My Seattle Sermon about China from 08/30/09

God’s Transformative Work

Rev. Debbie Blane

Woodland Park Presbyterian Church

August 30, 2009

Song of Solomon 2:8-13

Psalm 45:1-2, 6-9

James 1:17-27

In the Book of James we hear today:

“Every good gift and every perfect present comes from heaven; it comes down from God, the Creator of the heavenly lights, who does not change or cause darkness by turning. By his own will he brought us into being through the word of truth, so that we should have first place among all his creatures.”

In the Songbook of the Bible, the Psalm we heard today tells us that the kingdom of God is ruled with justice and we are to love what is right and hate what is evil.

And in the Song of Songs, the love book of the Bible, we encounter the language of love between a man and a woman. We “hear” that love is to be beautiful, caring, and life changing.

It is God’s work to transform us into the things that our Scriptures speak to us of today; good gifts, perfect presents, loving what is right and hating what is evil, beautiful, caring and living changed lives. Martin Luther, the patriarch of the Reformation that created Protestantism, disliked the Book of James. He believed that this book advocated a theology of works. He believed that the book told us we had to earn our salvation. I believe that this book tells us about the work that God will do in us, not the work that we will do. And I believe that the portion of the Psalm today and the portion of the Song of Songs, the Song of Solomon, shares with us some of the beauty that has been experienced by people who have known God and have been changed by God’s transforming work.

Many of you know that I have returned this summer from two years of teaching English in China. And some of you may know that in another month or so I will be leaving to teach Theology at the Nile Theological College in Khartoum, Sudan.

In the sermon this morning I will be sharing with you one of my experiences of China. I need to state clearly that this is MY experience of China, other people have had different experiences and would share different things with you. This is known as a caveat: I take responsibility for what I am sharing with you, this is my perspective and may not be shared by other people.

I have framed that sharing by talking of God’s transforming work in us. This is work that we cannot do; it is the work that is done in us by the Holy Spirit, work that is a gift from God.

I am going to talk about my experiences through the picture of a Chinese friend of mine in Nanjing. I will share with you about the life of my friend who I will call M. M is our picture, our snapshot, framed in the Scriptures you have heard this morning. I will speak to you of my friend M as I experience her through the frame of God’s transforming work in us.

My good friend M is a twenty-something woman. She is beautiful, talented and blessed with an amazing ability to understand herself and others. She is a Christian. And she is trapped. She is trapped in a job that does not use her many talents and gifts. Because of the economic system in China she is trapped living with a father who takes advantage of her and blocks her every attempt to change her situation in order to be able to grow into the woman who God created her to be.

M. Is fluent in Chinese, French and English. She has the equivalent of an AA degree in Environmental Sciences. Her dream is to become a psychologist. M does not make enough money in her dead-end job to move out on her own, thus she lives with her father. There are no shelters in China. There is no place for a verbally, spiritually, mentally or physically abused woman to flee. There is no place of transition where a woman can stay for long enough to get her life on track and moving in a new direction.

In China College is paid for by either savings of the family, or by loans from family or friends. M’s father refuses to help her financially in order for her to be able to return to school to earn a Bachelor’s degree. A Bachelor’s degree would give her a much better chance of being able to leave China in order to earn a Master’s degree in her field of dreams. Psychology appears to be an undeveloped field at this point in China’s history.

M has made some very deliberate decisions in her life. She has chosen not to marry a Chinese man because she knows that in doing so she would be further, and irrevocably, backed into the corner in which she finds herself. She is intelligent and it is unlikely that she will find any husband, Chinese or foreigner, in China who will appreciate her intelligence.

I had female students in China who knew that they would have to choose between a Ph.D. and marriage because men in China do not want to marry highly educated women. I heard of only one case in which a married woman went back to school after having her one child and earned a doctorate. She had a husband who supported her financially and emotionally and who was very proud of her. This is very much an exception to the rule.

In spite of how difficult M’s situation is in China she is even more fearful of the idea of leaving China. She believes that she has no way to earn an income outside of China, despite her fluency in three languages. M grew up being told that she was ugly and dumb. She told me that this is the Chinese way.

My students told me that they were never encouraged to think about, talk about, or develop their gifts and interests. What they were good at had nothing to do with the ability to pass the tests that would decide if they would or would not receive education. Education was critical because it made the difference between doing hard labor for a living, or not.

I don’t mean to paint a totally bleak picture of China. Many of my students, and certainly my friend M, were wonderful, loving, and talented young people. I did discover though that China is not a land of opportunity. The gap between the rich and the poor continues to grow and I was told that someday it might lead to social unrest. The government is trying to shrink that gap but is not succeeding. I realized that my students, as M, had very limited opportunities and futures. By the end of my time I had discerned that China is a land of dead ends and I could no longer tolerate encouraging my students and seeing so much potential and intelligence in many of them knowing that there was absolutely no hope for them to live into their potential.

At the same time I could literally feel the lack of faith in anything beyond the Communist party and the capitalist system that is now exploding in China. China is a country that is a combination of capitalism and authoritarianism. The Communist party rules with an iron glove and anything or anyone that threatens its power and privilege is subject to re-education in labor camps (two elderly women who appealed the decision to remove their homes for the Beijing Olympics) to disappearance, jail or death. Parents who demanded an investigation into the substandard school buildings that collapsed last year in the huge Sichuan Province earthquake were silenced.

Looking back at my time in China I think that I can feel/hear/experience Jesus’ tears for Jerusalem and know that those tears are also for China. Just as with Palestine, China is, in many ways, an open-air prison for many people. Surely this is not what God intended for God’s creation.

M. was baptized while I was in Nanjing. She “gets” Jesus, which is an exciting thing! Sometimes I got confused between what was my North American perspective and what is the Bible speaking to us? But what I told M, and what I will tell all of you today, is this:

When we become Christians then God begins to do a work in us. While God is already at work everywhere in the world and with everyone, for Christians the work of the Holy Spirit is something that we cooperate with as we slowly begin to let go of the tight, tight control of our own lives. The technical term for this process is sanctification.

Every good gift and perfect present comes from heaven. WE are the good gifts and perfect presents! As God shapes us into Christ’s image, we become the bride and bridegroom in the Song of Songs. As we come to see ourselves through God’s eyes we become the beautiful and beloved of the Psalm.

God’s love helps us to see our worth and also what we have to offer in the world. As we are loved we become beautiful. This is a beauty that nothing can take away – not old age and not death. Not concentration camps and not communism. Not abusive, narrow and limited parents.

