both thinking and action, but these observations are as true today as they appeared to you in 1914.  The inscrutability of the Chinese must be attributable to their culture more than their politics.

Mary:  “Squeeze seems to be the accepted fact in China.”

Me:  Bribery and corruption certainly remain in China.  Proper “connections” can make or break one’s life.  My friends have told me that guanxi is interwoven into the very fabric of life in China, much like a sweater that would unravel without it.  They may not like the system, but they can imagine no other.

Mary:  “The foreigner in China is divided into two camps.  He is either missionary or he is anti-missionary.  Both sides are keen on the matter…I began to think and to say that missionary enterprise, which I had always thought should turn its attention to its own people, was at least justified in this land of China where no provision was made for the sick and afflicted, and where charity is unknown.”

Me:  You would be surprised to know that all the missionaries were kicked out of China by the communist government.  This did not mean, however, that the sick and disabled have been cared for by anyone else.  Train stations are filled with unfortunates who stick the stump of their arm into your face to beg for money.  Painfully thin children stick out bowls to you as a way to tell you they are hungry.

My friends assure me that begging is organized and big business, but my western eyes see mostly desperation on these faces.  Are children really intentionally maimed by their parents to evoke more sympathy for begging?  Perhaps so.

Missionaries are sneaking back into China in any guise they can.  Their goal is more conversion to Christianity than helping the poor.  Deprived by the government of their Buddhist rituals, the Chinese of today seem starved for some sense of spirituality.  Some of my students have asked me about god.  As China opens its doors more and more, many religious groups are poised to jump in and fill the spiritual void.  In Macau, there is a large group of the Baha’i faith encouraging converts.  I even met a couple of Messianic Jews assigned to infiltrate China and quietly introduce their religion.

I’m sorry to say that missionaries will once again have their day in modern China.

Mary:  “…and when I inspected the room offered for my accommodation, I only wished drearily that there had been no room in this particular inn, and that I might have slept out in the open…When I smelled the smell of the rooms, rank and abominable, and reeking of human occupancy, I envied my mules sleeping outside.  The Chinese, as a rule, have not much use of fresh air.  They all bear a strong resemblance to one another, the rooms of these Chinese inns.”

Me:  Although probably not as bad as where you stayed, the sameness and dreariness of the cheap hotels I stay in can get rather depressing.  The carpets are always stained.  Nothing seems truly clean.  Rarely do things like toilets, showers, lights work properly.  And the room, sheets, pillows — absolutely everything reeks of cigarette smoke from many former occupants.  They are places to be endured rather than enjoyed.

To be continued…