Popularity is a Fad

April 26, 2010

 My wife and daughter returned from China before the 2008 opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics and said Christianity is popular in China. They said that wearing the cross was the stylish thing to do.

2008 Beijing Olympic's Closing Ceremony - the Human Pillar

I find it disturbing when religion is the stylish thing to do. That’s sort of like wearing clothing that is the latest fad and fads change often. If people are in a religion because it is stylish, what will those people believe next?

Once I started to understand the Confucian foundation of Chinese culture, I found it difficult to blame China’s Communist Party for how organized religions are treated in China. If an Emperor ruled China today instead of the Communist Party, would things be the same or worse? After all, Emperors and popular peasant rebellions are responsible for slaughtering or throwing foreigners and their religions out of China more than once before communism was a concept.

See “Chinese Face” http://wp.me/pN4pY-7V

 

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Taking the Spiritual for Granted

April 26, 2010

Most people that live in Western democracies grew up fearing and hating the word “Communist: during the Cold War. The media brainwashing that went on for decades to paint the word “communism’ as evil did a great job.

Christianity in China

A conservative, Republican, born-again Christian, evangelical friend of mine that has never visited China was proud to E-mail me and say that Christianity is the fastest growing religion in China. He also told me that ‘communism’ was evil.

Taking one word and using that word as a definition for evil is wrong. Mao did evil deeds during the twenty-seven years he ruled as China’s modern emperor. Stalin and Hitler also were responsible for horrible atrocities. Words are not evil. Using a word to describe evil is dangerous. It leads to stereotyping. If what my friend said was true, than my mother-in-law, the closet Christian, would be evil since she lived in a communist country.

See “An American Shadow Over the Philippines” http://wp.me/pN4pY-6Z

 

1 Comment | China, Chinese history, politics, religion | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Christianity in China

April 26, 2010

My wife’s mother was a Chinese Christian convert. It was not safe to belong to a religion during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. To survive, she became a closet Christian. She prayed at night but never let her children know that she was a Christian.

She told her husband that having children was for God. Whatever her religious beliefs were, she kept to herself. Since she had a statue of the Virgin Mary and held it when she prayed, it should be safe to say that Catholicism influenced any form of Christianity she believed in.

I understand Catholicism. When I was a child, I was baptized a Catholic and my family went to mass each Sunday. I also attended a Catholic elementary school for a few years.

I write about what I know, and I know only a little about other cultures outside the United States.

However, I do know something about China. After all, my wife is Chinese. I have been to China a dozen times since 1999, and we have a flat in Shanghai.

After nine years of researching China, I published my first novel, which takes place in 19th century China. For the last ten years, I have immersed myself in discovering China and have learned that there is more to discover. I have barely scratched the surface.

See When in Rome, Do as the Romans

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar. 

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Beware “Promises” of Salvation

April 25, 2010

Here are a few excerpts from a review written by Joseph Khan on Falun Gong and the Future of China by David Ownby (291 pp. Oxford University Press) 

“…Like the Communist Party, Falun Gong shrouds its inner workings in secrecy and communicates through propaganda….” 

“…Since the emergence of the White Lotus Society in the 13th century, ordinary Chinese, particularly women and the poor, have found solace in sectarian movements whose features have remained consistent, Ownby argues. He calls the sects ‘redemptive societies’. They are organized around charismatic leaders who preach that salvation can be attained through cultivation of body and mind.

 “The republican (now in Taiwan) and Communist governments of the 20th century inherited this antireligious bias. Both permitted five religions — Buddhism, Islam, Taoism, Catholicism and Protestantism — provided that they submitted to strict state supervision….” 

“…Li (Hongzhi) founded Falun Gong…  He claimed that people who followed his cultivation formula acquired a ‘third eye’ that allowed them to peer into other dimensions and escape the molecular world….”

See “Wearing China’s Shoes” http://wp.me/pN4pY-1p

 

Leave a Comment » | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, politics, religion | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Brain Washing on Stage is Not Dirty Dancing

April 24, 2010

Gao Fangpi brought a fellow member of the Falun Gong to our house a few days before a New Year’s show. While we were sitting around the kitchen table sipping tea, the two women pitched the benefits of their group in soft voices. It was obvious that they had been trained like an Amway salesman is, but not as flashy.  

My wife and I were invited to attend the Falun Gong show in San Francisco at the Orpheum Theater. The tickets were eighty dollars each. Putting on that show in that theater must have been costly and I suspect eighty dollar tickets would not raise enough to cover the expenses.  

 My wife asked Gao Fangpi where the money came from to pay for the show, since it was on tour to several cities in Western countries in North America and Europe. Gao Fangpi admitted that the CIA subsidized the show.

See Wearing China’s Shoes http://wp.me/pN4pY-1p

 

Leave a Comment » | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, politics, religion | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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