Eric's Beijing Diary

Working my way through the wicket gate at the Beijing West train station yesterday on my way back from Zhengzhou, I witnessed a lady being treated very roughly by the gate personnel. It was apparent that she did not have a ticket, and was trying to get through. You need a ticket to get on the train, but you need the same ticket to get off the train. You cannot leave the train station unless you are able to prove that you were a ticketed passenger. One of the gate keepers herded her into a channel with only one opening and held her there. She was frantic. Her situation was very painful to watch, but there's just no way you're going to get out of the train station if you don't have a ticket. The guy who was holding her captive was not treating her very well--I suppose it was his job to prevent thieves from getting out without paying.

In the Book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon says, "So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter..." But she was not the only one who was suffering. The guy who had her boxed in was becoming more and more uncomfortable. It was becoming apparent that something was different about this lady. She just didn't look like a thief who was trying to get away with something. She kept searching the crowd with her eyes, desperately looking for someone. My theory is that she has a handicap of some kind, and was being cared for by someone else, who had her ticket. They must have become separated. Solomon continues..."and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter." It is not easy to be the weak powerless person in a power struggle like the one I witnessed yesterday. But it isn't easy to be the strong person, either. In the Sixties, Simon and Garfunkel sang, "I'd rather be a hammer than a nail." I'm not so sure. Thinking of this guy's predicament now brings to mind a time years ago when I was in his shoes...

I knew I had seen that frantic look before. She was a rather frail looking woman, obviously quite upset. Well, what woman wouldn't be with six or seven men coming toward her? I was one of those men. We approached her quietly but firmly. I took off my glasses, because it looked as though the situation might be quite confrontational. We took her by the arms and led her to a small room. She was yelling the most vile obscenities, now; slowly the realization was growing within her that she was no match for us. We laid her on the bed, gently but firmly; her desperation had turned to anger. We fastened her to the bed with a heavy leather belt, then placed her wrists in cuffs fastened to the belt. The cuffs were locked. They were padded. Not uncomfortable. Her ankles were also placed in cuffs. At that precise moment when the realization hit her that it was over--that she was completely powerless, she did what I had seen so many of them do before her. She started crying. It was the cry of a child. A very lost child. A child with no one to turn to. I detested what we were doing to her, especially because I was a Christian. A Christian is supposed to set the captives free, not put them in bondage. A Christian is supposed to bring light, and joy, and peace, not hopelessness and despair...

The movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was filmed at Oregon State Hospital just after the summer that I worked there. I watched that film one evening when I was working the night shift at the same hospital several years later. I was in a different unit. It was a maximum security facility operated in conjunction with the State Prison system. But the philosophy was quite different. The director of this unit was not a psychologist. He had a PhD in philosophy. These people believed that mental illness was a choice. A bad choice. Any kind of craziness was immediately confronted as antisocial behavior. During the year that I worked there, I never saw anyone placed in full restraint. Admittedly, the clientele was more selective than what I had worked with at the Community Psychiatric Service, but the approach was also very, very different. I was struck by the difference between two different ways of approaching a problem.

Humanity. The use of power. How the powerful treat the powerless. These are questions which occupied much of my thinking over the years. It is easy for us to have compassion on the powerless. The oppressed. But God has mercy on the oppressor and the oppressed. On the powerless, and on the powerful, because He knows that they have something in common. They are both very, very lonely.

Labels: Mental Health

Took the bus to the Shaolin Temple yesterday. It's located in a beautiful forest of juniper about 80 kilometers west of here. But if you're looking for a lonely, secluded outpost where the faithful go to seek quiet contemplation and the meaning of life, get it out of your mind. It's a tourist trap. I guess one should not be too surprised, in the new, new China. The temptation to capitalize on the fame of this place is certainly understandable, if not a bit frustrating, as one sees the growing commercialization of almost anything.

