Grammar and Tones

I grew up a Christian. From early on I went to Sunday school and to all sorts of kids activities organised by our church. Our church was very friendly, lively and social, so by the time I was a teenager, most of my friends were from church, and most of my afternoon activities would be in church. I had learnt how to play the guitar and had joined the church band. Every Sunday I would play with them at the Sunday service, on Fridays I would rehearse for Sundays, on Thursdays I would play at the church’s youth club, and on Tuesdays I would rehearse for Thursdays. That left me with Monday and Wednesday afternoons, so on Mondays I and a few friends set up a bible study group, and on Wednesdays I would take guitar lessons.

Rocking church hard

Joining the church band was an amazing experience. There are many wonderful modern Christian songs. Their sound and style is often inspired by pop and rock bands, but their lyrics revolve around God and Jesus.

Nevertheless, I really liked hard rock and heavy metal, so sometimes we secretly played AC/DC’s Hells Bells at rehearsals. While playing, I would secretly crank up the volume of my amp to be louder than the other guitarist in the band. But the other guy would be doing the same. So we would end up playing at top volume, and the pastor would get furious how we could play a “song by the devil” in his church.

To me, English was a foreign language and I really didn’t care what the lyrics said…

It was good fun!

Church never managed to change my taste of music, but I believe it did change my world view. I genuinely believe that Jesus Christ was one of the most extraordinary philosophers of all times: in the Sermon on the Mount, he preached to not only “love thy neighbour as thyself” but to even love your enemies! Today, in the Western world, we take these words of wisdom for granted, but he lived at a time when no one had ever even remotely thought of such an idea. In my opinion Jesus must have been a genius and revolutionary – no matter if he actually existed or if he was largely invented by later writers. How radical his ideas were, and how much my particular world view had been shaped by his teachings, I would, however, only fully understand when I was living in China: a country, where a very different philosopher had shaped the thinking of the people for millenia to come…

The same, but different

Confucius lived 551 years before Christ, on the other side of the world. His teachings were very different, but equally influential. There are about 2.4 billion Christians in the world, but there are also 1.4 billion Chinese people in the world.

I’m not an expert in Confucianism. If you want to learn about Confucianism, go and get a book on it. This blog is just my own very subjective impression of it and how to me it seemed to influence Chinese culture.

Confucius was a bureaucrat and held various government positions. The Chinese state, just like Chinese mythology (but this is a topic for another post), had always been organised very hierarchical and bureaucratic. Confucious also taught the importance of having a good moral character and being a good virtuous person. But this is much more applied “within the system”, knowing your position in society, in the family, and in the state, and behaving accordingly. 

Whom to love?

One of the most glaring differences that my wife and I found was related to the “love thy neighbour” teaching.

The thought experiment goes like this: suppose you worked hard and earned one shilling (or piece of eight, or whatever).

Jesus said you should love thy neighbour, even love thy enemies, and he also explicitly told a story about a poor woman donating her last penny to the temple. It seems like a good idea to donate your shilling for a good cause, or to give it to someone in need, or at least paying a fair price when you buy your dinner at the market.

When I told this to my wife, she was shocked! What if that poor woman had a child? What if she had elderly parents to take care of? Wouldn’t it be irresponsible to give away your money if your own family needs it?

So in China, the saying would much more go like “love thy neighbour, but love your family more”, and then “live your closest family members more than your distant relatives” – after all if your greatuncle asks your for some money, you might not want to give him your kids’ college funds.

The discussion is of course somewhat academic: in real life neither Chinese nor Christians donate all their money. But as a guiding principle it seemed to me that Western cultures are relatively open towards and used to donating, gifting and tipping to people they don’t really know. Chinese on the other hand are well known for making huge sacrifices for their children and their elderly parents.

It seems like both Jesus and Confucius had a point…

Where to go on Sunday morning?

Confucianism is not a religion in the way that Christianity is. It is a philosphy, a value system and it is engrained in the culture. But Confucius is not a God, not even a prophet, he is simpy a philosopher. But you can’t pray to him, you can worship him and there is no Confucius church you could go to on Sundays.

There is Buddhism of course, with its tempted and golden Buddha statues (most of which are not fat and smiling though). But Buddhism is not actively practised by the vast majority of people.

The closest thing to the various church activities I used to attend, where in fact: communist party meetings. In China, it is – shockingly – considered to be a great honour to be a party member. You have to be an outstanding student and show your communist virtue (whatever that is) to be allowed to apply for membership.

Once you are in, you have to attend your “bible study groups”. Of course, I wouldn’t be allowed in – I would be considered a spy – so all I know is from hearsay. But it seems oddly familiar to me. You need to go there every week, and meet the same people, some of which become friends. You study the words of Mao Zedong and, more recently, more and more of Xi Jinping, and reflect on them. Sometimes you also study Western philosophers, at least if they’re called Marx or Lenin. It is surprising how appreciated Karl Marx is, as if he is almost seen like a Chinese in spirit. You might not sing songs, but sometimes you go on outings or camps: “Red Travel” is there word for trips around the country to see sights of communist significance (think of Mao’s mausoleum or birthplace). Some people might truly believe in communism but most people probably only go there because they have to – hence, no different to my church.

And: you have to pay your party membership fees! Even communists are just capitalists at heart, after all.