I pray for the beauty of China. I pray for the beauty of my friend M. There were Buddhists and Muslims in China. They too were beautiful, along with the Christians. How God works in religion is a mystery, but I did see with my own two eyes that those who had something beyond themselves to believe in had something that everyone else did not. Those who had faith had morality. They were not out only for themselves; they cared about the welfare of others as well as for their own.

My particular concern was for my friend M. My prayer is that M. will come to know the love of God so thoroughly within herself that God’s love will wipe away the sin of other people that has hurt her so deeply. I pray that God’s love will wipe away the sin of other people that has robbed her of her knowledge of herself as blessed, important, a beloved daughter of God and sister of Christ.

M is not the only Chinese woman who desperately needs God’s transforming work in her life. And friends, it isn’t just the women. The men are robbed of their personhoods too.

Our frame is God’s transforming work. Our picture is M, or every man and every woman. We can’t do the work. God’s love for us is not based on what we do or how we do it. God’s love for us is expressed through what God does for us. Redemption is an answer for the cry for help!

While all people and all countries need God’s presence, light, good gifts and perfect presents – I am especially aware now in my own life of the need that China has for God. How much does each of in this room today also have that need for God’s love?

All of creation is need of God’s redemptive love. ALL of creation is in need of God’s transforming work. Thank God that love IS work based. God’s work means that we are not left to our own devices!

Alleluia!

Amen!

August 29, 2009

What follows is the response to a request that was made to me to share about my time in China.

China is a vast land, according to the National Geographic Magazine; it is geographically nearly the size of the continental United States. Just as the US has different cultures and ethnic groups, so too does China. There is the majority ethnic group called the Han, and then many minority groups many of whom are followers of the Buddhist or Muslim faiths.

As China moves rapidly into modernity some of her traditions and customs have been kept – and at the same time, much of the underpinnings of what made China China have been lost or swept away. I had students tell me that someday traditions would be found again because a country and a people cannot survive without their roots.

Many of my students were kind and intelligent. Many of them had the desire to help their foreign teachers adapt to their country and many of them had a deep longing to learn. In contrast, I had students who did not want to learn and who did not want to be in the English Program at the university where I taught.

I taught at a Pharmaceutical University. Most of the English Majors had desired to be in the Pharmaceutical Program but when their grades were not high enough they were put into the English Major Program. This affected the motivational levels of many of the students. Some students realized how lucky they were to be in college because in a country of 1.3 billion people, China does not have the ability to provide a university education for each person that desires one. Students told me that if they were not in college their choice for work would have been hard labor such as farming.

My favorite way to spend time in China, besides reading, was to have students over to my apartment. I lived an hour away from their campus by school bus and two hours by public bus so it took some sacrifice for them to get to me. I did not live where I taught. Some students wanted to spend time talking. Some wanted to go shopping with me. I would often take the student(s) out to lunch. When I had meals with my students I reflected on how different Chinese and American meals are. In China there are common dishes and in America we typically have our own individual plates and do not share with one another.

I took three Chinese friends with me to Shanghai the weekend that I flew home this June. We had dinner together at a Japanese restaurant (I thought that was quite an irony!). The three of them had a meal that they were able to share and I ordered myself a self-contained dish that sat alone on my plate.

I realized that this is how China is to me. I was able to get close but not to merge. I was able to observe but not necessarily to understand. I valued but did not adopt. For me the cultural differences remained unbridgeable, and yet there was room for love and respect. Perhaps in the end the greatest bridge of all IS love.

further ponderings

There are times when people just need to die. With death will come their healing. Sometimes in life people just continue to be in hell and to inflict pain on other people from their own personal hell -- they make it communal hell. They inflict pain and trauma on those around them.

China has gone from feudalism to communism. The common denominator is authoritarianism. Christian love, hope, and faith fly in the face of Chinese culture. Chinese culture understands duty and not love. China is structured hierarchically and the government controls the church. Seeing that there is even a birth control policy one might think that the government controls all of life.

Guanxi means "who one knows." It is the intricate system of relationships that exist in the Chinese manner of negotiating life. Guanxi controls a person's life. If someone knows someone, then that someone will get a position even if there are better qualified people applying for it. The Imperial system has a new name and a new court, but it is alive and well in China.

Catching up and Finishing Up

In the next day or so I will be finishing up my Chinese blog and moving on to a Sudanese blog. Stay tuned! :)

March 14, 2009

Sometimes there is a deep nostalgia, even just a momentary one, for the life that one has left behind to come to China, or anywhere that isn't home. I had one of those just now. I was looking at an on-line catalog, a familiar thing for me to do, and suddenly I was remembering Trader Joe at home in Issaquah, Washington. I was remembering spring and newly warm sunny days and taking my car on a carefully planned out shopping trip to Costco/PCC/TJ. I was remembering all of the things that I can't get here in China -- but not only that, just the familiar. I was remembering the familiar. It has been almost two years since I have pumped gas into a car. I do still have a driver's license though.

March 6, 2009

Today I learned in a very real sense a very real difference between Western and Chinese culture. In the classroom I was utterly freezing, my feet hurt they were so cold. At one point I moved to the back of the room to look out the window and I found (drum roll) THAT THE WINDOWS WERE OPEN!!!!! I got them closed and closed the drapes so that no one could see they'd been closed. And then I was even colder at the thought of how cold the open windows had made the room! The hour and a half bus ride back from the branch campus to the main campus where I live was not heated. I was miserable.

It appears to me after reading in the English edition of the China Daily and CNN.com on the internet that China and the US also have opposite issues in terms of our economies. The Chinese need to learn to spend money while in the US we need to learn to save money.

We discussed the Global Economic Crisis today in my classes. I was told about a school cafeteria which could no longer afford to employ all its workers. The older ones were let go at maybe 50 years of age with three months severance pay -- and no pension. Retirement age for women in China is 55 and for men is 60. The student told me that China's social welfare system is not a good one. I did not disagree.

By the way -- in continuance of the entry where I talked about the open windows of the Philippines, something else I learned there was the concept of courtyards being used to circulate the air in buildings. I think this may also have to do with the utility of the hutong in China. The hutong is a family home, or a set of rooms that are built around a courtyard. The courtyard would provide shade and if it is in a building it would serve that function of circulating air. When I visited Beijing last summer I saw some of the remaining hutongs and noticed this architectural practicality, beauty with function. In the Philippines the Silliman University has a courtyard on the bottom floor of the library. It is no longer being used because the building is now air conditioned to preserve the books. Courtyards are not as effective as preservation perhaps as air conditioning in specific forums.

