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Monday, June 27, 2011

China, Church, and Censorship

[Written ~4 days ago, losing track of the days]

Apparently, I was pretty clueless when it came to what you can and can’t do as a Christian in China. I went an entire semester taking a course on Christian Chinese literature completely oblivious to the current policy on religion. Nonetheless, I knew a couple friends who had regularly gone to international churches in Beijing, so I blew away my dad’s warnings about hiding my Bible and other overdone precautions. Although proselytization would be pushing it, most foreigners in China seem to have no trouble going to authorized churches and holding small groups elsewhere. The government also seems to accommodate foreign Christians, anything to increase China’s globalism.

There are, however, small signs of the government’s hostility to Christianity – for one, I had to show a foreign ID at the door, the services were held in a hotel since no one can “build” a church building, and a couple nights ago, my VPN-less Internet blocked off the Wiki entry on Chinese house churches. The church I’ve been going to, Beijing International Christian Fellowship, is also called a “fellowship” since technically, it can’t operate as a “church”. The congregation at BICF is also mostly made up of expats – only Chinese nationals who have foreign IDs from studying abroad can enter. As for Chinese Christians without one, their options are either government-registered churches or the infamous house churches (underground church). So basically, if you’re a foreigner, feel free to be a Christian in China.

Ugh, sorry I just gave you a drawn out lecture on the condition of Christianity here. Just began thinking a lot about religion in China after my individual session today with a teacher who was a Christian from Taiwan – we had a pretty interesting conversation about Christianity in East Asia and religion in general. Of course, with a year’s worth of vocab, I can’t say much past “Um, the meaning of ‘religion’ in America and ‘religion’ in China … uhhhh, are VERY different”, but along with the words we cram in class and use in everyday life, I get to pick up a new set of words dealing with religion the more I dive into it.

Below: Pics of Summer Palace - if I was the emperor, I would forget the Forbidden City. 


Um, which way?

Tower of Buddhist Incense

  Suizhou Street
 
As for other religions, I’ve seen a lot of sacred places overrun by tourism – but then again, this is everywhere. I’ve only been to the most famous temples, so I want to check out some of the smaller ones – don’t know if I’m not looking hard enough or if it’s just Beijing, but it seems like the “temple on every corner” phenomenon in Asia doesn’t apply here. At the ones I’ve been to, people still clasp their hands together and bow before the Buddha figure, but you wonder if they’re really Buddhists or doing it for luck (especially if they’re tourists too).

I wonder if the Chinese have strong feelings, if not for religion, for spirituality. Either way, I'm starting to accept Confucianism as a system of principles more so than a "religion". I've already had three individual sessions where the teacher would give me a puzzled look after I tried describing Confucianism as a religion. But what defines spirituality and religion, especially on the other side of the world? Are we too quick to label temple visits and prayers without adhering to a said religion as nonreligious? I think, a lot of times, I judge too quickly.


Haha too many rhetorical questions. To give you a break (and also because you can probably tell right now that I am super frustrated about my VPN-deprived state), here’s a list of other blocked sites I’ve found in China:
Central Tibet Administration and various other sites on Tibet (well, this is a given)
List of blocked websites – what, I can’t even check what sites I can’t enter?
The usual – social networking sites, Blogger, Google (only occasionally drops sometimes especially when I use controversial key words)

This isn’t blocked, but I thought it was cool – Chinese-English anagrams

 Peking opera - you can get here one day if you can sing, dance, juggle, sword-fight, you get the picture...

UPDATE: As a religious studies major, I could talk all day about - what else - religion. But I've realized that whether or not people are "religious", people are always curious when they say you're a religious studies major. I'm lucky to say I study a field at which people raise their eyebrows and start asking questions. This is after an exhausting (but awesome) 2-hour conversation with a HBA teacher about the differences between Christianity/Buddhism, Catholicism/Protestantism, etc. (which is hard enough as it is in English!)

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Saturday, June 18, 2011

No use crying over unpasteurized milk (and pollution)


(Dang it - Yale VPN dropped on me again. I'm using a friend's computer, who uses Harvard VPN, which I must admit, is much much faster and more reliable. Below entry from two nights ago.)

Wow, so a week has already passed and we have our first test tomorrow, though I’m not too worried – I realized I could have enjoyed last summer at HIF (Japan) more if I didn’t stress so much over cramming in every character, and I’m taking the Light Fellowship’s “Aim for the A-/B+” philosophy to heart. I’ve accepted the fact that I can’t memorize everything that’s taught in class, and even if I did, I would just forget it in a week or so. Not to mention the fact that my work ethic plummeted sophomore year …


 
Ooh ooh temple ... The famed Lama Temple (), Beijing's center for Tibetan Buddhism. Giant Maitreya Buddha statue at the end (26m tall) = awesomeness. 

