Brain Fertilizer

While I don't exactly buy your picture of utopian China, it does sound as if things have improved a great deal. When they get a constitution constitution and an equitable legal system in place I'll be interested to hear more.

I can testify, though, to the religious freedom, while not total,there is much better than the West would ever believe. My church supports a missionary family in the Philipines and they spend more time planting churches in China than in the Philipines. The Chinese govt insists on two things - Chinese pastors for the new Christian congregations and no new Catholic missionaries or churches.

We're told that Christianity is exploding in China just as it is in South America. The Lord appears to have relinqished Western Europe and North America to the powers of darkness, eh? and now looks to bring parts of the third world to His Bosom in the coming century.

Nah, it's not Utopian. But it doesn't have to be Utopia to fall in love with a place and a people. And once you love them, you are willing to overlook or at least accept some of the obvious faults.

I'm mostly just a little distressed that no amount of progress is ever good enough for some people. They will always condemn all of China now for something done by leaders 50 years in the past. There is a saying in Chinese: "The one who runs away 50 paces is mocking the one who ran away 100 paces as a coward!" Not exactly "Pot calling the kettle black," exactly, but certainly a concept worth considering.

But in any case, thanks for the assist in pointing out that at least some of the press on China is not exactly accurate.

Your impressions of daily life in China are most likely more accurate than mine (I've never been there), but you are writing as an appreciative Westerner. My interactions with the Chinese have always been that of a person from Taiwan. They tend to emphasize China's economic gains, boast about China's rising prestige, throw in something like "The Americans don't really care about Taiwan", and then state point-blank that Taiwan _has_ to be part of China. Why? Because Taiwan has _always_ been part of China. You can't argue with them, you can't bring up Taiwan's aboriginal, immigrant, and Japanese roots, you can't bring up the difference democratization has made. What the Chinese say when they think I am an American and when they find out I'm Taiwanese is different enough that I see, at best, hypocrites and, at worst, bullies.

I guess I start to feel a little uncomfortable when someone says, "this entire nation is like ______." I wonder who you talked to, y'know? The Chinese church I attended in Hawaii managed to be about 1/3 from Taiwan, 1/3 from the Mainland, and 1/3 from Hong Kong without bullying or hypocrisy being a big problem.

Perhaps part of the problem is the definition of "Taiwanese". The Guomindang members who fled to Taiwan and oppressed the aborigines, not letting them have any vote until 1996 don't seem to be any better than the Communists, in my book.
Then there's the issue of all the treasures those people took with them when they fled. If Taiwan is part of China, why shouldn't those treasures be returned to their proper location? If Taiwan isn't part of China, why are they illegally holding on to China's historical treasures? The typical Taiwanese citizen's answer to a question like that usually reveals hypocrisy and bullying, as well.
It angers me when Chen Shuibian stirs up the Independence issue just to get a rise from Mainland China in order to booost his popularity. It really bothers me that the lack of contact between the Mainland and Taiwan is due to Taiwan restricting the contact. If Taiwan is so free and the Mainland so oppressive, why doesn't Taiwan allow people to fly dirctly to Fuzhou?
As to Taiwan being a part of Mainland China, well, yeah, Taiwan has a history of being separate and largely ignored by the mainland government. Furthermore, how can the PRC claim something is their territory if they cannot collect taxes or write binding laws for the territory? I think one of the dumbest things the US has ever done was to sign the agreement recognizing "One China", especially since we have broken that agreement in spirit over and over and over.
I recognize that the younger generation of Taiwan considers themselves Taiwanese first, and Chinese only ethnically, not as a citizenship issue, and I absolutely agree that the PRC should not reunify by force.

...by the way, I've met Zhang Xueliang. He's held my son in his lap. And one of my favorite teachers was the eldest daughter of Admiral Zhang who organized the KMT flight to Taiwan. I have many friends on both sides, most of them have no problems getting along with each other. I think I favor the Mainland people a little more because I've stayed there so much and because I actually have family there. But I do see both sides to the issue.

I guess my frustration stems from meeting people who are otherwise thoughtful, friendly, and (in the case of the postdoc I'm working with) hyperintelligent, who nonetheless parrot China's official line regarding Taiwan. Outside the lab, my extended interactions with the Chinese are limited to politically apathetic classmates and, memorably, a buffet with Chinese embassy officials.

On a side note: I can't match meeting Zhang Xueliang in a personal setting. The closest would be getting to see Wang Dan twice. Then again, Wang Dan has himself said that Taiwanese expats are always more interested in him than his fellow Chinese.

My name-dropping of Zhang Xueliang isn't any attempt to trump your opinion...I just thought it was pretty cool and figured there'd be a fair chance you'd recognize the name.

In some ways, I think this is a persepectual thing: chance and the very human tendency to generalize on the basis of few clues leave indelible perceptions that tend to be reinforced by what we believe to be true. And that probably applies more to me than to you.

I don't know. I wish I could introduce you to the Mainlanders I know. On the other hand, outside of church and teachers, I haven't really liked any of the Taiwanese people I've met....but my favorite teachers were all from Taiwan. What does that say about me?

...and I've only met one person from Taiwan who wasn't highly educated. That girl was so ignorant, even though she was now an American citizen, and a teacher we both knew was an American citizen, she hated him simply because he was from the Mainland. What kind of sense does that make?

I do love Taiwanese singers, tho. Like Liu Ruoying, Zhang Yu, Wu Bai, Qi Yu, Qi Qin, Liang Yongqi, Wan Fang. From mainland about all I like are Na Ying and Chen Ming.

Maybe I'm putting to much of an emphasis on the differences between Mainland and Taiwan? [Shrug] It's quite possible.

Is there any Mandirin Speaking worship near Kent State University?

thanks

Jing,
I don't know. I've never lived in that part of the country.
I'll see what I can find out for you.