Open Windows -- March 5, 2009

An equalizer of wealth and position that I saw in the Philippines were the windows. Most of the buildings had windows that were constructed in order to allow air flow -- thus taking the place of artificial air conditioning. My friends told me that while air conditioning is not necessarily a threat to the environment, its use is an issue of consumption. Who can afford it? The well to do. By using natural breezes as a cooling mechanism, the ground is leveled. A drawback to air conditioning is that there are frequent brown outs on the islands and when one is without electricity the air conditioning doesn't work, and a person is stuck in a closed room or building with no way to ventilate.

Why is it that the West, and white people, have "conquered" the world? The Chinese, for instance, have a rich history of technology and Egypt, I believe, invented the first forms of writing. Why then Western civilization?

Christianity began in the Middle East, in the heart of the world. And yet with Constantine it became the Christian Empire of the West. Nazareth -- Bethlehem -- Galilee -- Jerusalem, became the margins and not the center. Rome acquired and required Christianity and Romanized her. The lens of the West became the normal perception -- the normative lens through which everything else was evaluated.

This perception spread with colonization. A white Jesus can be found in every culture in which I have been.

I find it fascinating that even as Christianity is diminishing now in the West it is growing in the very places that were colonized. Latin America, Africa and Asia -- and there is a growing movement to strip away white man's religion and make it indigenous. There is such a power struggle with the ancient institutionalized white church wanting to control and the new centers of Christianity growing/coming into their own.

I would say at this moment that religion and language are two major tools of colonization and oppression. Language becomes split in two -- the native language which is often forbidden and the colonizing language which is often the language of the elite -- and that of access.

Access to education -- which takes money. So those who use the native, marketplace language may not have access to that which would open doors and change lives.

The tools of oppression are also the tools for change. A double edged sword.

This and That....March 4, 2009

This week is the second week of teaching for the second semester of the academic year at the university where I teach. Some student reactions to the global economic crisis:
1. We don't think it is here in China. We all still have the same amount of pocket money to spend. I suggested this may be because their parent's have stable jobs.
2. Parents are beginning to have to make difficult decisions. If a child cannot find a job after investing in a four year college degree then that investment will not pay off. Should the parent continue to fund college or should the student leave school and go to work?
3. One student suggested that President Obama should control prices in the United States. I explained that he does not have the power to do that, it would have to be accomplished through Congress.

I've been to my Chinese dentist the past two weeks for work on a root canal and crown. I have noticed that his tools look like miniature power tools. I commented to him as such and wondered if people who go into dentistry like working with power tools. He looked at me and said, "Teaching is a little boring?" My dentist in China, by the way, bicycles to work!

In my classes these two weeks the subject of brothers and sisters has come up. I have asked students who talk about brothers and sisters how can this be with the one child policy in place? One female student said that her parent's had four daughters. They were trying for a son but after four girls they could not afford to continue trying -- I assume they had to pay fines for three of the girls. One female student has an older brother. It turns out that she is a Muslim from an ethnic minority and the government allows her minority to have more than one child so that the minority does not disappear. It is highly unusual for a girl to have an older brother, it is almost always the case that the girls have younger brothers or sisters. If a couple has a boy they will stop with that one child. If they have a girl they may try again. This is why the girl with an older brother was particularly significant to me. I also had one female student talk about her little brothers and sisters; it turned out that they are nieces and nephews, she has two uncles and two aunts and each of them has a child.

Sunday I went to another area of Nanjing to visit another Amity teacher, a friend who I enjoy spending time with. Her apartment is much newer than mine, and it was warm. We walked around the campus, eating at a restaurant where the people who worked were very kind. We shopped for me for hair clips and barrettes and stopped at a table outside where a young woman was selling earrings and other jewelry. I ended up buying some things from her because I was pretty sure if I didn't she wouldn't have much to eat that night. Sometimes it is so difficult when I see college age people living hand to mouth and working in the cold in the winter, and the hot in the summer. So many people live without hope for a different tomorrow here. I saw this also in the Philippines. I have wondered lately where the mentally ill or handicapped people are here in China. I read on-line today that under Mao they were considered useless. Now they are being given more respect. The article told of a father who had opened a restaurant in order to expand the world for his son who has cerebral palsy. I wish that there were such opportunities for more of the young people.

My students have talked of moving on to graduate school after their BA in order to avoid for the short term the difficulty of finding employment. They said though that what will happen to those with a BA is that they will be competing with those people who have Master's degrees and it will make it even more difficult for the ones with only a BA.

Heidi took me to a hair salon where I had my nails painted. The nail artist spent at least an hour carefully painting a garden on each of my nails. It cost under $4.00 US for this art. Another friend had her duffle bag repaired here in China and paid 3 yuen, less than 50 cents. My tailor, who has specialized training and skills, is paid so little that he and his family live in the tiny shop where he and his wife sew on their machines. I don't know what in China is given the respect for labor which I believe it should be, but it is clear to me that labor of the hands in art does not.

Something else which comes to mind this evening is both a conversation I recently had here in Nanjing with an American friend, and also information which related to the conversation which I have heard several times. I had hoped to be able to level the playing field in my classes for the students whose families could not afford a high quality pre-university education for their children. I have realized that this may not be a realistic goal. What I am discovering is that some of my students have actually attended English language school previous to this university and have English abilities on the high end in terms of comprehension, speaking and vocabulary. What seems to happen in China is that the students who are deemed the best continue to have doors opened for them. So it is quite possible that the students whose parents can afford private schools are also the students who will receive the scholarships to go overseas for further education, leaving the other students with no windows and no doors to walk through. I am praying that scholarships and other opportunities here in China, and at this university in particular, will become need based and not merit based in order to open the world up to more people.

After flying to several destinations in Asia I do ponder the question: are the Chinese the only Asians who yell out loud with each other over assigned seats?

February 24, 2009

It's been a while since I have written. Since I have blogged I have managed to get two boxes of Chinese cultural items shipping off to the states -- I hope they make it back. The last time I mailed boxes from Nanning, in Southern China, to Nanjing, a beautiful shawl was missing from one of the packages. It is a frustrating thought that I may not have everything stateside that I sent.

Yesterday I began teaching again. Two of the three classes were those of students I have taught before -- and I was quite happy to see them again. The third class are sophomores who I have not taught over the last three quarters, it is a bit strange to be starting with a new group of students now that I am near the end of my time here.

