tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36074410345032903672024-03-13T15:01:56.004-07:00East Meets WestMemoirs of a White Chinese Daughter-in-LawTeresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.comBlogger171125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-63640849634875810432023-02-17T14:22:00.000-08:002023-02-17T14:22:00.976-08:00First Publication of Dissertation Research on Taiwan's Pro-environmental Buddhists<p>After much trial and error and blood, sweat, and tears, I finally managed to get a journal article published with some of my dissertation's research findings. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWu3Y0R_JxbIW1c-Yw_DC_03nBE5Q_WObG1JwxNnCNIKgjE_uNXLE03Ovacotepf8ItSwFdzupMI2x9lQcCYhDhH7NUhyq75CtOF6s90c1F5IcyHoihSFudVJeAU42w9h8jiXFSYLcngOKTMDrFpsMoA8x1LyohBeqBAomiQYYfDv_3KndvQZp1iZN/s1480/Article_Banner_MDPI_religions-14-00273.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="749" data-original-width="1480" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWu3Y0R_JxbIW1c-Yw_DC_03nBE5Q_WObG1JwxNnCNIKgjE_uNXLE03Ovacotepf8ItSwFdzupMI2x9lQcCYhDhH7NUhyq75CtOF6s90c1F5IcyHoihSFudVJeAU42w9h8jiXFSYLcngOKTMDrFpsMoA8x1LyohBeqBAomiQYYfDv_3KndvQZp1iZN/s320/Article_Banner_MDPI_religions-14-00273.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>You can scan the QR code to access my article, or you can follow the link to the special issue of <i>Religions </i>on The Question of Buddhist Environmentalism where the article can be accessed: <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/VPNV71B9CD">https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/VPNV71B9CD</a> .<div><br /></div><div><p>I was also invited to give a YouTube lecture on my findings by the research foundation and two universities affiliated with a Buddhist NGO where I conducted research for my dissertation: </p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/uMff1rKsQgo?feature=share">https://www.youtube.com/live/uMff1rKsQgo?feature=share</a><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Enjoy! </p></div>Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-19381367684123425622022-02-01T13:17:00.001-08:002022-02-01T13:17:23.292-08:00Chinese New Year 2022: What is a Water Tiger Anyway? <p> 2022 is the Year of the Water Tiger. What does that mean? The Chinese zodiac is based on 3 main elements: yin/yang, the five elements or wu xing, and the 12 zodiac animals. The zodiac rotates in a 60 year cycle to combine all the elements. How does this work? </p><p>The yin and yang are important in Chinese thought. They are seen as the ever-changing nature of the universe with active energy--yang (represented by the white in the symbol) below and passive energy--yin (represented by the black in that symbol). All nature is seen as passing through cycles of active yang energy followed by passive yin energy. This is similar to the interplay between sunlight and shadow, the cycle of day and night, male and female energies. These are not oppositional forces in Chinese thought; they are complementary. The Chinese divide the 12 zodiac animals into pairs and designate the first of the pair as yang and the second as yin. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhBIuOWObxRTbHVUPswPqKKXMaRCA-eb3v4remeaDGhIeydXrsosVLMdLCUD_6Tw2UwqT6I8a4LBnhNWLUvhuuKQZPhI5HZc_SIxDXVVLHIw1rBrRzlhR_yH-EFvcK2REQ9QxKFPBvKPXMBvb_91V9XTLwNsVe5V93KicB3SxfszOI4RSzLNVOAWlzE=s220" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="220" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhBIuOWObxRTbHVUPswPqKKXMaRCA-eb3v4remeaDGhIeydXrsosVLMdLCUD_6Tw2UwqT6I8a4LBnhNWLUvhuuKQZPhI5HZc_SIxDXVVLHIw1rBrRzlhR_yH-EFvcK2REQ9QxKFPBvKPXMBvb_91V9XTLwNsVe5V93KicB3SxfszOI4RSzLNVOAWlzE" width="220" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>The order of the animals is based on a tradition that Jade Emperor (or in some stories the Buddha) had the animals race to see who would be first. The Rat rode on the Ox until just before the finish line, when he leaped across to be the winner. The first pair of the Chinese Zodiac are the Rat (yang) and the Ox (yin). The rest of the animals are sequenced in the order that they placed in the race. The Boar is last because he stopped for a snack and again for a nap. </p><p>Here are the six pairs based on the 12 animals: Rat/Ox, Tiger (yang)/Rabbit (yin), Dragon/Snake, Horse/Goat, Monkey/Rooster, Dog/Boar. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhLraHGzcet4r8jPnlD52f9ZE9YENAF0nguvhzCF2itCAJlp4cABwEFw_yLa0EfuE3SUWH74aa1KiarptD-knV3ecTHPwBlRdlmX8dZJrFEXsmPiYXELSvTMXIqd29nmUKxDOsVETM1d67Z0C4hzImKR-NGQ1ubN2YxAz-RdHHGaM5zD_kaDDJNYgWr=s800" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhLraHGzcet4r8jPnlD52f9ZE9YENAF0nguvhzCF2itCAJlp4cABwEFw_yLa0EfuE3SUWH74aa1KiarptD-knV3ecTHPwBlRdlmX8dZJrFEXsmPiYXELSvTMXIqd29nmUKxDOsVETM1d67Z0C4hzImKR-NGQ1ubN2YxAz-RdHHGaM5zD_kaDDJNYgWr=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>The Five Elements are another concept of ancient Chinese thought. They represent phases in natural cycles, such as cycles of nature or human life cycles. They are also the building blocks of life. Each element in the cycle leads to the next, and if you put them in a circle the elements across from each other on the circle act in opposition to one another. In their order, they are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. Water causes trees to grow, and the cycle starts all over again with more Wood. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjvQOpTPf9JWh_Lsf4COmC5vbdmDhNhAJ8SF5HgLeH1gqKXdzA0U5Lm1HGJigCxhfLmx_UXEc7mkMB6ZP0gzW1e6yfUqCYJWkBkWCUJoZGs-9q8G2O60gjdOyMUjlBFX-wSkWYNi1d9qHOiAsavh3rL6oexGv0oX8tDpq_vVebw9HVhgi35EbjXS116=s320" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="260" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjvQOpTPf9JWh_Lsf4COmC5vbdmDhNhAJ8SF5HgLeH1gqKXdzA0U5Lm1HGJigCxhfLmx_UXEc7mkMB6ZP0gzW1e6yfUqCYJWkBkWCUJoZGs-9q8G2O60gjdOyMUjlBFX-wSkWYNi1d9qHOiAsavh3rL6oexGv0oX8tDpq_vVebw9HVhgi35EbjXS116" width="260" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>In the Chinese zodiac, each yin/yang pair of animals gets matched with one of the Five Elements at various times, as the Elements progress through their own cycle. These two cycles of 6 pairs of Zodiac animals times 5 elements creates the full 60-year Chinese Zodiac cycle. </p><p><br /></p><p>2020 was the Year of the Metal Rat, and 2021 was the Year of the Metal Ox. It is time for a new element as we come to the Yang partner of the next pair. The next element in the cycle is Water. So we get a Water Tiger Year. </p><p><br /></p><p>This year then has plenty of Yang energy, which will make it an active year. It also has plenty of Tiger energy. Tigers are brave, courageous, restless, loyal, and strong. They are the Kings of the Forest in Chinese mythology. Water is a symbol of change, which means that the year will be bring many changes. Water is also a symbol of wealth, which means that if people are strong and bold in 2022, they can change their monetary fortunes for the better. Most websites publishing Chinese horoscopes also warn that the activity of the Tiger combined with the changeableness of water mean that 2022 will be an exhausting year. We will need to pay attention to maintaining our health to keep up with all the good changes that the year can bring us. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwO1ZVVg0aeZ0NAomSkW1l8Y6GWtSy51ReChxqSaZ9H3JvTp7ycHC2bntq_mdkigVuEA4qjZZBfOnUNppj0wQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p>Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-90918825092095286152022-02-01T12:35:00.001-08:002022-02-01T12:35:32.331-08:00Chinese New Year Traditions: Celebrating and Bonding with Family and Friends<p>Congratulations!! We all survived the Nian Beast last night, and here we are on the first day of the Chinese New Year celebrations. This is a day for family members to bond together. Parents and older siblings who work give younger generations and younger siblings gifts of money in red envelopes. Working people also give their parents and grandparents money in red envelopes. Everyone wears new, red clothes. No work is done, especially not sweeping. (You don't want to sweep away your luck.) Homes are decorated with plum blossoms and bowls of tangerines for luck. People eat lucky dishes, such as duck and chicken, nian gao (Year cakes), and assortments of dried fruits and candies set out in a dish with 8 compartments to join them all together. The focus is on strengthening familial ties and promoting health and prosperity. Much care is taken to ensure that young children do not cry. Eating sweet nian gao or chocolate candies shaped like traditional gold ingots helps keep children sweet and happy. At least it does, if they don't eat too many sweets.