D - Chills, Church, and Communists

The high here in Dalian today is about 45 degrees fahrenheit, but it's been colder most of the day. The formerly temperate ocean breeze has turned into a bone chilling face slapper. I almost felt like I was in Rochester, NY (site of my university education and many a cold sprint to class). If weather.com can be trusted for China though, it will supposedly be 62 tomorrow. Ah the weather, go figure.

I have a few short stories to relate from China. Last Friday evening, I joined our Danish friends at their home for dinner. About a month ago they opted out of the school provided housing and now live in a relatively posh condo just up the road. The walk to school is a little longer but they have a bathroom to die for. Imagine this - the water from the shower actually goes into a shower specific drain. This is in stark contrast to our bathroom, where the shower floor and the bathroom floor are identical. Thus if someone needs to use the toilet subsequent to a recent shower, their pants will become soaked. To combat this problem, C had a brilliant idea - she picked up a squeegee (reminiscent of something you might use on your car windshield), which we employ when exiting the shower. In China, even simple things get a little more complicated than we are used to.

But I digress. Also invited to the dinner were another couple consisting of a late 30s/early 40s American businessman turned Oral English teacher (K), and his Chinese wife (B). He said he is principally teaching at DMU because it's easier to get a residence permit in China as a teacher than a foreign businessman. They met because she was his interpreter in his various business dealings in China, which they are still engaged in on the side. My impression is that while he teaches, she is running the import/export business. Anyway, they are good people and we had a lovely conversation at dinner and afterwards. Even the Chinese wine that was consumed was passable. One part of the night was a bit disturbing however. Although K is married to a Chinese woman and does all of his business with the Chinese, he has a very negative attitude towards China. After B shared one story with us, I could start to understand why. Her grandfather was a member of the KMT (Chinese nationalists under Chiang Kai-Shek) before the Communists took over China. Unfortunately he was captured by the Communists and tortured repeatedly. They would put him on a stage with his arms behind his back in some contorted, painful positions, and then groups of people gathered in the audience would yell anti-KMT slogans and pro-Communist slogans. Apparently B's grandmother was forced to yell insults against her own husband and pretend that he was an enemy of the state. As B said "She did what she had to in order to survive." I can't fathom the world we live in sometimes.

Continuing on that note, our Danish friends relayed another scary story, this one more recent. Last Thursday they had the day off so they decided to take a couple of random buses and then just walk around Dalian to see what they could see. Apparently they ended up in a part of Dalian that is off limits because it's near a Chinese military submarine base, a fact of which they were ignorant. There were no signs indicating it was a forbidden area until right next to the base. When they saw the sign, they immediately turned around and left to go back towards the bus stop. Despite this, a couple of soldiers caught up with them and politely asked them to return to the base for some questions. They did so and they were briefly questioned by some soldiers who didn't have a strong command of English. Eventually they were kept waiting for 2 hours while the People's Security Bureau (PSB) aka Chinese "Secret Police" were called. Four very large gentlemen with an fluent translator showed up and questioned them further. They called DMU to confirm their story. They reviewed their passports which they most fortunately brought along. Our friends managed to maintain their calm, which I am sure expedited things in their favor. Eventually, the FAO from DMU came to pick them up. So nothing negative came of it but you can imagine how terrified they were. It's a reminder that while China may be improving, it has a long way to go.

On a different note, I went to church in China for the first time on Sunday. Along with our Canadian friends, I caught the bus downtown. Just off of Zhongshan Square, there was a tall building. We met some people outside and they led us up a few flights of stairs. There was a large room with perhaps 75 rows of 8 chairs each. They were very soft and comfortable and every seat was taken. At the front of the room there was a video projector showing the actual church sanctuary, which was down the street in an actual church like building which was apparently built by the Dutch (?). The church was a legal Protestant church operating with government sanction, and the whole service was conducted in Chinese. Two Chinese girls offered to translate for us. One sat between L and T (Canadians) and another sat next to me. During the hymns and the sermon she would lean over every minute or two and whisper the translation in English, which is certainly unique in my experience. I recognized the tune of some of the hymns but couldn't recall the names. The service was essentially 3 hymns, some Bible readings, the sermon, and a closing hymn. All in all, what you would call a pretty traditional service! The only thing they didn't do was take up an offering, which I had expected when they sung the doxology at the end of the service. The message was traditional as well, espousing standard Christian doctrines such as loving your enemies, loving and obeying God, and following Jesus. Apparently some of the young people at the church hold a study (in English) on Tuesday evenings near DMU, so I think I will check that out as well. It's one thing to visit a church in a place like the US where there's a cultural tradition for doing so, and another in a place like China where people are risking their necks and reputations. This I have to see.