The classrooms are of course not heated and are so spartan as not to even have a hook for the teacher's coat. I have to lay it on the desks in the front row of the class.

I went in to the lessons for the first day back to classes (8:00 a.m. class -- the very first one after winter break!) with only a loose idea of what we would accomplish. I knew that my students would not have spoken English during the break and would need time to connect brain and tongue again and being to form a foreign language in words and sentences. They all did admirably well in their endeavors....I am concerned about what will happen over the summer because during their junior and senior years they do not have Oral English. I have suggested that they tutor their families and friends in English to keep their skills fresh. This was not met with much enthusiasm.

Our discussions ranged from questions about how long it took to get home and how they got home -- most went by train, a few by bus and at least one by plane; to who was the first person they saw when they got to the train or bus station or to their home. We also discussed if they were warm at home. One student asked for clarification about did this mean was it warm outside at home or were they warm in their houses/apartments. This led further to the realization that if a climate is fairly warm during the winter and t-shirts can be worn outside there is unlikely to be any kind of heating inside and a person can end up needing to wear a coat in the home. On the other hand, if the climate is fiercely chilling then the homes are likely to have good central heating and while wearing coats outside, one can wear a t-shirt inside.

In one of the classes I was asked during the first hour so many questions about my trip to the Philippines and Japan that the second hour I canned the plan to have the students write and share how they celebrated Spring Festival (Chinese Lunar New Year) and instead I sat down with them and we had a question and answer period. I had been having the students write their experiences with SF because I've decided that instead of buying books about Chinese poetry and stories, I will collect those things from my students. They tell the stories in particular beautifully.

There were many good and persceptive questions asked. The one in particular that I am going to present here as a topic of: on the one hand (otoh) -- on the other hand (otoh)....is this: Is a lack of courtesy in a culture due to a lack of religions values or due to a lack of development, i.e. if a country is a third world developing country are the people less likely to be courteous and respectful to one another and foreigners.

Japan is a developed first world country and my experience there was that people were very respectful and polite. But Japan is not only developed it also has a religous heritage of Buddhism and to a degree of Christianity AND the code of ethics that is inherent in the Confucian tradition.

The Philippines is a third world developing country and I found people there to be polite as well, for the most part. The Philippines has a very large majority of Roman Catholics, a smaller minority of Christians, and relatively few people who do not observe a religion.

China is a third world (?) developing country and in my observation has a gaping hole when it comes to spiritual values which include those of respect and humility. I will continue myself to contemplate these observations and as I continue to visit/live in other parts of the world I will have a growing base of knowledge in evaluating this. Is it development or is it religion? Is it have increased contact with other cultures (development) and industrialization or is it having a belief that something outside of oneself has value and deserves courtesy and care?

I hope that for those who may read this blog that these questions will be useful in your own formulations of what is what and who is who.

February 14, 2009

Preferential Treatment and Preferential Option for the Poor:

These two very different ways of being in the world; of different worldviews; of different pairs of lenses through which to see the world have become more real to me this week here in China. This is not only because of my being in China, it also has to do with my travel in other parts of the world. This includes my very recent trips to both Japan and the Philippines.

I am reminded of the book Church in the Round by Letty Russell. I read this book for a seminary class at Fuller Theological Seminary. This was for Systematic Theology Three -- The Holy Spirit, and was thus focused on the church. We had a Baptist teacher who was most certainly something of a feminist. She helped to open our eyes to many things. In the book Letty Russell spoke of herself as a white, middle class, well educated woman and said that even while she desired to be a part of the solution to poverty and to be a part of God's preferential option for the poor, even so she knew that she was benefitting from the labor of the poor. This last week that concept has become more real to me as I have seen how I am a person who benefits from preferential treatment of someone from the United States; of someone with a good education; of someone who is white and a speaker of English. I benefit because I come from a country who has colonized other countries.

In Japan the very first thing that struck me was that the taxi drivers (yes, someone poor could not afford a taxi) drove on the "wrong" side of the road. They drove on "the other side of the road", they drove, for goodness sake!, on the British side of the road! I thought Japan was a closer friend of the United States than of Britain, so when did this error come in to practice!!!???? Japan is an interesting country. "She" was soundly defeated in World War II and yet has been both a colonizer herself (China will NEVER forget this it seems) and also is most definitely a First World Country.

I stayed in a guest room in a guest compound for a church in Tokyo. The interesting thing to me about this compound was that it is now in a neighborhood of great wealth. It is surrounded by a famous block that has designer clothing and designer chocolate! Originally however it was a modest neighborhood. This was for me a first hand illustration of how neighborhoods can change right around the churches that were originally built to serve them. What then becomes the new mission field for the church? Well, I digress....

I was so thankful for a very effective wall mounted heater in my room at the guest house. The heaters South of the Yangtze in China are not effective. This may be a matter of supply as much as of economics. I was told however that there are indeed places in Tokyo where people cannot afford adequate heating, though I did not see those places first hand. I did, however, visit the Asian Research Institute (ARI) in the countryside outside of Tokyo and there I saw conditions a bit more in line with the poverty I see in China and saw in the Philippines. The ARI is a working/teaching organic farm where people from different vocations in life go to learn about/experience and do organic farming. The key to this particular educational program, in my opinion, is that what they are really farming is the knowledge of how to work with and communicate with people of other cultures. It is an international community in a living farm setting.

In the Philippines I learned about English as a tool for oppression. Just as European colonizers forced the English language upon the native population of North America in what is now the United States -- so too did first Spain force Spanish upon the Filipinos, and later America forced English upon them. They were not allowed to speak or to learn in their own language. The Filipinos now do speak in Filipino and I found it to be a lovely, lyrical language. Most of the Filipinos with whom I had contact also spoke English. But I gained an awareness of what I call the Language of the Elite. In China this would for centuries have been Mandarin. There were the dialects that the peasants spoke, but the written and spoken language of the courts, of the elite, was Mandarin. In ancient times in Greece, the marketplace language was Koine Greek, but the Language of the Elite was Attic Greek. And today in many countries the Lanaguage of the Elite is English. This means that if someone does not have the means to receive an education a huge part of the life of their country is beyond their reach. This is some of what is meant by Preferential Treatment and Preferential Option for the Poor. How can one's own language become a barrier to quality of life in one's own country?

On the plane trip from Manila to Nanjing via Hong Kong I read a newspaper article which said that Spanish is going to be re-introduced to the schools in the Philippines, but only available for those students who have already mastered English. It is being re-introduced because of the importance of having as many languages as possible in the world of today -- multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-, multi-....