The fascination with Shaolin Gong Fu is certainly not limited to China. A Shaolin priest in an old Western movie is an object of awe and respect. During the years that I was in the trucking industry, the fascination with things eastern never ceased to amaze me. But these endless movies with martial arts themes all had a similar line, that was monotonously predictable. They all started out emphasizing the importance of inner strength. But in the end, the "bad guys" were very human, and the approach to these "bad guys" was very physical and very violent. Truck drivers love "macho" flicks, so these movies were always popular, and that didn't surprise me. People who are living defeated lives like to experience some measure of victory vicariously through a character they admire. But life isn't like that. You don't get a dozen takes to get it right. And the Book says, "we wrestle not against flesh and blood."

And there is no greater testimony to the spiritual emptiness of Buddhism than the extent to which it has become commercialized. But I suppose you could say the same thing about the gospel music industry in America. I am thinking about writing a book about the commercialization of religion. I think it would probably be a good seller. Seriously, I don't want to pick on one religion, because the tendency for that which is supposed to be "holy" to deteriorate into a racket seems to be universal among the religions of men. As a Christian, I would like to believe that Christians are immune to this sickness, because they have the truth, but it sometimes seems to me that Christians are almost more susceptible to this moral deterioration. Anyway, I am not an expert in what Buddhists believe. But I know one thing for sure. The Buddhists at the Shaolin temple believe in money.

That having been said, there is something the Shaolin Buddhists have developed, and it is very much in demand. That is the ability to use the human body as a weapon. People (mostly young men) come here from all over the world for a few days or a few months to learn the skills that will land them a job with a security agency, or maybe even a spot in a martial arts movie. There is something unique about the way super concentration can maximize the force of the human frame. The presentation we saw is a traveling performance. They travel throughout Asia presenting the most visible of Shaolin skill. One of the best illustrations of this concentrated energy is when the Shaolin martial arts master pokes a needle through a pane of glass to break a balloon. His assistant carries this pane of glass around to show everyone in the audience what it is. It is a solid sheet of glass about a quarter of an inch thick. Then he holds this pane of glass up, with a balloon right behind it, and the Shaolin master takes what looks like a sharp nail or needle and stabs it through the pane of glass, popping the balloon. It is really kind of eerie to see this tiny hole in the pane of glass. If it were me, I would have popped the balloon alright, but the glass would have been shattered. This pane of glass was clear. Not a crack of any kind. Just one small hole in the center.

There's nothing miraculous about it. Force equals mass times velocity squared, so theoretically, if you can do anything fast enough, you can create the force needed to, well, put a hole in a sheet of glass with a needle. It's a lesson in the power of concentration. I don't really fancy myself the next Jackie Chan, but the stuff those young men are able to do with their bodies really did inspire me. When I got back to my hotel, I got down and did ten push-ups. Well, OK...eight-and-a-half.

Labels: Buddhism, Corruption, Shaolin Temple

Sunday evening. Sitting in my motel room here in Zhengzhou. I am going to be teaching an extension course at the Zhongyuan Institute of Technology for teachers who are working on graduate degrees. Some of them are teachers here at the Institute, and some of them are high school and middle school teachers in Zhengzhou.

I had my first class yesterday afternoon. I asked my students if they knew where I could find a church here in Zhengzhou. They did some searching on the Internet, then got on their cell phones and got some information for me. This morning I hailed a taxi to head to the church they had pointed out to me on the map. To my surprise, the taxi driver spoke English. That's a first. I handed her the information the students had written down for me. She had never actually been to the church (most cab drivers are not good at finding churches), but she was very helpful. She said, "My mother believed God." She got on the radio to get some information, drove to the general area, then found a police officer and got specific instructions.

Standing room only. I saw a group of the faithful sitting right outside the church listening in. I stood with them for a few minutes until someone came and got me and took me around to the other side of the building where there was some extra seating space in the front row. It was a nice service, but it really did make me appreciate the translation service provide by the Haidian Church in Beijing.

I visited the largest mall in the world this afternoon. It won't be for long, though. China is going mall crazy. There are malls like this going up all over China. This one makes the Mall of America look like little brother, but there is one going up in South China that will be three times that size.

I have never been a great lover of malls, but curiosity got the best of me, so I had to take a look. The most noticeable feature of these new supermalls in China is the lack of customers. The place seems empty compared to what you would see in America. Many of the "customers" I saw looked kinda dazed and overwhelmed. It is not as though they would not want to buy some of this stuff if they had the money. But they don't. The builders of these malls are clearly betting in the future. If China's economic growth continues at the present rate, the "wealthy class" in China will soon exceed the population of the United States. Walking through this mall today, though, does leave me with a question: How long can malls like this continue to operate if everyone is window shopping?