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh0kl6HBfCYwaHj5DOgoBsMt_7Ei79KMkcQNRim7_CeaNiMrTrqf2Jm_D9ADpcRt_Mz9aaE13E3EhFnnQ-3DEgwPAdctd9B6EcY1jQOqv_RwV1TFk9bQMlpQxaABNmY6m2m3tWq0n1-DOenJG2RtO6glkl3BmDdEu5Pd83Zh0r3oHmYsR4AUmOH5Hop=s800" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh0kl6HBfCYwaHj5DOgoBsMt_7Ei79KMkcQNRim7_CeaNiMrTrqf2Jm_D9ADpcRt_Mz9aaE13E3EhFnnQ-3DEgwPAdctd9B6EcY1jQOqv_RwV1TFk9bQMlpQxaABNmY6m2m3tWq0n1-DOenJG2RtO6glkl3BmDdEu5Pd83Zh0r3oHmYsR4AUmOH5Hop=s320" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>If the weather permits, most families go out to a nearby park or recreation area in the afternoon of the first day of New Year's celebrations. You can see pictures of places that I went in Taiwan in previous posts on this blog. In northern China, it gets snowy and icy. Ice festivals are popular, especially the Harbin Ice Festival that runs for two months and overlaps the Chinese New Year. (See <a href="https://www.icefestivalharbin.com/">https://www.icefestivalharbin.com/</a> for more on that topic.)<div><br /></div><div>Lego's 2022 Chinese New Year collection features an ice festival reminiscent of the Harbin extravaganza. Lego people do not need to social distance, and the Lego lion dancers also seem to have booked this gig.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEho_jIrX12RIPI0b97XaFsHaYXHApnacoDH1g6J496KGOQnWRvJSsQHmkTTFTk9JcbxwhWn5v2hlqmy98OYBXJ8MMY9ANwX9GQEba0POw9KztAjVUAAw4r6jTxo4JjpetSEhcS7UlRTUg2vikzb4xDVtWd_YGoaMWiJGhcjabkwV08NY92RkqhMxgyZ=s4624" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3468" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEho_jIrX12RIPI0b97XaFsHaYXHApnacoDH1g6J496KGOQnWRvJSsQHmkTTFTk9JcbxwhWn5v2hlqmy98OYBXJ8MMY9ANwX9GQEba0POw9KztAjVUAAw4r6jTxo4JjpetSEhcS7UlRTUg2vikzb4xDVtWd_YGoaMWiJGhcjabkwV08NY92RkqhMxgyZ=s320" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh4ZEPvFBkzQHyZfl8ivSr2COwsAuAvH7Tr6AnFk8p-OWyCikr9rdLIXGtz_KCuZe4K06b1RsX-p1pa4QoeO-jVBGZY0EjWGbxwWDwQPPIe5pmD4HsxXoNC0Jl8oK_ZkKF1OC0qV-8w4CgJzdKU8lqHn6Ut3Ra8Ui2NAi4u-yGg2FUTy_0FFv66mJtC=s4624" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3468" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh4ZEPvFBkzQHyZfl8ivSr2COwsAuAvH7Tr6AnFk8p-OWyCikr9rdLIXGtz_KCuZe4K06b1RsX-p1pa4QoeO-jVBGZY0EjWGbxwWDwQPPIe5pmD4HsxXoNC0Jl8oK_ZkKF1OC0qV-8w4CgJzdKU8lqHn6Ut3Ra8Ui2NAi4u-yGg2FUTy_0FFv66mJtC=s320" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgUdDih4UyrQgyc-HKjXmAuCPctAeNpuCL77CwHx990FbnzDzzcXwBMcxLxmHklrrwZM0aKgnJ-Occy0sg2YB6fp0_PvxSQvKfpCwtkzrOKLHfEDPGGN_pEIsudHxidYeqcXZOyQaZtnb1OIkyH-hgpPGTc3BFzBKb83pvOEl45chotyOHflnSQqDUc=s4624" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3468" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgUdDih4UyrQgyc-HKjXmAuCPctAeNpuCL77CwHx990FbnzDzzcXwBMcxLxmHklrrwZM0aKgnJ-Occy0sg2YB6fp0_PvxSQvKfpCwtkzrOKLHfEDPGGN_pEIsudHxidYeqcXZOyQaZtnb1OIkyH-hgpPGTc3BFzBKb83pvOEl45chotyOHflnSQqDUc=s320" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiKTT8RYzRydO5_4GGySAO1jCovYNxAHm-52Dx335EtOvw8lveUzIQE0s5mWoqZTZxCRXMmy3CKJ1ggV0oBFugGXLS5OwvMOkWQj3hvd_t5S6KbwnzQsu8AuzZuYibJz0G7rjcOE4j3T8aFc7YOlTEJ81_k0bHUUcqCcpiGLw4BTqY0sefXysEB-12P=s4624" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3468" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiKTT8RYzRydO5_4GGySAO1jCovYNxAHm-52Dx335EtOvw8lveUzIQE0s5mWoqZTZxCRXMmy3CKJ1ggV0oBFugGXLS5OwvMOkWQj3hvd_t5S6KbwnzQsu8AuzZuYibJz0G7rjcOE4j3T8aFc7YOlTEJ81_k0bHUUcqCcpiGLw4BTqY0sefXysEB-12P=s320" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The ice festival has it all... ice sculptures, skate rentals, people selling hot baked yams, ice fishing, and lion dancers on ice! You can also take your picture in a Year of the Tiger cut out. China takes off 3 full days for the Lunar New Year. On the first day of the New Year, families spend time with the husband's parents. On the second day of the New Year, families spend time with the wife's parents. On the third day of the New Year, people visit favorite relatives and friends. Some businesses in Taiwan stay closed for the full first week after the New Year. Parties and festivities continue for a full two weeks, even after most businesses have reopened. Chinese New Year officially ends with the Lantern Festival, which will be on February 15, 2022. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><div><br /><p><br /></p></div>Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-66455249386916910372022-01-31T15:13:00.000-08:002022-01-31T15:13:10.020-08:00Chinese New Year Traditions: Guo Nian, Gong Xi or "Congratulations, You Survived the Nian Beast"<p>On Chinese New Year's Eve, families gather together for New Year's Eve dinner, which is a great feast that I have written about in previous posts. After dinner, they usually watch New Year's specials on TV until a few minutes before midnight. Right around midnight they go outside to pray for good luck in the coming new year, and to make a lot of noise to scare away the Nian Beast. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiJKrRqn06RjtruFJnJktGCFV-aAjoPbtZwqduCXekM_TuHeBEaJiEXSM8pPjdOsW7mYEhQWMJuedaGb2MweTnuF_KdETMqh1EgyU1_zfZeUCxHETo8Nj8pfiRe_nyEmdvdIl9TmWeApTNGLQlliFlVSkU7WOWYW91lG2mw1SWSHQzr13IuRvRk_Z6v=s4624" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3468" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiJKrRqn06RjtruFJnJktGCFV-aAjoPbtZwqduCXekM_TuHeBEaJiEXSM8pPjdOsW7mYEhQWMJuedaGb2MweTnuF_KdETMqh1EgyU1_zfZeUCxHETo8Nj8pfiRe_nyEmdvdIl9TmWeApTNGLQlliFlVSkU7WOWYW91lG2mw1SWSHQzr13IuRvRk_Z6v=s320" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>The family in the 2021 Lego set is assembled outside right before midnight. They have already set off a few bottle rockets, and they are preparing to light the big string of fire crackers hanging from their door at the stroke of midnight. They also have firepots to keep warm and more bottle rockets ready for the midnight battle with the Nian Beast.<div><br /></div><div>In some places, lion dancers go out in the streets late at night to participate in the noisy midnight celebration. Our Lego lion dancers are all set up for their performance along the main street of the village.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgWK4DhfYueyOTv32rxxNuD3GZE5c7Uj1S2VEQCohEIP8NmmrSi5AKuSke-I22Qd_jMKgcdDi9uxGJgztd1D2mgfiA4Ba9MumCzx6XqTrXqSajfOokAL9U-_4S-eA9Pj0UDJf0X-mfuklamU5hnS037Jfxrpql53z8Wo_hDwua3jefLsLGwF_q2j5te=s4624" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3468" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgWK4DhfYueyOTv32rxxNuD3GZE5c7Uj1S2VEQCohEIP8NmmrSi5AKuSke-I22Qd_jMKgcdDi9uxGJgztd1D2mgfiA4Ba9MumCzx6XqTrXqSajfOokAL9U-_4S-eA9Pj0UDJf0X-mfuklamU5hnS037Jfxrpql53z8Wo_hDwua3jefLsLGwF_q2j5te=s320" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjjpD1lpYCGz9I1ig2RE7nfNbsdppH4xsRtPxS0Y_QYL2VItN77-MF0k_as-jCLAwyRTL-TQO7mFswfaYZQTD7zWQIi9jWs-EZTdWbOR9AGQ_RkrDccKoWcIOQUzb-OO1OOGeD2hN5pAaXet0DOJNpMnQupPQa0LMhv74aJwmWD2dx552XKw3X7zZ6v=s4624" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3468" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjjpD1lpYCGz9I1ig2RE7nfNbsdppH4xsRtPxS0Y_QYL2VItN77-MF0k_as-jCLAwyRTL-TQO7mFswfaYZQTD7zWQIi9jWs-EZTdWbOR9AGQ_RkrDccKoWcIOQUzb-OO1OOGeD2hN5pAaXet0DOJNpMnQupPQa0LMhv74aJwmWD2dx552XKw3X7zZ6v=s320" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div><br /><p>According to legend, at the stroke of midnight, the Nian Beast will come to eat the villagers and destroy their homes. By making noise and burning fires, the villagers hope to scare the Nian Beast and "guo nian" or survive the Nian Beast for another year. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhSHYqQBnTGwgVo2L1LHX783biYzgJ7gksh-T7LxkFAyE84YmGqdlw05sVI_GBcd8HYBBJVfXv-Of5zmKhMocXW5YwXbejMMD6K-Di4fgBqjrV-e9Uxlm0hHiI3yqf2y7I2siKh7micwRR873a4FJYKG0su7J6LqJeqzQ7j86K0jSY9AXxtQlsV56F6=s4624" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3468" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhSHYqQBnTGwgVo2L1LHX783biYzgJ7gksh-T7LxkFAyE84YmGqdlw05sVI_GBcd8HYBBJVfXv-Of5zmKhMocXW5YwXbejMMD6K-Di4fgBqjrV-e9Uxlm0hHiI3yqf2y7I2siKh7micwRR873a4FJYKG0su7J6LqJeqzQ7j86K0jSY9AXxtQlsV56F6=s320" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>The Nian Beast arrives at the stroke of midnight. It faces lion dancers, people dressed as animals from the Chinese zodiac, and families with fire pots, bottle rockets, and loud strings of firecrackers popping over their entries. Everyone is screaming and making noise. The lion dancers get into the Nian Beast's face. They are supported by the loud drumming and clashing cymbals from their musicians. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjFKS1S4pIKUgvO-zAYdZtr0QBjgzJPPG_3Ws3h6qSqz3DfGKK7QbFgF0DgY8eDn27uAAlctGW-NptnjCTiDChd1TAGa5GAqvwZgfKfme3kuSeQqeJej_pNPbG6Okhamrc9Ui3ZAlSbLdM6dDUNzkLdX-KCqoahr4K7_SPIxLM_84UiPQyF81l8JCfj=s3468" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3050" data-original-width="3468" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjFKS1S4pIKUgvO-zAYdZtr0QBjgzJPPG_3Ws3h6qSqz3DfGKK7QbFgF0DgY8eDn27uAAlctGW-NptnjCTiDChd1TAGa5GAqvwZgfKfme3kuSeQqeJej_pNPbG6Okhamrc9Ui3ZAlSbLdM6dDUNzkLdX-KCqoahr4K7_SPIxLM_84UiPQyF81l8JCfj=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>The noise hurts the Nian Beast's ears, and the fires and lion dancers scare him. He turns around and runs back to his lair in the mountains. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh_j3hbLIowlRkggxZLW5O7SAjszrt-kz_lZ8lavWxoqqLpgnicQ-mNaUBl_U1UT7sdf3Ndi1hTgdSGRM-bqPItNkJNi-xyZXJzNmuvNOr3t3_Ys14yJSbHntb1Hd-8hr-DVJdozOzTefm6Ww7QVuNrUhdVEBKIjahE4QvqP9ZgSzq6eZXtZusK1aO8=s4624" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3468" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh_j3hbLIowlRkggxZLW5O7SAjszrt-kz_lZ8lavWxoqqLpgnicQ-mNaUBl_U1UT7sdf3Ndi1hTgdSGRM-bqPItNkJNi-xyZXJzNmuvNOr3t3_Ys14yJSbHntb1Hd-8hr-DVJdozOzTefm6Ww7QVuNrUhdVEBKIjahE4QvqP9ZgSzq6eZXtZusK1aO8=s320" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p>Everyone congratulates each other for surviving the attack of the Nian Beast. Then, they all go to bed because they want to have fun going out with their families on Chinese New Year's Day. (The lion dancers will have another gig...) "Surviving the Nian Beast" is supposed to be the reason that Chinese people say "gong xi" or "congratulations" to each other on Chinese New Year. </p><p><br /></p></div>Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-33956489564873625592022-01-29T18:48:00.000-08:002022-01-29T18:48:15.776-08:00Chinese New Year Traditions: Getting Ready<p> Chinese New Year is almost upon us. The Year of the Ox will leave, and the Year of the Tiger will begin at midnight February 1. According to tradition, families are supposed to clean their houses well. Red paper strips with lucky sayings written in calligraphy are pasted across the top of the door and on each side doorpost. Red lanterns are hung in the doorway, if the entrance allows it. People buy new, red clothes, and make lots of good food. A favorite is "year cake" or "nian gao," which is made with sticky rice. Of course, Chinese New Year 2022 is happening in the midst of a pandemic surge, and for some people, social distancing makes it harder to keep up with traditions. But, for the Lego people in the Chinese New Year collection series, there is no need to fear infection with a plague. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgc0en8UpkQXYZv8iKGdvGxr1SGfJtKmdjWwyyK8KpDvX6aIVmOKf-6zJQc475YlY8m3FJ_4ukUmv_QYAtJA8n6Yd890vUU-3rIxfvW68cdNDld47GSUAKvHubwO7i3lBwZtLzoLbYqH-ULZR2L-ZbQqLJCu1N--RjjEY-KdgcCq7UReJFGC57hRFqN=s4624" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3468" data-original-width="4624" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgc0en8UpkQXYZv8iKGdvGxr1SGfJtKmdjWwyyK8KpDvX6aIVmOKf-6zJQc475YlY8m3FJ_4ukUmv_QYAtJA8n6Yd890vUU-3rIxfvW68cdNDld47GSUAKvHubwO7i3lBwZtLzoLbYqH-ULZR2L-ZbQqLJCu1N--RjjEY-KdgcCq7UReJFGC57hRFqN=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>In this scene from the 2020 collection, the grandfather is scrubbing the windows and touching up the red paint on the grills. Grandfather's younger brother has just finished pasting the papers with lucky sayings around the front door, and Grandmother has emerged from the kitchen to check on his work. Father has come back from buying more bottle rockets, while Older Brother is dressed as a Chinese zodiac Ox and is hanging a string of firecrackers from the roof. The little kids are making a snowman in the front yard because they are on vacation from school. </p><p><br /></p><p>The bottle rockets and firecrackers will all be set off exactly at midnight of the new year. But why make so much noise in the middle of the night? What is up with all the red? And why are there always lion dancers with drums and cymbals and their own bottle rockets at Chinese New Year celebrations? In the 2019 Lego Chinese New Year collection, the village lion dancer club is practicing by the old village gate in the marketplace for their midnight performance in the village streets. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj74LBSvLKvjzWtcVhQKYtj7DID2mbLeWKa-voNkc9BsbITaWzHTUpgSid-Wi8zcwiApHSqfUdHQTSCIib0U6S36iGpxHwiopbJAZ0Zej0gcJjzNh6F5tiCpyHzKMFuQ4dzwddeGNdl-JI5QZOVAPLGudYOndIDSk1Zzjn1QXRv6BXo7elmLl5ncJMu=s4624" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3468" data-original-width="4624" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj74LBSvLKvjzWtcVhQKYtj7DID2mbLeWKa-voNkc9BsbITaWzHTUpgSid-Wi8zcwiApHSqfUdHQTSCIib0U6S36iGpxHwiopbJAZ0Zej0gcJjzNh6F5tiCpyHzKMFuQ4dzwddeGNdl-JI5QZOVAPLGudYOndIDSk1Zzjn1QXRv6BXo7elmLl5ncJMu=s320" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Legend has it that all the cleaning and decorations on family homes are necessary to protect everyone from being eaten at midnight by the "Year Beast" or "Nian shou." The Nian Beast is said by some to live in the mountains and by others to live in the sea. In all the legends, it comes to places with lots of humans on midnight of Chinese New Year, just as the old year is leaving and the new year is arriving. At this moment, the Nian Beast comes to eat people and animals and to destroy whatever it finds. Some legends say that the lion dancers dress up like the Nian Beast and dance to loud drums and cymbals to scare the Nian Beast away and keep their homes safe. </div><div><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjUd7O_0Z7LnCJuxqkurK7Rm-3vToQZq6elinYE26Jbl77AHWm2EnhdGxBfjNtoT6yoUnm46iMCo81YdP8QywWQjKYS5xy3G2y2oBsTopbfHkOhWBoK4D3fF5wt_NrSwTvB0jp8i2JZkhXEmaMZyUM7zPtYf3puYCZlcnyVuGNZ_pxyC-nGi1FM3t6e=s4624" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4624" data-original-width="3468" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjUd7O_0Z7LnCJuxqkurK7Rm-3vToQZq6elinYE26Jbl77AHWm2EnhdGxBfjNtoT6yoUnm46iMCo81YdP8QywWQjKYS5xy3G2y2oBsTopbfHkOhWBoK4D3fF5wt_NrSwTvB0jp8i2JZkhXEmaMZyUM7zPtYf3puYCZlcnyVuGNZ_pxyC-nGi1FM3t6e=s320" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p>This is Lego's version of the Nian Beast. It looks like drawings in folktale books that I have seen. It also resembles the lion dancers' costumes. Will the Nian Beast eat anyone this Chinese New Year? Or will the lion dancers scare it away? </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-79302634377592317712020-02-09T18:07:00.001-08:002020-02-09T18:37:49.467-08:00Police and Drone Technology in the Time of Corona Virus<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dx0F3O3qXcy5PnFmBuEEfYgW7ncRoz-lahSqIKVEcENTTMqXHK74S4cLv11h4OxlMB2swCbnw1UmnvtHwLnRg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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The Chinese police are flying a drone into a quarantined area and using the drone to spot people violating the face mask and no gathering rules. They then speak through the drone to call out specific people by the clothes they are wearing and tell them to separate and/or put on their face masks. </div>
Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-20433523762551868402020-02-08T22:17:00.000-08:002020-02-08T22:42:43.864-08:00"I'm Leaving" by Li Wen-liang <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SBhQtgONr6o/Xj-iKHcTZzI/AAAAAAAAB9s/FUo1cK0omvoQuwLY7HGW0Wo5YT-7I6xmgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Li%2BWen%2BLiang%2BFebruary%2B2020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SBhQtgONr6o/Xj-iKHcTZzI/AAAAAAAAB9s/FUo1cK0omvoQuwLY7HGW0Wo5YT-7I6xmgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Li%2BWen%2BLiang%2BFebruary%2B2020.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The preceding was shared with me by some Buddhist friends in Taipei. The text is attributed to the 34 year old doctor in Wuhan, who spoke out about the Corona virus and who passed away in the last few days. My translation of the text is below:<br />
<br />
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“I’m Leaving” by
Li Wen-liang<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Before
I become a mote of dust, I quietly remember the black earth and white clouds of
my childhood home. I long to return to my childhood, when the wind danced