I was introduced to Metro in Nanjing this week. It is like a Chinese Costso. I admit it was wonderful. My enthusiasm was dampened a bit when I realized that my card was free but Chinese have to pay for theirs. However what this did was give me an opportunity to reflect on Preferential Treatment and what it means to be a person of privilege, apparently whether I want to be or not.

1. I have more options for medical treatment in China than do most Chinese. Most of them must wait in a crowded waiting room to see the doctor for a minute or two, usually with at least one other person present in the room -- because doctors work at least two to a room. I have done this, next week I will be using my privilege to go to a Western style clinic here in Nanjing because I have medical insurance that will cover this except for a $15. co-pay. That will be expensive with my Chinese yuen salary, but I have things to take care of that cannot be done in a Chinese clinic. Like immunizations and vaccinations for Sudan.

2. At checkpoints between Israel and Palestine and within Palestine itself because I was an American I was often waved through. This was so totally humiliating considering the harrassment that many of my Palestine brothers and sisters endured in getting through -- or NOT getting through those checkpoints. But America is a friend of Israel, is she not?

3. And on and on.

My prayer is that I become more aware of these issues and not less aware. I desire to learn more about language as a tool of oppression and I suspect that this may indeed be some of what I will learn about in Sudan when I relocate there next fall. The British were the colonizers in Sudan. It amazes me that even though the British and the Americans took advantage of the natural resources of China, it is the Japanese and the Rape of Nanjing that is remembered so vividly in the collective memory of China.

The world is my school and I intend to learn from my classroom and my students. My prayer is that I am able to give back as much or more than I learn.

February 12, 2009

One of the things I remember most vividly from Japan was a scene during an extremely busy rush hour after work (in the evening) on the subway. The crowd in the subway was literally a crush. I had to move my backpack from back to front to create more room for others and could barely move. Then the door on the other side from me opened. I could hardly believe what ensued. The Japanese carefully and efficiently moved as one unit, as if in a ballet. They moved towards and out of the door as one person, no one screaming, no one being hurt, they just moved together. They moved with grace as one.

I did not use a subway in the Philippines. What struck me there was the riot of color everywhere. On the people, in nature, in the food. The people were mostly polite, to the point where I began to wonder if it was courtesty or a remnant of colonialization. Some of the young ones were rude, but I think that had to do with their frustration at being in poverty. One kid gave me the finger when I wouldn't turn over my newly purchased slice of pineapple to him. I got so sick of being called ma'am. It felt like either I was being patronized or I was patronizing.

February 11, 2009

More of what I learned in the Philippines had to do with the issues of human trafficking and the lack of choices/options that women have in hierarchical situations in the midst of poverty. There were many older white males who were in the company of young Filipino women in Dumaguete. I was told that many of them are European pensioners who have made deals with the families of the young women. The families benefit financially and the men benefit in the ways that men benefit from such arrangements. A woman cannot benefit equally because she is not equal in power, voice, or say. If the girls/women are of legal age the men may marry them.

I was taken to a resort on the sea one of the days I was with my friends in Dumaguete. It was an uncomfortable visit with me as it was clear that it was an exclusive and elite resort -- certainly one that the majority of Filipinos could not afford to enter and spend time at. There were white people being waited on by young Filipino women. I tired quickly at the resort, and in the totality of my stay in the Philippines, of being called ma'am. I began to wonder if it was an address of respect or submission. I wanted to say: "Don't call me that! We are equals!" but I knew that it was part of the culture and I did not want to be disrespectful of that.

I learned at the resort from a mutal friend of the friend who I was staying with that the approach to economic growth in the Philippines currently consists of people being encouraged to leave the country and send money home. I noted in a newspaper article flying back to Nanjing via Hong Kong that the current Filipino President was recently in a Middle Eastern country promoting the use of Filipinos as salespeople. This reminds me of the situation on the US/Mexican border. However with the current US economic crisis I think that many people are having to make hard decisions on whether or not to return to Mexico -- if they can't have a job in the US or Mexico, at least they can be with their families in Mexico.

I continue to contemplate my journey to Japan and the Philippines and I continue to learn more and have more revealed to me through revisitng what was said and what I saw.

Continuing to Process: February 10, 2009

One of the things that I talked with my Filipino friends at length about was the colonization of the Philippines by first the Spanish and then the Americans and Japanese. This was a contrast to Japan because Japan was the aggressor in its history -- occupying China, Korea and also the Philippines.

In my travels to Korea and the Philippines I could see the evidence of American influence in many ways. Korea is very clean and modern. The parts I saw of the country could have been right out of the states.

In the Philippines the influence is different. Filipinos are now speaking their own language, which is a mixture of other languages, and I found it to be very lyrical and pleasant to the ear. English is the language of oppression. Just as European colonists forced the natives of America to speak English and leave behind their Indian languages and dialects, so too did America force the Filipinos to learn English and not their own language. This was one way that the Philippines was molded as a colony of the United States. I had not realized the power of language so clearly until I spent time with my friends in the university town of Dumaguete on an island in the Philippines. It is of course pleasant for me, as a native English speaker, to have other people groups speak English. But I am learning slowly to look at history and geography. What countries would naturally have English as a first language, and what countries have English as a language at all because of colonization? This was a shock to me when I learned that English is the official language of India. Why? I asked. I was told that it was because Great Britain had colonized India. Of course, this makes sense.

I learned more on this trip to Japan and the Philippines about the consequences of colonization. The Republic of the Philippines is experiencing a "brain drain" where people are being encouraged to leave the islands as an answer to the economic crisis that the Republic is facing. I read an article that talked about a visit that the current President paid to a Middle East country. She suggested that this country needed more Filipino salesclerks. In discussions during the time I was in Dumaguete I was told that this is what is being touted as the solution to the crisis -- instead of developing industry and infrastructure within the Philippines, people are being encouraged to immigrate to other countries.

This brings me to a connection which I would like to make with another continent. The continent of Africa has been discussed at length in a book that I recently read, The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs. The colonization of Africa by Great Britain, France, Portugal, the United States and other countries has decimated Africa as a continent leaving her dependent and lacking initiative to create a vision for improving the standard of living, health, education, etc., for the people of Africa. This connects with yet another book that I read titled Tomorrow will be better, written by a woman from Eastern Europe who discussed the concept and reality of occupation in vivid terms. She said that an occupying country seeks the natural resources of the occupied country, seizing those resources and taking them to the occupying country. The raw materials are turned into useable products and then returned to the occupied country to be purchased by the people whose lands were seized and raped by the occupiers. In the case of this woman her country was occupied again and again by different countries after World War II. She watched as resources were marched in and out of the country.

