Eric's Beijing Diary

Angela took me to Tongren Hospital today. I was suprised last week by a sudden onset of double vision. Fits my personality, in a sense, because I have always believed there are two ways to look at everything. But I generally prefer not to see them both at the same time. When I mentioned my condition to Angela, a friend of mine who is a pediatrician, she recommended that we visit the eye clinic at Tongren Hospital. Tongren Hospital is an old 19th Century mission hospital. The Eye Center is regarded as the top eye treatment facility in China.

It's hard to describe how things are in China at a famous hospital like Tongren. Lots of people from all over the country, so treatment takes place in what looks like a reverse assembly line. The docotors are all sitting in an open area, and you line up and wait your turn to sit on the stool in front of the doctor. It all seems really rushed, but the doctor was actually quite helpful, and I peppered him with questions (with Angela's assistance). He prescribed some medicine (mostly B vitamins) and recommended that we go see a neurologist, so we decided to go to the foreigner clinic at PUMC. Very different place. The foreigner clinic at PUMC is more expensive than a regular Chinese hospital, but much, much cheaper than the International Hospital (Beijing United). And this clinic rotates the best physicians in China, so the level of competence is quite good. I am saying that as an outpatient. I have never been hospitalized there. The neurologist seemed to think I might be diabetic, so she prescribed a blood test and also an MRI, but she told me to hold off on the MRI until after the blood test.

This week the topic for the English Majors was "Holidays." I put together a list of the basic facts of Christmas and told them to take that information and make up their own Christmas programs. I divided them into groups of six to eight students. They are pretty good at role playing, so I thought it would be a good way for them to get a feel for what Christmas is all about. They didn't have any trouble coming up with some interesting variations. A bit irreverent in places, but hard not to smile. These kids really are quite entertaining.

Christmas programs. I've seen a lot of them, and I've been in a lot of them. I remember once when I was seven years old, I was drafted to play the role of Joseph for the evening Christmas at the church in Sakata. It wasn't really a full Christmas program--mainly just a nativity scene. I was told that I didn't have to say anything, so I went along with the idea even though I was slightly less than enthusiastic. But there was one problem. Church services in Japan are very long, and standing in that little store room off to the side of the stage, it seemed like forever that we had to wait. I just could not keep my eyes open. When it came time for me to go on, I was out cold. The Mary for that scene was a little Japanese girl. She went on dutifully and did everything perfectly. Me? Well, they shook me awake, and I managed to stumble onto the stage, but my bathrobe caught on something that was stored in that little room, and I managed to drag it onto the stage with me. So if you can imagine yourself in the audience--you're sitting through a long, long Christmas service, and then it's time for Joseph and Mary. Mary comes on and walks to the middle of the stage just like she's supposed to. But...no Joseph. All of a sudden, here comes the gaijin, stumbling onto the stage like he's had too much Christmas cheer, dragging half the back stage with him. I'd never make it in Hollywood.

Dad told me that when he first went to Japan, he saw a Christmas tree, and on top of the Christmas tree was a cross, and Santa Claus was hanging on the cross. Got to give them an "A" for effort. It's interesting to me how Christmas has become such a thoroughly international festival. I can't say "holiday," really, because China does not have a Christmas holiday (yet), but it is quite noticeable here. Different from America, but I do like Christmas in China, because there isn't quite so much emphasis on presents. I remember asking one of my students about his Christmas...

"How was your Christmas?"

"Perfect!"

"Really? What did you get for Christmas?"

"Nothing."

I said, "This I gotta hear." He told me that he had taken his girlfriend out to dinner and given her some flowers. In China, Christmas Eve is called, "Ping An Ye," which means "Peaceful Evening." I like that. Restaurants are open late so that young people like my student and his girlfriend can have a nice evening out.

Had lunch with Mike today. Well, almost. The computer was down at the Bridge Cafe, so they missed our order. We got it straightened out, but Mike couldn't wait, so they returned his money. Just one of those things, and they were pretty good about it, so what can you say? That place is very busy on a Saturday--the only way it works at all is because their system is fully computerized. But when the computer is down, it is pretty near impossible to keep things straight.

But we had a good talk. Mike had read my post about the Shouwang Church, and wanted to see me. He is in China to do some research for the latest edit of his book. I told him that I felt that what happened at the Shouwang Church wasn't really news. I still have mixed feelings about it, because I don't know that it should be the government's business to decide how big a church congregation can be. But the government does have a very definite policy on church registration, and Shouwang Church was not registered, and had no intention to do so. Small family churches are technically exempt from this requirement, but Shouwang Church was operating in a manner that demonstrated very publicly that they were not small, and did not intend to be small. They had a thousand "members." I use the term "members" loosely, because membership in house churches is quite informal. But it's actually quite informal in Three Self Churches too. Bottom line: What happened to Shouwang Church was to be expected, given the present state of things in China. But the government is going to discover that this problem is not going to go away. Christianity is growing exponentially in China. There will be other Shouwangs.

Mike's organization is involved with distributing Bibles, and building church buildings for family churches in the countryside. I was very interested to hear that he buys the Bibles from the place where they are published in Nanjing, and then distributes them in the countryside. I told him this is exactly the way things should be done. I have met and heard of people who were involved in "smuggling": Bibles into China. It always strikes me as completely absurd to smuggle Bibles into China from outside, when they can be purchased quite easily here. Mike told me that at any one time, the plant in Nanjing has a quarter of a million Bibles. They decide how many Bibles to print by replenishing that supply.