happily, and the snow was pure white.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
is so good to be alive, but I am dying. I will not be able to touch the face of
my loved ones, nor will I ever again be able to take my child to watch the sun
rise over East Lake in the spring. I will never again be able to go with my
parents to see the cherry blossoms at Wuhan University. I will never again be
able to fly a kite up into the depths of the clouds. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
often dreamed that my unborn child would come crying into the world seeking me
out among the throngs of humanity. I am sorry, my child! I know you want an
ordinary father, but I have become a commoner hero. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
is almost dawn, and I will be leaving. I am taking a guarantee as my only
baggage from this life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
want to thank all those in the world who have understood me, pitied me, and
loved me. I know that you will all be waiting for me to climb that mountain at
dawn! But I am too tired. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
this life, I never wanted to be as weighty as the sacred Mount Tai, nor was I
afraid to be as inconsequential as a feather. My only hope is that after the
snows melt, all living things will still deeply love this earth…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">When
the spring thunder rolls, if there are still those who want to remember me,
please place a small tombstone on my grave! It does not need to be anything
special; it just needs to prove that I once existed on this earth with a name,
ignorant and fearless. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
epitaph only needs to be one sentence: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“He
once spoke on behalf of the living.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br /></div>
Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-73761644404210703422019-10-11T08:50:00.000-07:002019-10-11T08:50:06.455-07:00The Doctor is In<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TFunTrY6Abw/XaCiojZx8kI/AAAAAAAAB78/X9sc0D9TX6Aw3O6EnmUYaQ7WeHqxs2tZgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Diss%2BDefense%2BHard%2BCopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TFunTrY6Abw/XaCiojZx8kI/AAAAAAAAB78/X9sc0D9TX6Aw3O6EnmUYaQ7WeHqxs2tZgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Diss%2BDefense%2BHard%2BCopy.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PhD Dissertation:<br /> <i>Humanistic Buddhism and Climate Change: Propagating the Bodhisattva Ethic of Compassion for People and the Planet</i><br />Dissertation Committee Chair: Richard P. Madsen, Distinguished Professor of Sociology</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YEeNT_fBiBw/XaCi1a92zAI/AAAAAAAAB8A/kSIwNMbPgsIqUdUKG82ac1vultbKLPnvACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Outstanding%2BDiss%2BAward.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YEeNT_fBiBw/XaCi1a92zAI/AAAAAAAAB8A/kSIwNMbPgsIqUdUKG82ac1vultbKLPnvACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Outstanding%2BDiss%2BAward.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Outstanding Dissertation Award</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Bi9BBiyVi48/XaCi-DZluTI/AAAAAAAAB8I/brQxCDvlm20FRTPnaFqc_cknJMvKZ3giwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/PhD%2BDiploma%2BTZL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Bi9BBiyVi48/XaCi-DZluTI/AAAAAAAAB8I/brQxCDvlm20FRTPnaFqc_cknJMvKZ3giwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/PhD%2BDiploma%2BTZL.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PhD in Sociology from University of California San Diego</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-41976534192342063092015-08-02T22:57:00.000-07:002015-11-22T08:42:43.539-08:00Translations of Book and Interview Transcript by Chinese Poet Huang Xiang<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Last year I completed my translation of Huang Xiang's book <i>The Thunder of Deep Thought</i>. The advance edition came out in October 2014 in time for the 10th anniversary of City of Aslyum/Pittsburgh where Huang Xiang was artist in residence for two years. This is a link to an interview with Huang Xiang about the book and his other art work that is on the publisher's website <a href="http://www.sampsoniaway.org/multimedia/2014/11/20/the-writers-block-huang-xiang/?fb_ref=Default" target="_blank"> (Huang Xiang video)</a>.<br />
<br />
The book is now available on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Thunder-Deep-Thought-Notebooks-Number/dp/1502745801/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448210362&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Thunder+of+deep+thought" target="_blank">Amazon</a>.<br />
<br />
Huang Xiang is a poet, calligrapher, and painter. He painted this painting for the cover of the book, and the calligraphy on the cover is a free-form poem.<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FeOzZWJHYac/Vb7-h6D4HPI/AAAAAAAABl0/RYPF7MBd-0Q/s1600/HX%2BIce%2BBlue%2BPoetry%2BPainting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FeOzZWJHYac/Vb7-h6D4HPI/AAAAAAAABl0/RYPF7MBd-0Q/s320/HX%2BIce%2BBlue%2BPoetry%2BPainting.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
This is my translation of the calligraphy poem on the painting:</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Ice
Blue Poetry<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">by Huang Xiang</span></b></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> <i> In the days before it was covered
with ice and snow and after it was covered with ice and snow and while it is
covered with ice and snow or while the ice and snow are melting due to climate
change, it has always remained the same planet, hanging and turning in time and
space, the same great Earth under the same orb of the sun, where humanity has
lived or is living, and from which humanity will disappear in the end.<br /><o:p></o:p></i></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><i> In the time and space apart from
time and space, who were the earliest visitors to the ice blue world? Who can interpret
the mysterious meaning of the ice and snow? Who has discovered the
inexplicable, hidden secrets of civilization under the vast layers of ice? I
believe that the past, present, and future of different times and spaces are
all the same moment of now. The earth and sun both belong to the ultimate
meaning of the same ball of ice.</i></span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">--Translated by Teresa Zimmerman-Liu<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="line-height: normal;">Huang Xiang is probably best known in Chinese history for posting one of his poems in big character posters in Beijing and thus sparking the 1987 Democracy Wall Movement. He was recently interviewed about the Democracy Wall and about his work. I translated the transcript of that interview, and he gave me permission to disseminate it. If you are interested in obtaining a copy of my translation of the transcript, email me, and I'll send you a copy. </span><br />
<span style="line-height: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: normal;">You can find information about Huang Xiang's cross-cultural Century Mountain Project by following this <a href="http://www.centurymountain.com/" target="_blank">link.</a> He has done this project in collaboration with William Rock. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<br /></div>
Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-85751725588582633062013-10-13T18:47:00.000-07:002019-08-14T13:14:53.479-07:00Restoration of Health and Family Harmony<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">After
that detour into the history and concepts of Chinese medicine, I want to come
back to my narration of our family’s story. As I noted in my first post on
Chinese medicine, we moved to California in the mid-1990s. At that time, I could not find a nearby practitioner of Chinese medicine who was able to help me. I went to
a friend who is a Western medicine doctor, and he wanted to do exploratory
surgery, which our insurance refused to cover without two second opinions, that
we would have had to pay for ourselves. We did not have the money, and so upon
the recommendation of a friend, I began using homeopathy. My homeopath was
quite skilled, and I began to recover my health. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Our
relatives in Taiwan had been extremely worried about me, especially when our