Much of what the above information boils down to is that dependency is created by the occupying power: In the Sudan, for instance, this would have been Great Britain; in the Philippines it is America; in the country in Eastern Europe it would have been Germany or Russia. The occupying power creates this dependency in order to maintain control over the occupants of the resource rich country that is being occupied.

In the Philippines the consequences of this dependency, even when occupation has ended, are felt in terms of a lack of opportunity for education, a lack of dental and health care, a lack of hope for any kind of a future -- whether a personal future or a future for the country.

In the case of Africa the book The End of Poverty discussed the fact that the way to help the continent of Africa regain what was lost before occupations by varying countries would be to pump enough money into the infrastructures (or creating infrastructures) to bring Africa up to a level where it is realistic for self-sustainance to become a lived reality.

Africa and the Philippines are both third world countries/continents. One of the many things that I learned in Dumaguete is that there are indeed levels of development. I struggle with understanding what is meant by "access to clean water." Japan has water that can be consumed from the tap. China does not. The Philippines does not. Africa presumably does not. But the water can be consumed either by boiling or by purchasing purified water. So I imagine that when a country's lack of development is specified in terms of a lack of access to clean water perhaps what is being conveyed is that there is not even sufficient fuel to boil water in order to render it safe to consume.

Clearly there are countries that are more developed than others in terms of access to education, health care, a voice at the international table, etc. I was told that there is a check list that gives a measure for what country is at what degree of development. So, even though Africa and the Philippines are both considered third world/developing countries and continents, clearly the Philippines is more developed in some ways.

Quick Note So I Don't Forget....

China time: February 9, 2009.

In Japan one of the issues that is faced is that of the status of immigrants, even, for instance, Koreans whose families have been in Japan for several generations. They are not allowed to become citizens and therefore do not have the rights of citizens.

In the Philippines people CAN become citizens, but to hold public office a person must be born in the Philippines.

Corruption in the Philippines is rampant. On the plane back to Hong Kong from Manila I read an article on a paper that implicated even the First Gentleman in corruption -- it reaches to the very top.

Just Beginning to Reflect on Japan and the Philippines

I am writing for the first time in a while on February 8, 2009 -- China time. What an incredible adventure, cultural submersion, time of connecting with friends on a deeper level, spiritual experience, etc., this past two weeks has been.

I will be processing things over time, it isn't going to happen all in this one blog. The journey began in Tokyo. I missed the women's conference that I was planning to attend because I had been so engrossed in President Barack Obama's inaugeration stateside that I forgot to turn my inner clocks back to China time and I missed my plane -- literally. Fortunately I missed only the week-end and was able to get into Tokyo on Sunday the 25th of January.

Tokyo was a culture shock. Everything was orderly. I had no problem claiming my baggage, getting a ticket on an airport shuttle and reaching my destination of the ANA Continental Hotel. From there a Japanese man helped me flag a taxi. The next shock was the taxi and the traffic. The taxi had a Global Positioning System. The driver was able to precisely locate where I was going and once we arrived he was kind enough to make sure I got to the correct gate -- I kind of felt like his daughter for a few seconds. Traffic was amazing -- people stopped at the red lights and did not create lanes. It was not traumatic -- I knew that I would survive. When I arrived at the guest house and my room for the next few days I was so excited -- it was clean, there was no peeling paint -- the bathroom was a pre-fab unit and was very nicely put together. Not fancy, but clean and inviting. There was a heating unit on the wall and that had me really worried (my heating units in China don't do much heating) -- but this little tiger had the apartment warmed up in no time. It was very cozy -- I even had a little kitchen with burner and frig.

More to come....

January 23, 2009

Well, this is the day that I thought I was supposed to leave for Japan. I got dates mixed up for a variety of reasons. Anyhow, thank goodness there were seats left in the plane on Sunday.

I noticed last night, realizing that I was not where I was supposed to be in the world (although of course I actually was where I was supposed to be, here in Nanjing), that I felt a little lonely and a little homesick. I was aware of not having a community last night and sometimes it is hard not to be able to watch American T.V. even though I'm not much of a T.V. watcher. But for those of you in the United States, think about this: when watching a T.V. show sometimes some kind of sense of community is formed because you know that at the same time other Americans are also watching the same T.V. show at the same time. Just some things I'm learning about being here in a foreign country. There are some run-on sentences in this paragraph that the Apostle Paul would be proud of!

January 20, 2009: Obama Day!! Woohoo!!!!

You may have noticed I was out of touch for a few days -- actually almost two weeks I guess! The Amity Foundation Teachers Winter Conference was held in Gansu Province, far to the North and the West, and I was typing on a Finnish keyboard there. I discovered that I could type efficiently on that board...so I am back now until Friday when I will be off to Japan and the Philippines. I don't know how much internet access I will have there but I am planning (at least as of this very moment in time) to tote my laptop with me.

Today was a highly unusual day in Nanjing. I saw two foreigners! One was a man and then a while later I saw a woman. This almost never happens. I also found a McDonalds within walking distance -- I think it must be brand new. I went in to check out the breakfast menu and I am quite excited -- I can get an American breakfast of pancakes (hotcakes) and coffee --and can probably figure out how to get the hash browns as well. Woohoo!

I do not know how to put pictures on this blog yet, something on my to-do list. In the meantime, I have posted albums of the Gansu journey on Facebook. I am very thankful that we had our conference there as I was able to see another part of this vast and diverse country that is geographically very different from where I am in Nanjing on the East Coast. We were also priviledged to see a small, rural village. I must say that the small villages reminded me of small villages in the West Bank in Palestine. I am suspicious that perhaps small villages in all parts of the world bear a striking resemblance to one another.

I have had students tell me that they are in college because they had no choice. The young people who do not go to college end up with the back breaking work. They came to college so that they could have more options. No choice but to go to college so there would be choices.

I don't have a clue in a hundred million years how people in the villages that we saw would pay for college for the children in the villages. It wasn't so much the grinding poverty that we saw as the bare minimum for life to be sustained. The villagers live out of the land, literally, they are one with the land.

In the first village we were blessed with a traditional performance by wonderful villagers who have honed their craft of acting to a fine art. They were amazing! They performed "Planting Potatoes" for us...well of course, what they know best. They had an orchestra, the actors themselves, and an appreciative audience consisting of the foreigners and the locals.