Guantanamo. It has been headlined again because of a report by Amnesty International that compared it to the Gulag. Repudiation of this hyperbole has been widespread, especially among those who are close to the horror that defined Stalin’s madness in the dark days that followed the death of Lenin—an event Churchill described as the "second worst thing to happen to the Russian people (the worst, according to Churchill, was the birth of Lenin)."

But while the repudiations have given Amnesy International a black eye, they have also served to underline the distaste of the world community for a place and a system that is widely viewed as a travesty of justice. Natan Sharansky dismissed Amnesty International’s extremism as typical for a group that refuses to distinguish "between democracies where there are sometimes serious violations of human rights and dictatorships where no human rights exist at all." Clearly the United States is not a dictatorship, and Guantanamo is not the Gulag. But if Sharansky's point is well taken on the one side, it must also be taken on the other. Guantanamo is a serious violation of human rights.

The detainees at Guantanamo have no rights. They are not entitled to representation by counsel. They do not have to be informed of their right to remain silent. In other words, they are not granted the freedom from self-incrimination that is the assumed prerogative of free people. They have never even been charged. They don’t have sentences. Of course prisoners of war are never given a right to representation. They are not charged. They are held until the war is over. But the detainees on Guantanamo are not POW's. They were not returned to their countries after the war was over, because the war is undefined.

This is not new. During the days before the Americans got involved in World War II, the Flying Tigers were assembled in Kunming, China to protect China from Japanese bombing. But America was not at war with Japan at that time, so the airmen risked being regarded as war criminals if captured. To avoid this danger, they joined the Chinese Air Force under Chiang Kai-shek. They were commanded directly by Claire Chenault, who had been hired by the Chinese government after his retirement from the U.S. Air Force, but they were in fact members of the Chinese Air Force themselves, and thus, although they could conceivably be captured as POWs, they could not be treated as war criminals.

The Taliban fighters took no such precautions. And if they are war criminals, there is no reason why they should, or should be allowed to. I don’t have a problem with terrorists being confined. They have it coming. But not all of the detainees are war criminals. Some of them just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. So what recourse do you have if you have been mistakenly identified as a terrorist, and the evidence against you is scanty or non-existant? If you are detained at Guantanamo, you have none. No rights. No attorney. No court date. No charge. No sentence. No end in sight. In the old days, we would have said, "That’s un-American." But the world community isn’t sure anymore what can be considered "un-American," when it comes to justice and human rights. This uncertainly has seriously damaged the reputation of the United States as a guardian of freedom. But about one thing there is no uncertainty: Guantanamo is a travesty of justice. It’s time to shut it down.

Lots of discussion about Tiananmen tonight at the English Corner. Not surprising, since this week is the anniversary of that momentous occasion. Everyone wanted to know what I thought. I sometimes surprise people here, because I believe there was fault on both sides. The biggest mistake the students made, was that they announced a date by which they would leave the Square, but they didn't follow through. They were then questioned about when they would leave, and their response was vague. Once they renegged on their own announced schedule, they seemed confused and uncertain. This put them in a vulnerable position, and basically forced the government to remove them.

The government made two basic mistakes. First of all, the put Li Peng in charge of negotiating with the students. Li Peng was, in my opinion, the worst possible choice for this assignment. His approach was confrontational, and tended, I believe, to radicalize the students. The second mistake was the manner in which the government chose to remove the students (and they did need to remove the students). Every country deals with student activism. Tear gas, water canons, rubber bullets, if need be...but live ammunition? This was far too heavy handed.

But in the end, the students lost the battle, but won the war. In terms of life style, many of the things they were demanding have become pretty much a part of life in China today. Yet, China is still a controlled society. If you are of the conviction that freedom is only possible in a democratic system, then you would conclude that China does not have freedom. The reality is, that while China does not have democracy, the people of China have enjoyed a greater measure of freedom in recent years. To the extent that Tiananmen is, at least in part, responsible for this freedom, the students can be said to be the victors.