Western doctor friend mentioned a possible diagnosis of cancer. As I
regained my health, the relatives in Taiwan felt it was a total miracle. Pa had developed an eye
problem where he could not keep his eyelids open without holding them up with
his fingers. He was unable to find a cure through Chinese medicine. He had also gone to one of the big hospitals in Taipei where the
doctors gave him Botox injections to keep his eyes open. Then he was unable to
completely close his eyes when he wanted to sleep. And so, the Western doctors in
Taiwan had prescribed very addictive sleeping pills for him. He was extremely
uncomfortable from the side effects of both medications. Since I had had such
good results with homeopathy, he and Ma came to visit us so that we could take
him to see the homeopath. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
homeopath lived in the Bay Area and only came to southern California on school vacations. Pa and Ma came in the middle of the school year. Yuni was
incredibly busy with a large construction project, and so I rallied my southern California friends
to help Pa. I have a friend who is a family doctor. She looked at Pa’s
medications and said that he should not be on them any longer because the
sleeping pills were highly addictive. After Pa was weaned from his sleeping
pills, he felt much better, but his eyelids were still a problem. I took him to
see another friend, who is an eye doctor, but all she could offer was perhaps
better skill at Botox treatments. Pa was not interested in those. That night,
when Yuni got home for dinner, Ma and Pa broke out their best guilt-tripping
skills to get Yuni to take us up to the Bay Area so that Pa could see the
homeopath. Yuni finally gave in and asked me to set up an appointment. The
homeopath was very busy, but we were able to get an extra-long introductory
appointment for two weeks after that date. I would do the interpreting for homeopath, and then we would
take Pa and Ma sightseeing in San Francisco while we were there. Yuni was
relieved to have two weeks in which to arrange for the time off from work. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Homeopathy
is a holistic system of medicine that uses very mild natural remedies. The
initial appointment consists of a long interview in which the homeopath seeks
the physical and psychological roots of the problem, which are found in the
patient’s constitutional indications. Over the course of the interview, I
learned that Pa had had surgery as a young man in which almost two thirds of
his stomach was removed. We also learned that he had been unable to eat well
due to his emotional upset over the situation with Elder Sister, the problem
between Yuni and my father, and my own illness. Instead of treating his eyes,
the homeopath treated his stomach and prescribed a remedy that would calm his
nerves and help him better absorb the nutrients from his food. Within a few
weeks, his eyes were much improved. The trip to the Bay Area restored harmony
to Yuni’s relationship with his parents. They went home happy with an
admonition from the homeopath to return in six months for a follow up
appointment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Six
months later, Pa, Ma, and Yuntian all came to the US to get treated by the
homeopath. Pa was feeling better than he had felt in years. Ma and Yuntian
wanted help with their chronic health issues, too. We made appointments spaced
over the course of two days for all of them. The homeopath was able to
prescribe helpful remedies for Ma and Yuntian, and she made some slight
adjustments on Pa’s dosages. Ma and Yuntian also responded well to their
remedies. Pa and Ma did not stay too long after their health appointments. We
all took a few day trips with Yuntian to Disneyland, Sea World, and Tijuana,
Mexico. Pa was much happier on these visits to Disneyland and Sea World than he
had been on his previous visits to them.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Yuntian
had been authorized upon entry to stay in the US for four full months, and he
decided to make the most of his visa permission. Pa then mentioned to Yuni that Elder Sister’s family desperately needed money. He
had sold our house in Chungli and had paid off our debts to the other sisters, but
he was only able to repay part of what we owed Elder Sister from our share of
the proceeds of the Chungli house. Pa had taken his share of the money and bought a
cheaper house out by Yuni’s old military camp where there was more room. The
neighborhood around our old house had been completely built up, and Pa needed
elbow room. Our tenants in Washington told us that they would only be renting for another six months, and so we decided to put that
house on the market. The house needed reroofing before we could sell it.
Yuntian decided that he would stay with us to help reroof our house, and in the process he would get a sightseeing trip up the coast and then down the mountain range between southern California and Washington State. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
had been three years since I had had contact with my father, and I decided that this was the time to insist on a visit with him while we were in the Seattle
area. I knew what I needed to do as a Chinese wife, even though I really do not
like using guilt trips and histrionics to get my way. I much prefer straight
forward discussions and good-faith negotiations. But I also knew that since I
had helped his parents and had just recovered from a severe illness, I was at a
prime time for pushing my point, especially since Yuntian was there to back me
up. There is a certain ritual to these intra-family dealings in the Liu family's culture. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
did not bring up anything about reconciling with my dad until we had been out on
the road for a couple of days. Then I made a scene and played the guilt-trip
card, begging Yuntian to plead my case with his brother. Yuntian and the kids
all begged Yuni to let me see my dad. Because I had been so sick and had still
found a way to improve the health of his parents and brother, Chinese family
customs demanded that Yuni give me some kind of reward. He did it in a way that
saved him some face by saying that we could all go to dinner with my dad (Yuni
would pay), and if I wanted to spend time alone with my dad and his new wife,
that was fine. However, he kept the restriction that the girls could not spend
time alone with their grandfather until they were older. When we got to Seattle, I called my dad and made arrangements to spend time with him. I think that
eventually, we all went with Dad and his wife to the Seattle Center on my dad’s
dime, and then Yuni took us all to dinner. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">And
so finally, at about the same time that Elder Sister was making headway in her
quest to be reaccepted by Elder Brother-in-law’s family, my husband and father
were able to begin to resolve their differences, and my life moved onto a more
even keel. At least, I no longer felt caught in the middle of a cross-cultural
struggle. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">While
we were on the trip to Washington, Yuntian received a phone call from his girl
friend. She was pregnant with his child. Part of the reason Yuntian had wanted
to stay behind in the US was that he wanted to wait until he knew if his girl
friend was pregnant. Ma did not approve of the girl because she was not a
Christian, but according to Yuntian, Ma kept parading fat, pimple-faced Christian
women in front of him in her matchmaking efforts. He refused to consider women
in whom he had no interest just because Ma liked them. Now he HAD to marry his
girl friend because she was carrying his first child. When we got back to California,
Yuntian rushed to book his flight home and prepare for his wedding. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-49352764973987322002013-10-06T14:58:00.003-07:002013-10-06T14:58:45.410-07:00Later Views on Chinese Medicine<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">After
the Han Dynasty, Paul Unschuld says that there were no major changes in Chinese
medicine until the Sung Dynasty (960-1279 CE). He has a chapter on how Buddhism
entered China, but he does not find much influence from Buddhism in texts on
Chinese medicine. During the Sung Dynasty, however, Neo-Confucian scholars worked
Yin-Yang Theory and the Five Elements/Five Phases Theory into Confucianism.
They also combined these theories together more coherently in the theories of
Chinese medicine, and they applied Five Phase Theory to herbs and medicines.