In the second village we saw the work that Amity is doing with the village in terms of working with solar heating. We also were taken to small compounds that consisted of houses and farm buildings surrounded by earthen containers -- kind of like fences. These people work so hard.

Back in the most developed city in Gansu Province, Lanzhou, we did a church visit. The church has about 5,000 members and at least 200 baptisms a year. They work with projects that care for the elderly, the poor and The Left Behind Children. These children are the children of migrant workers -- both of their parents must leave them to find work elsewhere and they are left in the care of their grandparents. They see their parents perhaps once a year. The church helps to educate them, provides psychological counseling and tries to fill in the gaps of love that the children so desperately need.

This trip to Gansu Province helped to fill in more of the blanks I have in my knowledge of China. I look forward to Japan and the Philippines over the next two weeks or so to help me with the bigger picture of Asia.

January 9, 2009

Today. A mixture of good fellowship, great texts, disturbing news from home via CNN.com.

Had lunch with two friends, good food and good conversation. Got to listen to a loud argument at the grocery store. Got a very sweet text from a Chinese friend telling me she hoped we would have a chance to take more pictures together with our "smelling" faces, obviously meaning "smiling". And then there was gratitude for the UN Resolution on a Cease-Fire in Gaza where I noted that instead of blocking something by veto that for once the US abstained. And then there was frustration at seeing what the US Senate is passing -- totally condemning Hamas and not giving an iota of responsibility to Israel for the carnage that is happening right this very minute in Gaza.

So I have come home and buried myself in travel preparations for the upcoming weeks. I am seasoned enough a traveler now -- thanks be to God! -- that I know I will be able to (eventually) find the hotel in Lanzhou, Gansu on Monday. I do hope I can find the bus station in Nanjing to take the airport shuttle to the Nanjing Airport in time for my flight....and then the frustration of trying to book a flight on-line from Manila, Philippines, to the city where my friend lives that is about an hour and a half away by airplane from Manila. The credit card was rejected, but when I called my bank they said it wasn't them. No phone number on the airline website to contact them about it. Okay, so here I am in China and life is life.

The good part of things is that I am eating miniature Dove bars and am going to go read more in Silent Cry...that book is so deep that I cannot zip through it, which is kind of a blessing in its own way. The point of the book is intentionality and I have to read it intentionally, hmmmmm.

January 8, 2009 -- read with caution.

One of the disadvantages to living alone in a foreign country is not having anyone to go to for comfort when something awful happens. I just read a story about a young woman in Papua New Genuia (not spelled right I know) who was burned alive in a garbage dump today or yesterday. Apparently she was accused of being a witch. The article said that this is a frequent occurance in PNG, when someone dies someone else is targeted as a scapegoat and killed as though responsible for the original death. Okay, this one was pretty hard for me to stomach.

Other than reading that article and keeping up with the situation in Gaza I have spent today slowly going through more things in the apartment, cleaning out and organizing. I have decided to send things home in boxes by category. i.e. everything that I bought in South Korea will go into one box labeled South Korea, etc. Hopefully it will help stateside when I need to figure out what goes where...I am cold still (yes, I am drinking some tea:) and was told yesterday that I need to turn off the air conditioner (doubling as a "heater") sometimes to give it a rest -- it literally freezes on the outside of the building, I can see ice building up on it out there. There are apparently disadvantages to being a homebody. Yesterday I went out with my friend Fei and gave it a break, tomorrow I will be going out again to have coffee with a friend and run other errands, so I will be giving it another break. Hard to believe but already this coming Monday I will be leaving for Gansu and the Amity Winter Conference...

I also spent more time today reading Silent Cry, my Dorothee Sollee book on Mysticism. I was reminded that what she calls attentiveness I call intentionality. Being present to the moment. In some of my conversations with friends, both Chinese and foreign, here in Nanjing I am aware that happiness is often equated with income. Clearly having enough to eat and adequate shelter is highly important to human quality of life. Beyond the basic necessities, in the states some of the kindest people I have known have been those who have little. Perhaps less can contribute to intentionality. Read between the lines.

I am listening to Canon in D Major right now -- soaring with the strings. I have been trying to catch up on my 2006 European pictures as I have the extra time -- getting them labeled, alas I have already forgotten the countries where some of the pictures are from. One of the pictures is an amazing European cathedral -- this music takes me back there. Just as the architecture soars towards the heavens, so this music carries me towards the outer limits of time and space.

First Good-bye, January 7, 2009

Today I said my first good-bye to a friend here in China. Even if I was going to be in China longer this would have happened because this friend is a senior here at my university and will be leaving shortly to return home to Beijing and then will go to Shanghai in the spring for training with her new job.

We "ran errands". I needed a hair trim. The first place we went to was closed -- it literally looked like the business may have closed down. So we started walking. Eventually we found another barber shop and for the first time I had a woman cut my hair here in China. 8 yuen, with the exchange rate at about 6.85 it was just a tad bit over one dollar US. I told Fei, my friend, that in the states the cheapest cut I can find is at least $15. US. I had already washed my hair so it was literally just the cut, but still, what a great deal! It was fascinating to watch this young woman and her scissors. In the states my hair gets piled up on my head and taken down section by section. Not so here! She started taking big sections and instead of going across she slashed the scissors vertically into the pile of hair. Thankfully it looks okay, even though the two sides aren't equal. Oh well. Hair grows. So that's it til I get home in June.

Then we went to the Amity Art Center. Love that place. Everytime I say it is my last time to go there, it isn't. Today I decided to stop saying that. Fei was impressed, she felt that the quality was good and the prices were fair. She is not a Christian and it was really cool watching her eyes light up when she would hear the Bible story connected with the piece of art. It reminded me of how important the visual is to the Word. She found little trees on plaques with the Fruits of the Spirit in Chinese letters to give her parents as gifts. I was thankful for her eyes that saw things I haven't seen and her delight in realizing the connection between the Chinese art and the stories. For example: there are several depictions of the Five Loaves and the Two Fish, or, Jesus Feeding the 5,000. She asked what that was about. When I explained that it was a miracle she asked what that meant. I told her it means that something that does not happen normally happened and she could SEE what I meant -- five loaves of bread and two fish to feed 5,000 people is a miracle.

