East of Byzantium

Last Wednesday at work, I noticed that one of my contacts had edited their display name so that a loveheart followed by the word “China” was displayed. This was unsurprising, as most Chinese people are getting increasingly fed up with what they see as anti-Chinese rhetoric and bias in the foreign media. However, things started to get a little strange as more and more people followed suit, until:

One of the contacts, “ladybird”, gives the instructions on how to add the effect beside her name in order to “show the world Chinese unity.” Other people have also been forwarding the same message.

Another contact - not shown here, the lovehearts go on for a very long way - exhorts people to boycott Carrefour, McDonalds, KFC, and UPS among other foreign companies in order to support the Beijing Olympics; which is odd of course because at least two of the companies mentioned are official sponsors of the Olympic Games. But then when things like this start to grow, slogans and rhetoric get blandly trotted out without thinking.

How else could another work colleague of mine be happily discussing work with me on MSN while carrying, under their name, the phrase:

师夷长技以制夷

Which is a play on words that translates as: “Learn from foreigners to defeat foreigners”

At the top of the screen, one user - Sophie - also Han Chinese and resident in Beijing doesn’t go along with the rest. Instead, she has a message reading:

“Be careful! Patriotism —> Nationalism”

With Nationalism carrying negative connotations in Chinese, being mixed up with racial purity rather than racial harmony. This girl happens to be a Christian.

As summer descends on Beijing, we approach the June feast of the Chinese Martyrs - 222 Orthodox Christians who were murdered by the Nationalist Boxers simply for following a “foreign” religion. Lord save us from ideology, in whatever form it may come in.

Holy Chinese martyrs, pray for us

Apolgies for my lack of posts recently, which includes nothing for the Feast Day of St. Mitrophan and the other Chinese Martyrs. The main reason is that a few days before the day, this blog was blocked within the Chinese mainland, as it still is now. Accessing this webpage from within the Chinese mainland produces only the page above, unless accessed through a proxy server, as I am doing now (This one)

Lest I feel quietly pleased that the Communist government’s net police have deemed my blog worthy of censorship, it may be worth pointing out that all blogsome blogs are blocke, including the homepage of blogsome, and not just my own. More precisely, non-Chinese language blogs appear to be blocked, while the Chinese language ones are blocked on a case-by-case basis. This does mean that the Chinese blog I started, the Homecoming, is now blocked.

So where does this leave us (all three of you that might be reading)? Well, the Chinese language blog, though much more popular than this one must be moth-balled for now until the ban is lifted. A Chinese lectionary and menologia has little use outside the mainland. This blog should alos be discontinued for different reasons, but for now I will continue to post my thoughts to no one in particular.

Pray for me!

Who are you? Most of us would reply with our name because, after all, that’s who we are. At the moment, an American colleague is trying to find a "Chinese name." Beijing has people from opposite hemispheres all mumbling, weeping, whispering and muttering out their lives in mutually unintelligable languages. Of course most make an effort to learnt the other’s language, but it will always cause some discomfort to force our mouths into shapes they shouldn’t be in, or place infections on syllables where they have no right to be. This is why most Chinese people working in foreign companies will adopt an English name, and why almost every foreigner willing to live here for any length of time will get their own new baptismal name. Qutie simply, our names - our identities - are too important to be mispronounced.

But, as my workmate is finding out, choosing a name is not easy. Almost every carefully chosen name he offers to others for consideration is met with either blank stares or outright laughter. Either the name is too obscure, too grandiose, or in one case, also the name of a local DVD maker. A self-chosen name can sometimes be revealing, but it is rarely truthful. Poor guy, he doesn’t want to labour for his own name; all he wants is for it to be given to him by someone else.

It is our parents, or a close relative, who names us. It a thousand or more good witnesses whose quiet voices througout our entire lives either raise up or strike down that name. We cannot name ourselves, only be named. Which, I suppose, means that we cannot truly know who we are unless we listen to the inumerable many who meet us along the way. And to those who manage to return home to our Lord, a promise is given regarding our name, and our identity:

"I shall also give a white stone upon which is inscribed a new name, which no one knows except the one who receives it"

“ 父凭着自己的权柄所定的时候， 日期， 不是你们可以知道的。但圣灵降临在你们身上，你们就必得着能力， 并要在耶路撒冷， 撒玛利亚 ， 直到地极， 和犹太全地， 作我的见证。”

"It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

说了这话，他们正看的时候, 他就被取上升，有一朵云彩把他接去，便看不见他了。 

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.     

当他往上去，他们定睛望天的时候，忽然有两个人身穿白衣，站在旁边，说 ：

They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 

加利利人哪，你们为甚麽站着望天呢？这离开你们被接升天的耶稣，你们见他怎样往天上去，他还要怎样来。

"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

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我们为甚麽站着望天呢？基督从天上降下来。他就是神与我们同在。还有他说：你们要去， 使万民作我的门徒，给他们施洗，归於父 、 子 、 圣灵的名

It’s later than you think!