They made the entire study of Chinese medicine somewhat more systematic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Then,
during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, scholars felt that the Sung Dynasty
Neo-Confucians had gone too far, and for awhile late imperial Chinese scholars
tried to take Chinese medicine back to its Han Dynasty beginnings. At least,
they did this until China’s defeat in the Opium Wars. After China was defeated
by the West, there was a period when Chinese intellectuals wanted to embrace
all things modern and Western. Western medicine enjoyed a period of favor in
China during the late 19<sup>th</sup> and early 20<sup>th</sup> centuries until
people realized that Western medicine was also limited. At that point, Chinese
medicine experienced a resurgence, but there was a concerted effort to make it
more scientific and systematic. This occurred both in the Republic of China and
in the People’s Republic of China. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Nigel
Wiseman has translated many modern TCM textbooks. A good one is <i>Fundamentals of Chinese Medicine </i>(Paradigm
Publishers, 1996). Wiseman has also put out a number of books on the vocabulary
and concepts of Chinese medicine. These books present a form of Chinese
medicine that is more systematic than what went before, but there are still
many overlapping concepts from the various schools of thought, which
contributed to Chinese medicine over the millennia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Unschuld’s
<i>Life Sciences</i> book contains an
excerpt from a 1765 medical treatise that begins: “There are many medical texts
under heaven. Some of them cling to only one view, and those who read [only
these texts] will not be able to achieve a comprehensive understanding. They
have absolutely no [basis to decide] what is right and wrong, and thus, rather
than experiencing a benefit from reading books, they only experience harm from
reading books” (p. 190). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
think this passage summarizes a common view of knowledge among many Chinese
people, especially those of the older generation. My Chinese teacher used to
tell us that we should memorize as many Chinese texts as we could, especially
the old classics, because then, as we matured and gained life experience, we
would have a ready supply of ancient wisdom to apply in each situation. She
said that traditional Chinese education did not expect students to understand the
things they memorized until much, much later in their lives. Eventually,
students with a large reserve of memorized wisdom were thought to be able to
master it, apply it and use it as their own. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
am reminded of one of the heroes in Jin Yong’s kung fu novels. Yang Guo of <i>The Giant Eagle and its Companions </i>is
quite brilliant. He learns quickly, and by a very young age, he has learned
kung fu forms from a number of different schools and has been tutored by many
of the top kung fu masters of his day. One day, he seems to fall into a fit
where all the forms jumble in his brain. His friend thinks he is crazy, but an
older kung fu master tells the friend to leave Yang alone because once he processes
the knowledge, he will have moved on to an even higher level of proficiency. Yang
Guo spends seven days in a semi-trance, and he even falls unconscious five
different times. He comes out of it, when he realizes that he can use all the
schools of martial arts as he pleases. “In the future when I meet an enemy, I
can use whatever works and apply what seems best in the situation without
thinking about where the various moves came from” (Vol. 2, p. 674). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Yang
Guo becomes the best kung fu practitioner of his day. But understanding that he
can use at will whatever he needs from each school, is actually just the first
step of his move into the higher realms of knowledge. Eventually, in middle
age, when he has lost both his wife and his right arm, he goes into the
wilderness with a giant eagle. The eagle leads Yang to a cave where he finds
the diary and practice swords of an ancient kung fu master who had longed for
an adversary with the ability to truly challenge him. By this time, Yang Guo
understands the ancient master’s sentiments and spends time with the giant eagle
in this cave near a waterfall practicing the dead master’s art. In the end, Yang
realizes that all the various kung fu forms and all the various weapons and
fancy moves are nothing. The only things that matter are his will and his
skill. At this point, he has arrived at the highest level, the transcendent
level, of martial arts. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
talking to American friends who have studied Chinese medicine, I learned that
in the beginning they found things very contradictory and confusing because
nothing is truly systematic in the Western sense of the word. One friend told
me that she just learned what she needed to know in order to pass the state
licensing tests. Since getting her license, however, she has continued to
educate herself on many levels. After many years of practice, she has learned
how to take techniques from each school of thought in Chinese medicine and make
them her own. She uses techniques from each school according to the needs of
her patients. She was a Western health professional prior to studying Chinese
medicine, and she uses some Western techniques, too, when they seem most suited
to her patients’ needs. I think that, like Yang Guo after his week-long trance,
she has arrived at the first level of the higher stages of knowledge and
practice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Another Westerner, who has spent many years studying Chinese medicine, has written a book
on Five Element/Five Phase theory that does a good job translating it for
American readers. I recommend <i>Wood
Becomes Water: Chinese Medicine in Everyday Life</i> by Gail Reichstein. There
are other books by Western practitioners of Chinese medicine that also make its
ideas more accessible to average Westerners. I don’t think anyone of my acquaintance
has attained to the highest level of transcendence in practice. But totally
transcendent people are few and far between, and they may only exist in novels
and legends, kind of like Bian Que. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
conclusion, I would like to add a few comments:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">1)
Paul Unschuld focuses mainly on ancient texts and vocabulary. He does not see
much progress between the Han Dynasty and the Sung Dynasty; however, the
practice was being refined, and as the practiced changed, so did the concepts.
Unschuld argues that <i>qi</i> means
“rarefied essence,” and he uses the etymology of the early texts to prove this.
Maybe that was so in the early texts; however, he ignores the influence of
martial arts practice on this concept. Many great Chinese doctors and herbal
remedies came out of the martial arts tradition because there was a need for
healing, as people got injured practicing martial arts and because martial
artists used poisons for which they needed remedies. I am not a martial artist,
but I did study a little with a martial arts teacher in Taiwan before I got
married. I would also go up on the roof and do <i>qi gong </i>exercises with the old ladies from church after they had
attended the morning prayer sessions. These people all had a sense or feeling
of <i>qi</i>, and it was described to me as
a kind of energy. I do not know when this notion of <i>qi</i> as energy came into being, but it is also shared by
practitioners of Chinese medicine that I know, especially those who have some
background with <i>qi gong</i>. Since
Unschuld notes the existence of folk practices in Taiwan and Hong Kong that
show traces of ancestor worship and demonology from the Shang Culture and the
Zhou Dynasty, I think he should also factor in common practices and feelings
among Chinese people in his attempt to understand the vocabulary of the Chinese
medical classics. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">2)
I think that the syncretistic aspect of Chinese thought is a factor that has
enabled Chinese civilization to last for such a long time. Because the Chinese
are able to accept new ideas and work them into their old thought patterns or to
adapt old thought patterns to meet new challenges, their culture has survived
for millennia. As their ideas flow out around the world, it is only natural
that non-Chinese people, who are exposed to these thought patterns, would absorb them
and adapt them to their particular cultures. This is generally the case with
all transnational cultural flows, according to Arjun Appadurai and other academic
theorists. Modern Chinese have done the same thing with aspects of Western
culture that have influenced their society during the modern era. Hence, we have Mao
Zedong’s Communism with Chinese characteristics, the Chinese Christianity of
indigenous twentieth-century Chinese preachers, and Sun Yat-sen’s version of
democratic socialism: the Three Principles of the People. There are also many
other examples of cultural hybridity in both the Chinese and US societies today. There really
is no pure culture; human societies are in a constant state of flux, and we
learn from whomever we meet. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-10464999913087498982013-09-29T07:56:00.000-07:002013-09-29T07:56:05.442-07:00The Legend of Bian Que<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Here
is my translation of a story about a famous, ancient Chinese doctor. The
original Chinese text is in my old textbook from the NTNU Mandarin Training Center
in Taipei: <i>Stories from Chinese History,
Volume I</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Legend of Bian Que<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Bian
Que was a famous doctor during the Spring and Autumn Period. At the time,
everyone believed that he could immediately heal any difficult illness. But Bian
Que did not agree with such praise. He said, “I am not a miraculous doctor, who
is able to resurrect the dead; I can only heal those whose lives should not yet
end.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">He
traveled around healing people, and eventually he came to the State of Qi. Marquis
Huan of the State of Qi wanted to see this world-famous doctor, and he sent
people to Bian Que to invite him to the Marquis’s home as a guest. When Bian
Que saw the Marquis, he discovered that the coloring of the Marquis’s face was
somewhat abnormal. After observing him for awhile, Bian Que earnestly said to
Marquis Huan of the State of Qi: “I will not lie to you. You are ill now, but
fortunately, the illness is not yet serious. The poison is only in your skin.
Please allow me to heal you!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When
Marquis Huan heard Bian Que say that he was ill, he became very angry, and he
thought that Bian Que was cursing him. Hence, he rudely said to Bian Que: “I am
not ill.” Bian Que had wanted to be helpful, but instead, he had been rebuffed.
He felt forced to leave quickly. After Bian Que was gone, Marquis Huan proudly
told his retainers: “Doctors are all like that. You are not really sick, but
they pretend to heal you, so that you will give them money and feel grateful to
them.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">After
Bian Que had gone home, he worried about Marquis Huan’s illness. Five days
later, he went without invitation to visit the Marquis. As soon as he saw
Marquis Huan, Bian Que knew that things were not good. He said to the Marquis:
“The illness has spread from your skin to your blood vessels. If you do not get
treatment, I am afraid it will get worse.” The Marquis thought, “This fellow
has come to play that same trick on me.” He impatiently said to Bian Que: “I
already told you that I am not ill!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">After
another five days, Bian Que could not resist going to see the Marquis again.