Interesting front page article in yesterday's paper. This is a big event in China. This year 8.67 million high school graduates will be competing for only 2.3 freshman seats in China's universities. I was amazed at these figures, but I checked them out with my students, and they assured me that it really is that competitive.

It is hard for American's to grasp the significance of this elimination, because there is nothing in the American way of life that correlates to the National Entrance Exams in China. Of course, American students take the SAT tests, but they are not taken as seriously, because they are not required. I remember when I was a high school senior, and the SAT tests were announced. I didn't want to show up, because it was on a Saturday, and I hadn't really made up my mind to go to college. I'm not really sure why I did take them--I guess I figured I better have my SAT scores available just in case. In the end, it's probably a good thing I did take them, because when I finally decided to go to college, my SAT scores helped me to get a quick student loan. The banker put my scores into the computer, and the computer told them to give me the money. But they just don't have the import in America that the National Entrance Exams have in China.

American educators have always prided themselves in the fact that they use tests for "placement," not for elimination. To a large extent, this is true. But there are cases where SAT's can be an eliminating factor. If you are applying for a scholarship to an Ivy League school, your scores could put you at the bottom of the list, or off the list. In my case, I didn't want to go to an Ivy League school. I wanted to go to the countryside and be a school teacher. But in China, you can't just say, "I don't care about entrance exams--I just want to go to the normal university and become a teacher." It doesn't work that way. At first glance, you could easily attribute it to a difference in educational philosophy--Americans believe in using tests for placement, while Chinese believe in using tests to eliminate people. But the truth is quite a bit more basic and fundamental. It comes down to a simple matter of limited resources. There just isn't enough to go around. That is by far the most noticeable difference between American culture and Chinese culture. It shows up in many areas, but very dramatically at times like these. In America, low SAT scores could mean that you would have to go to the local university, instead of an elite private school, but even that is not absolute, because admission, even to top schools, is based on a variety of factors. But in China, the National Entrance Exams literally mean the difference between getting an education, and working in the fields in the hot sun.

Tonight, on our way to the English Corner, Abdullah took me by the mosque. There was no prayer service going on, so the place was not busy, but I wanted to see where it was, because I am interested in going there for the Friday prayer service. We chatted briefly with the local Inman, a cozy gentleman from the Ninxia Hui Autonomous Region. The Hui are largely Muslim. Abdullah himself is from this minority. When I first mentioned to Abdullah that I wanted to visit the mosque, he warned me:

"Don't tell them you're American!

"Why not?"

"Because we hate Americans!"

I said, "Abdullah, most of the Muslims I have met are decent people. I am sure they will not have a problem with the fact that I am American once they meet me and see that I am a person of good will."

Well, I will be proven right or wrong when I get a chance to visit one of the Friday prayer services. But I have seen over and over again how establishing personal friendships with people can overwhelm the stereotypical prejudices that so often cripple relationships between peoples. There is no weapon so powerful as plain, ordinary human kindness.

Well, another one of the old "China Hands" has passed away. Israel Epstein is dead at the age of 90. Eppie was one of the group of what Cold War Americans called "Communist sympathizers," who were involved in the development of "New China" during the thirties and forties, and throughout the first days of the new country. Epstein was somewhat different from the others, because he did not come here as a wide-eyed idealist looking for utopia. He was brought here by his parents at the age of two. He was not born in China, but he does not rememeber any other place. He became a citizen in 1957.

I remember a few years ago, when he was honored at a ceremony in Shanghai. Prominent officials praised his efforts on behalf of China, and talked about the importance of "Foreign Experts." That was before I was a "Foreign Expert" myself, but the comments at the time still struck me funny. This guy came to China when he was two years old. He has lived in China all of his life. He has been a citizen of this country longer than most people in China have been alive. But he is still a "Foreign Expert." Once a foreigner, always a foreigner. That's Asia.

There aren't many of these "China Hands" left, now. I have just been reading Rewi Alley's autobiography. He died a few years ago. And most of the others, Agnes Smedley, Anna Louise Strong, Ma Haide, and of course, Soong Ching-ling, the "mother hen" of them all--they're gone. Sidney Shapiro is still living, but he is getting pretty old now, too.