After all this we went and ate a final meal together. We ate at the restauraunt connected with the university. It is reasonably priced and a nice little place. I finally realized that at my favorite restaurant in town, Behind the Wall, it is Western not only in cuisine but in each person ordering his or her own dish. In Chinese restaurants we always order several "dishes" and they are shared communally. No one gets their own self-sufficient plate. I'm sure that these are two statements about culture. I'll have to be warmer to ponder that one further:)

Muses -- January 6, 2009

Yesterday I spent a wonderful day with an Amity teacher friend. Lots of laughing -- one of my favorite kinds of days! She gave me a book called "A Peace to End All Peace" subtitled, "The Fall of The Ottoman Empire and the Creation of The Modern Middle East". It appears that it will be helpful background information as I begin to prepare to move to Sudan at the end of this coming summer.

I finally got to see the Jasmine Youth Hostel that I have heard so much about! Nice place! Heated, did I say HEATED?, reception area? I had finally given in yesterday and was wearing my silk long john top under my already lined top with my full length down coat. I actually broke out in a sweat in the reception area and had to buy a cold drink to offset the now unfamiliar feeling of being too hot! This will of course change in Sudan next year. I have heard that there December and January are comfortable and then the heat soars to around 110 F.....a new life indeed!

Her room at the hostel was nice and cozy and felt like it was heated too -- although not quite as liberally. Bathroom right next door -- nice touch. I've not been able to figure out the bathrooms that have stalls that only go halfway up the wall -- and then the windows that open to the WHOLE WORLD on one side -- she let me trade sides with her. I have not lost my modesty yet; not that she has, I hasten to add, she is just not quite as horrified as I by Chinese bathrooms.

We went to the Amity Art Center as well and luxuriated in the freezing cold conditions there -- but had a lot of fun looking at the incredible artwork that is sold there. In the year and a half that I have been here my taste has changed and I now find the tapestries that are perhaps primitive in design and are embroidered by minorities around China stunning. I was especially drawn to them when we found out that this is how these particular minorities make their living -- and when they become Christians they create beautiful Scriptural themes. I bought the one depicting Gabrielle's announcement to Mary and Mary's answer, "Let it be as you wish." I thought that this pretty much describes my own life in recent years, visual reminders can be good things!

Today I am frustrated with my Apple computer. It is not reading movies that I have seen before on the computer -- I have no idea what is going on. My friend Fei is coming tomorrow to spend at least the morning with me -- maybe she knows of a place in Nanjing that knows about Apples...my warranty is good through the beginning of February. Extended three year warranties cost $300. US. Does Apple have any idea how much money that is in China? That is more than half a month's salary for me!!! So I may have to switch back to Region 1 and start watching my American movies again...or just read, forget the movies! :)

Today I have begun the process of throwing things out and am getting mental images of what can go in different boxes -- maybe Fei and I can go to the post office (Mail Post) tomorrow and get some boxes so I can start putting things in them instead of spread out over the living room. So much to do! Next Monday I leave for Lanzhou in Gansu Province for the Amity Winter Conference. I am looking forward to the radiated heat there. Of course I looked on the MSN.com weather page and if they didn't have radiators the folks who live there would have serious hypothermia issues...this is a part of China that is very close to what I would term Central Asia. Just as Southern China last year seemed much more Vietnamese than Chinese to me, I am looking forward to seeing what Gansu will be like. It is close to (in comparison to the East Coast of China at least) Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, etc. I'm very thankful that Amity decided to have the conference there.

Good night for now.

CNN.comLIVE January 4, 2008

I have finally figured out how to get CNN.comLIVE to work on my computer here in China! The most thrilling part is unlike youtube or other recordings it is coming through uninterrupted, I don't have to wait for it to wind up to listen to it without slowmo...I am able to follow the crisis in Gaza and feel a part of the horror that the civilians there are living through right now. This makes it easier to pray as well, particularly for the children that are traumatized and the parents who are feeling powerless. Lord, we humans inflict more pain on one another than it seems possible that we could do. Help us to grow up. Amen.

A Taxing Adventure (in a Taxi:) 1/03/09

Just as I think that nothing new can happen in China to leave me breathless and incredulous -- something new happens in China that leaves me breathless and incredulous.

Today I was with a friend in a taxi. As per my practice I was in the front seat -- easier to pay for the drive that way. The taxi was stopped in traffic and there was a car to the side of us -- a door opened on the car and before anyone knew what was happening someone had walked from that car to the taxi and had opened the door on the taxi. Okay, I think that perhaps he made eye contact with me for a nano second before opening my door -- but there was certainly no knock, no, "bye the way ma'am, can I intrude upon your safe taxi ride and make you feel like you are in New York City about to be robbed in the middle of traffic?"

Considering he was leaning over me and talking to the female taxi driver in Chinese I had no idea what he was asking or saying -- perhaps directions? It was a wee bit terrifying. In the states having something like that happen would be cause for great alarm. I tell you, in the last couple of weeks I have come to have a huge appreciation for China's gun control laws. Citizens are not allowed to carry guns -- and I am thankful for that.

We continued driving as I recovered from my quasi heart spasms. We got near to the street where we would turn to approach my college campus and the driver was busy texting away. In a move again remniscent of being at home I gently let her know that the light had turned green -- her reaction of embarassment was pure gold. I was told by my friend that I have a great sense of humor -- I can't quite figure that one out. Because I didn't yell? Because I was still so stunned by the first incident that I didn't have my wits about me to panic at the traffic swirling about us as we sat while she communicated by modern techno?

Well, I am sure I will have other wonderful moments to share with all of you again soon enough. Oh, by the way: a wonderful gift. When my friend and I got to my apartment she was thrilled to see what a mess it was -- when she saw all of my books she immediately attributed the mess to my priorities. Learning is much more important than cleaning! :)

Shopping in Nanjing, January 2, 2008

I went shopping today for necessities such as bleach, laundry detergent and toothpaste. I tried out a store new to me, RT Mart. I reminded myself as I observed the crowd upon entering the store that it is the New Year Holiday here in China. And then as I pressed my way through the crowds I reminded myself that in order to move at all in a crowd in China that one must resort to behaving Chinese. If a person is inordinately polite, as learned in the states, that person will not get very far in the shopping trip. Waiting for people to move ends up meaning that a whole bunch of other people move and I end up observing them. I did at one point watch how a Chinese expert maneuvered past a shopping cart that was blocking the way in an aisle. It was shoved aside. I thought, okay, when in Rome do as the Romans do...when in China, do as the Chinese do. Survive. I must eat. Therefore I must try to get just a little bit pushier.

Now at the checkstand a totally different issue happened and I let the man who was trying to shoulder by me to be next in line know by my frosty expression that I was next and not he. Instead of a polite, "are you next in line?" the Chinese simply make themselves next in line.