The Marquis’s illness was visibly worse than it had been previously. Bian Que
begged the Marquis: “Get treatment soon! The poison has entered your inner
organs, but you still can be healed with great difficulty.” Marquis Huan
completely ignored Bian Que; with a flourish of his sleeves he went into his
chamber. Bian Que had to leave the place. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Because
of his sense of responsibility, Bian Que still felt forced to visit the Marquis
after yet another five days. As soon as he walked through the door, he saw
Marquis Huan and was astonished. He turned around and walked out. Marquis Huan
felt that this time there was something strange, and so he sent a messenger to
ask Bian Que. Bian Que said to the messenger: “When an illness is in the skin
or blood vessels, it can be healed with medicine or acupuncture. Even when the
illness has progressed to the inner organs, I can still think of ways to heal
it. But now the illness has entered the bones and marrow; there is no way to
cure it. Therefore, I have nothing to say to Marquis Huan. It was best for
me to leave immediately.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Five
days after this, Marquis Huan of the State of Qi felt very ill. He sent people
to invite Bian Que to examine him, but Bian Que had secretly departed many days
previously. Soon after this, Marquis Huan died, as expected. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-61327434564619205882013-09-20T19:44:00.000-07:002013-09-20T19:44:45.463-07:00Early Views on Systematic Correspondence in Chinese Medicine<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If
you read Volume I of Fung Yu-Lan’s <i>A
History of Chinese Thought</i>, which I mentioned in my last post, you will
find that much of Chinese philosophy developed during the end of the Zhou
Dynasty in the Spring-Autumn Period (770-476 BCE) and the Warring States Period
(476-221 BCE). Another spurt of philosophical development came during the Han
Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE). During these times, Chinese philosophers developed
the Yin-Yang Theory, which I discussed in earlier posts with respect to its
influence on gender roles and women. They also developed the Five Elements or
Five Phases Theory (</span><span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">五行,</span><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">wu xing</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">) that categorizes natural phenomenon into the five
elements of wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. These five elements or phases move
according to the cycle of the seasons. Paul Unschuld’s <i>Medicine in China</i> shows how these theories gave rise to the
theories of systematic correspondence that form the basis for TCM today.
Unschuld prefers the term Five Phases for <i>wu
xing</i> because the Chinese term implies process or motion. These five notions
are not static materials as the word “element” might suggest. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">Unschuld also
traces the development of the concept of meridians along which the <i>qi</i> or vapor of life flows. In medical
texts found in the Ma-huang-dui, there are eleven disconnected meridians, and
it seems that acupuncture and moxibustion are recommended for aiding the flow
of <i>qi</i>. Later, in the <i>Huang-di-nei-jing</i> (Yellow Emperor’s
Inner Classic), the eleven meridians have been augmented into a system of
twelve meridians which connect the various organs of the body. These organs are
divided into two groups, the depots and the palaces, and it seems that the
entire economy of a healthy body is characterized by the metaphor of a healthy
united empire with canals and roads for transporting food, with storage depots
for holding supplies, and with factories for processing metals and making salt. There is a hierarchy among the organs, similar to the hierarchy of
officials in the empire. The heart is considered to be the ruler or <i>jun</i>. Grains are eaten and are processed
in the stomach to become <i>qi</i>. This <i>qi</i> nourishes the blood, which
circulates, and the <i>qi</i> itself also
circulates to all parts of the body. The various parts of the body absorb
whatever elements of the <i>qi</i> they need
for their functions, and the dregs are moved to the lower parts of the body
from which they are eliminated. The <i>qi </i>going
up to supply the body is called <i>pure qi</i>,
and the depleted <i>qi</i> going down for
elimination is called <i>turbid qi</i>.
Herbs, food, life-style, acupuncture, and moxibustion are all recommended to
help maintain the proper balance and functioning of the organism. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">In addition to
these theories, Unschuld describes how the religious Daoists contributed
greatly to the knowledge of herbal properties, as they conducted alchemical
experiments in their pursuit of immortality. They, too, became a school of
medical practice in Chinese antiquity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">The following are
three of the early Chinese medical texts with Paul Unschuld’s translations from
his <i>Chinese Life Sciences: Introductory
Readings in Classical Chinese Medicine</i> (Paradigm Publishers, 2005). I have
chosen three that I think give a basic overview without getting into too much
detail. They are a few of my favorite texts in the book. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">黃帝內經,素問</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">四氣調神大論</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">從陰陽則生。逆之則死。從之則治。逆之則亂。反順為逆。是謂內格。是故聖人不治以病治未病。不治已亂治未亂。此之謂也。夫病以成而後藥之。譬如渴而穿井。鬪而鑄錐。不亦晚乎。</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;"> (Unschuld 2005, p. 10)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">Huang Di Nei Jing, Su Wen 2<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">Comprehensive
Treatise on the Regulation of the Spirit in Accord with the Four Seasons<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">If one follows yin
and yang, then life results; if one opposes them, then death results. If one
follows them, then order results; if one opposes them, then disorder results.
To act contrary to what is appropriate, this is opposition. This is called
inner obstruction. Hence, [when it was said] “the sages did not treat those
already ill, but treated those not yet ill; they did not regulate what was
already in disorder, but regulated what was not yet in disorder,” then this
expresses the meaning of that [what was said above]. Now, when drugs are
employed for therapy only after disease has become fully developed, when
[attempts at] restoring order are initiated only after disorder has fully
developed, this is as if a well were dug when one is thirsty, and as if weapons
were cast when the fight is on. Would this not be too late, too? (Unschuld
2005, p. 12)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">黃帝內經,素問</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">77<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">疏五過論</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">聖人之治病也。必知天地陰陽。四時經紀。五藏六府。雌雄表裏。刺灸砭石,毒藥所主。從容人事。以明經道。貴賤貧富。各異品理。問年少長勇怯之理。審於分部。知病本始。八正九候。診必副矣。</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">(Unschuld 2005, p. 16)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">Huang Di Nei Jing, Su Wen 77<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">On the Five Errors<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">When the sages
treated a disease, they certainly knew the yin and yang [qi] of heaven and
earth and the invariable rules followed by the four seasons; the five depots
and six palaces (1), female and male, exterior and interior, [as well as]
piercing, cauterization, pointed stones, and toxic drugs with all [the
diseases] they master. Their approach to the human affairs was natural, thereby
understanding the Way laid down in the classics. The noble and the common, the
poor and the wealthy, they all [represent] a structure of different ranks, [and
the sages] inquired [from the parents] whether they [belonged to] the order of
youth or adulthood, of courage or timidity. They investigated [all the] parts
and sections [of the human body] and they knew the root and the beginning of
the diseases [to be treated]. As for the eight cardinal [turning points] (2)
and the nine indicators, in their examinations they were of definite help
[too]. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">(1) The
acknowledgement of the yinyang dualism as one of the pervasive structuring
principles of all existence required the identification of two types of organs.
The designations chosen were metaphors borrowed from the realm of social
institutions, i.e. <i>fu</i> </span><span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">府</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;"> in the sense of a storage unit where items are
kept only temporarily before being emitted again, and <i>zang</i> </span><span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">藏</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;"> in the sense of
an inner-most storage unit where items are kept for a long time, if not
forever. The former, including small and large intestines, urinary bladder,
gallbladder, stomach, and heart enclosure (pericardium), were identified as
yang, signifying notions such as “outer” and “passage”; the latter, including
lung, heart, spleen, liver, and kidneys, were identified as yin, signifying
notions such as “interior” and “tranquility”. However, a second metaphorical
usage of <i>fu</i> </span><span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">府</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;"> identified small and large intestines, urinary
bladder, gallbladder, stomach, and heart enclosure (pericardium) as “palaces”
housing the <i>zhu</i> </span><span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">主</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">, “rulers”, lung, heart, spleen, liver, and kidneys, respectively. Thus,
in ancient Chinese medical literature, the term <i>fu</i> </span><span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">府</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;"> is encountered in
two different kinds of social metaphorical contents. In my translations of the
terms <i>zang</i> </span><span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">藏</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;"> and <i>fu </i></span><span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">府</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">, I render the former as “depot”, thereby referring
to the storage unit metaphor, and the latter as “palace”, thereby referring to
the ruler-palace metaphor. A clear identification of each usage of the term <i>fu</i> </span><span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">府</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;"> as either “palace” or “short-term storage unit”
appears impracticable. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">(2) A reference to
the qi at “the eight seasonal turning points”, i.e. the two solstices, the two
equinoxes, and the four first days of the four seasons. These are critical
terms in the course of each year. (Unschuld 2005, pp. 18-19)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">黃帝內經,太素</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;"> 2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">調食</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">黃帝曰</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">: </span><span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">願聞穀氣有五味。其入五藏。分別奈何。伯高曰。胃者。五藏六府之海也。水穀皆入於胃。五藏六府皆高於胃。胃受水穀。變化以滋五藏六府。五味各走其所喜。穀味酸。先走肝。穀味苦。先走心。穀味甘。先走脾。穀味辛。先走肺。穀味鹹。先走腎。穀氣津液已行。營衛大通。乃化糟粕。以次傳下。</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">(</span><span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">水穀化為津液。清氣猶如霧露。名營衛。行脈內外。無所滯礙。故曰大通。其沉濁者。名為糟粕。泌別汁入於膀胱。故曰以次傳下也。</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">) </span><span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">黃帝曰。營衛之行奈何。伯高曰。穀始入於胃。其精微者。先出於胃之兩焦。以即五藏。別出兩行於營衛之道。</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">(</span><span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">精微。津液也。津液資五藏已。衛氣出胃上口。營氣出於中焦之後。故曰兩行道也。</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">) </span><span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">其大氣之搏而不行者。積於胸中。命曰氣海。出於肺。循喉嚨。故呼則出。吸則入。</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">(</span><span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">搏。聚也。穀化為氣。計有四道。精微營衛。以為二道。化為糟粕及濁氣并尿。其於精下傳。復為一道。搏而不行。積於胸中。名氣海。以為呼吸。復為一道。合為四道也。</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">) (Unschuld 2005, p. 55)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">Huang Di Nei Jing</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">, <i>Tai Su </i>2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">To Balance
Nourishment<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">Huang Di: I should
like to hear [about the following]. The qi of the grains have five flavors.