Nonetheless, I know I’ve improved my Chinese a lot, even in just four days of class. The language pledge is no joke – the second-year students have been reduced to the capabilities of five-year-olds, grunting and playing charades to get our point across when our limited vocabulary all too often couldn’t. HBA’s teachers and teaching methods are also top-notch, and I appreciate the fact that we have different teachers in each section everyday (this was a noticeable disadvantage at HIF). One thing is lacking though – without regularly hearing native speakers (like you would in a homestay), I don’t feel like my listening skills are improving much. I’m coming to realize more and more how weak my listening is (this goes for any foreign language) as the teachers constantly catch me off guard with a question I can’t fully digest. Guess I should watch more Chinese TV or something…

Also, I haven’t really experienced the high of Light’s infamous study abroad curve. Last year, I claimed I didn’t have one in the beginning either, but I still remember gushing about eating real ramen for the first time and meeting my awesome homestay family. On the other hand, there have been interesting moments in China, but nothing near a high. Eh, I’m not too concerned, seeing as how my high towards the end of last summer made up for every little frustration I had before. I’m definitely not expecting the exact same thing this year, but I know China deserves a chance (rather, I should give China a chance).

 Some fruit I bought from a street vendor - purple part wasn't edible (as I found out the hard way), but the white core was yummy and sweet. Anyone know what it's called?

Yet one thing I will dearly miss from America (yes, this sounds pitifully minor, but trust me, it’s a major staple in my life) is good ol’ fashioned milk. Already forewarned by friends, I still bought a half-carton of milk from the supermarket, only to spit it out on the first taste. Along with being sketchy (the milk probably isn’t pasteurized), they just dump sugar in it to result in a really sickening taste. But I’ve discovered pretty good yogurt (酸奶 - literally means sour milk, no idea why) in the cafeteria.

Another commodity I took for granted was reliable Internet. After four beautiful days of Blogger and Facebook (well, beautifully is comparatively speaking, since the connection always lags), my VPN dropped again. I’m pretty clueless as to why, but anyways, I should be spending less time on the Internet anyway. I feel like I haven’t really reached past the surface level of “experiencing” China, but I’m not kicking myself yet because it’s still pretty early in the program. Don’t know what I want to do yet, but I think I’ll just take the subway one day and see where I go. Maybe I’ll take a friend, but I’ve realized how easy it is to fall into the trap of just hanging out with other students in the program. My interactions with the locals have been limited to 几块 and ~在哪儿?

 
Houhai Park (后还) - The rowers were quite energetic!

Speaking of which, I’ve had somewhat of a memorable experience with the fitness trainer at the campus gym. HBA students were able to barter the membership fee down to 400for two months, but signing up meant that you would also get assigned a personal trainer who insisted on scheduling a trial session. I kept saying 我自己可以跑步 (I can run by myself), but “Jack” insisted I needed to work out other muscle groups under his guidance. The next day, I found myself showing up to the gym at 6:00 p.m. to work out with Jack. First, he did an extensive interrogation about my eating habits and measured my body fat with a skin caliper. My new goal for two months? Lose 10 kg and reduce waist size by ~15 cm. Um, I know that’s possible and will probably do me a lot of good in terms of my overall health, but getting baller at Chinese AND doing a total body makeover was not my original plan. Nonetheless, Jack led me through a series of dumbbell routines, squats, and the works – at the same time, I realized how limited my vocab was in terms of saying how to pick up/move/push/ various limbs. I think Jack gave up telling me what to do after a while in lieu of hand motions, which was a bummer. But after working out with a trainer for the first time, I can see why people pay so much money for them – Jack, for one, gives AWESOME massages. After the workout, however, Jack gave me a sheet with prices for each session, to which I once again said 不要 不要. I hate saying no to people, but with the unexpected fees of installing Internet, buying a cell phone, and the gym membership, my miscellaneous costs under Light are adding up.

Ah, for those of you know me, why the gym membership? I did, after all, write an essay in English 120 on my utter hatred for treadmills. Well, Beijing air pollution is something else. I religiously check the air quality index every couple of hours, but the average right now seems to be around 200, which is more than enough to leave me hacking after only a mile outside. Even after a huge thunderstorm, the AQI still hovers in the high 100s. On some mornings, I stubbornly ran outside anyway, but multiple friends who’ve stayed in Beijing have warned me running outside in the pollution cancels out any health benefits I might have gotten from running. Nonetheless, I still see tons of people exercising on the track despite the smoggy skies … maybe, along with the food, I can become somewhat resistant to pollutants?

Okay, I seriously need to start studying now for tomorrow’s test. But no stress … I feel like Chinese is being pounded into me everyday, whether I’m super motivated or not. 

  "不到长城非好汉." ("If you don't go to the Great Wall you're not a real man.") - Chairman Mao (So as a woman, I don't need to worry? Either way, expect lots and LOTS of steps - you do literally climb the wall.)

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Monday, June 13, 2011

RECONNECTED

Aahhhh I FINALLY have Internet after three days of utter deprivation – how do people go without it?? My VPN has also been acting up ever since I got here, and I’ve done troubleshooting for hours – finally got through with a code that already gave me the same error message ten thousand times … but somehow it worked the 10,001th time. As a warning, my blogging may be quite erratic, since I don’t know when the VPN will drop on me again. Anyway, here’s my belated entry from Friday (and pics in no particular order):

At the Forbidden City - packed with tourists, but still an experience...

Finally moved into the HBA dorm at BLCU (Beijing Language and Culture University), or should I say, hotel room? Accommodation is NICE – a single with a bathroom, TV (complete with Korean and English channels as I’ve already discovered KBS), and unlimited AC. I can’t but help feel a little guilty because foreign students’ dorms are quite a luxury compared to regular dorms at Chinese universities, but I guess you can’t complain about the perks you’re given.

 One of the many bizarre works at 798

I’m getting more of a hang on public transportation in Beijing – I really start appreciating a city once I figure out the subway system. Sure, it opens up access to places you can go, but on a metaphorical sense, I feel more attached to a city if I have a place I’m going to and I know how to get there, blending in with the rest of the transit crowd. Plus, it gives you a nice feel for what kinds of people are in the city. And how could I forget to mention flat fare rates? You can go from one end of the city to another for 2 kuai (~35 cents)!!! So China has some things on Japan …


Oh yeah, who wants some starfish? Tasted kinda ... fishy. Found at Denghua Night Market, along with snake meat, chicken hearts, and the works

On a more negative note, Yale health kind of messed up my medication for the food in China … the pharmacy only gave me two pills of azithro (the loaded meds with huge side effects) and none of the other kind – enough for one bout of stomach problems, so I guess I need to develop immunity in one try. Note to future Fellows – doublecheck your prescription before you head off to China! (Maybe it would help to pick it up before the travel clinic closes too…)

Ugh, currently watching Korean medical shows featuring plastic surgery and an unbearably sappy feature on K-Pop stars working with charity. Same ol’ … I’m actually going to Korea for the first time since I was two after my time in China, so this should be interesting. But until then, gotta give China its due. 

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Thursday, June 9, 2011

In the first 48 hours in Beijing...

  • I've seen the AQI (air quality index) go from 25 on what my friend said was the "clearest day in Beijing he's ever seen" to a pretty smoggy 250 (but I know that's not as bad as it could be!)
  • Visited the 798 art district with my friend Jason who is DJing a benefit event on the weekend - pretty cool stuff except Jason kept telling me how it went from being a haven for avant garde artists to just another commercialized tourist spot.
  • Tried Peking Duck (it was cheap, but good). I also discovered my horrible skills at Chinese chopsticks, which I hear are thicker and heavier than Korean/Japanese ones. I mean, I already suck at chopsticks as it is, but this will be good training I hope.
  • Spent 3 hours in the Forbidden City - they really weren't kidding when they said city. I was expecting something like the Imperial Garden in Tokyo, but as my friend Ning said - in China, bigger means more power. With giant halls for the emperor to change clothes, have tea, even rest on his way to the gate (because it would haven taken nearly an hour to walk to the entrance - it was that big),  I was pretty impressed, but I've heard the Summer Palace is prettier, so I think I'll have many other moments when Beijing will take my breath away. Also want to hit up the temples - yeah, you know I'm a sucker for temples. 
  • Watched Kung Fu Panda in 3-D - awesome!
  • Tried to take a cab on my own - only to have the driver say I could walk to where I was trying to get to, according to the little Chinese that I knew. I smiled, said OK, and started walking to the direction he pointed to. It actually took almost a half hour and I constantly asked people along the way for directions to make sure I was right - most people kept saying they weren't from Beijing (I think) but somehow I found my way. First use of Chinese in China - it's always a little nervewracking at first, maybe even more embarrassing to oneself, but fun too. Brought back memories of last summer - and my first time using Japanese was in a cab too! Looking forward to using the foreigner's card to mess up in Chinese as much as I can this summer :)
(OK I lied about posting a list of goals. I made a list, which I thought was pretty solid, except that I couldn't think of any for China. I'm become more and more aware of how biased I am toward Japan - on my four-stop flight to Beijing (yes, four stops and a total traveling time of 32+ hours), I got a chance to swing by Narita again. And I almost ... didn't want to leave? Maybe it was just hearing Japanese again that soothed me (or even the minor dread of stomach upset and comparative uncleanliness I expected of China), but I couldn't help grinning like a kid as I strolled around the airport. Oh well, I know I'll have a year in Japan soon enough, so this was really all irrational thinking...)

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