When they enter the five depots—according to what [kind of criteria] are they
separated?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">Bo Gao: The
stomach is the sea for the five depots and six palaces. All the water and
grains [that man consumes] enter the stomach. The five depots and six palaces
receive all their supplies from the stomach. (The stomach receives the water
and the grains; it transforms them to nourish the five depots and six palaces.)
The five flavors move each to [the one depot] which they prefer. The sour
flavor of the grains moves first into the liver. The bitter flavor of the
grains moves first into the heart. The sweet flavor of the grains moves first
into the spleen. The acrid flavor of the grains moves first into the lungs. The
salty flavor of the grains moves first into the kidneys. As soon as the qi of
the grains and all the liquids have begun their passage [through the organism],
and when the camp and guardian [qi] penetrate the entire body, dregs result
from transformation and are transmitted downward step by step. (The water and
the grains are transformed into liquids. There are clear qi resembling mist and
dew; they are called camp and guardian [qi], and they proceed inside and outside
the vessels. There is nothing that could obstruct [their flow]. Hence, [the
text] states “penetrate the entire [body].” Those that sink down and are turbid
are called dregs. They gush, as separate juices, into the urinary bladder.
Hence, [the text] states: “are transmitted downward step by step.”)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">Huang Di: How do
the camp and guardian [qi] move [through the body]?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">Bo Gao: The grains
first enter the stomach. Their essential and subtle components leave the
stomach first through two of its burners [before] they nourish the five depots.
They leave [the stomach through two] separate [openings], and proceed through
the two paths of the camp and guardian [qi, respectively]. (The essential and
subtle [components] are the liquids. After the liquids have nourished the five
depots, the guardian qi leave through the upper opening of the stomach; the
camp qi leave from behind the central burner. Hence, the text states “proceed
through two paths.”) Those major [portions of] the qi which are seized and do
not move on, they are collected in the chest, and this is called the “sea of
qi”; its outlet is through the lungs, via the windpipe. Hence, to exhale
[causes the qi] to leave; to inhale [causes them] to enter [the body]. (“Are
seized” stands for “are accumulated.” The grains are transformed into qi.
Altogether there are four paths [for the qi to enter and leave the body, and
pass through it]. The essential and subtle [components, i.e. the] camp and
guardian [qi] occupy two paths. The transformation into dregs and turbid qi,
and also urine, and the passage downward together with the semen, that
constitutes yet another path. [Those qi that are] seized and do not move on,
and which accumulate in the chest, they are called the “sea of qi”. From this
originates inhalation and exhalation, which constitutes yet another path.
Together these are four paths.) (Unschuld 2005, pp. 58-59)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-11311541446634686322013-09-14T12:39:00.002-07:002013-09-16T08:42:05.167-07:00More on Chinese Medicine<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
has been almost three months since my last post, mainly because I have a book
on Chinese medicine that I wanted to read and incorporate in this series of
posts. It is a comprehensive, scholarly overview of Chinese thoughts on healing
and medicine beginning with the Shang Culture (1556-1056 BCE) and continuing up
through the Maoist Era (1949-1976 CE). It took me longer to get through the
book than I had expected. It is an excellent book; I highly recommend it: <i>Medicine in China: a History of Ideas</i> by
Paul U. Unschuld (University of California Press, 1985). The appendix has
numerous translations of ancient Chinese medical texts, and Dr. Unschuld has
put out another book called <i>Chinese Life
Sciences: Introductory Readings in Classical Chinese Medicine</i> (Paradigm
Publications, 2005), in which he presents sixty Chinese medical texts with
Chinese-English vocabulary and an English translation of each text. I had read
through that book first, and its introduction suggested the <i>Medicine in China</i> book for people who
wanted to gain a deeper understanding of the concepts. I did not realize how much
I had to learn.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I think
the deepest impression that I received from <i>Medicine
in China</i> corresponds to the experiences that I described in my last post:
Chinese medicine is NOT really systematic. There have always been many schools
of thought, which have existed simultaneously. The medicine practiced by
learned scholars has been very different from the folk remedies found among
the peasant population. Unschuld explains this by saying that traditional
Chinese thought, in general, has always been syncretistic. Seemingly
contradictory systems of thought exist side-by-side in the culture, and over
the centuries, average Chinese people seem to have developed a habit of picking
and choosing which method or concept best meets the specific need at this moment in time. The best example
is the multitude of philosophies that have existed in and influenced Chinese
life since antiquity. The main three are Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism,
but there are also the Legalists and other schools of thought that resurface
time and again throughout history. Fung Yu-Lan’s <i>A History of Chinese Thought</i> (Princeton University Press, 1952)
gives a comprehensive survey of the various schools of philosophy and how they
have influenced one another and Chinese society over the centuries. Such a
mindset is very different from our emphasis on the RIGHT WAY to do things or view
things in the West. We tend to think there is only one way. According to
Unschuld, the Chinese historically seem to have preferred a variety of options,
and are comfortable with more than one way, as long as none of the methods
harms anyone. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
the earliest days of the Shang Culture (1556-1046 BCE), the king would use
tortoise carapaces and ox shoulder blades to practice divination. In the
practice of divination, the king would ask a question of his ancestors, the
shamans would apply heat to the shell or bone, and the cracks would answer the
questions. The questions and answers would be scratched into the bone. You can
see lots of these artifacts in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. Scholars
have unlocked the oracle bone script, which is an early form of pictographs and
is related to modern-day Chinese characters. From the oracle bones, we know
that many of the divination questions were related to illness. It appears that
the Chinese of the Shang Culture believed that angry ancestral spirits caused
illnesses and that the way to end illness was to appease the angry ancestor.
Unschuld notes that the Shang Culture did not see a real separation between the
living and the dead. There seemed to be a contract between the living and the
dead; the living would provide the dead with sacrifices, and the dead would
protect the living from harm. Unschuld further comments that such a mindset can
still be found in Taiwan and Hong Kong. That reminded me of the time Pa got a
speeding ticket on the way to sweep the family tomb…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">A few
months after Yuni, the girls, and I had moved to the United States, we got a phone call
from the family in Taiwan berating Yuni for getting caught driving down the
shoulder of the road by one of the cameras along the highway. A traffic ticket
had come to the family home in Chungli. Yuni did not remember driving along the
shoulder of the highway illegally, when we went on our tour of the island to
say good-bye to friends and relatives, but he was not sure. So he gave Ma the
password for his bank account and told her to take the money to pay off the
ticket. He also told her to keep the traffic ticket photo because he wanted to examine
it. The next summer, we went back to Taiwan for a visit, and Ma pulled out the
photo, which she had duly hidden in a secret place in her bedroom. Yuni looked
at the date and announced that this could not have been him driving because it
was taken several months AFTER we had moved to the US. Pa said that he had not driven
on the highway because all his work was local, but then he remembered something.
He asked for the date again and checked the Chinese lunar calendar. It turned
out that Pa had been driving down for the family tomb sweeping ceremony, and the picture was of him. There
was a traffic jam on the freeway, and he had driven along the shoulder in his
efforts to be on time for the sacrifice to the ancestors. He had been the one
to get the ticket. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Pa
was quite upset at the ancestors for not protecting him while he was on the way
to offer the yearly sacrifice. He said that the ancestors must not be very
efficacious, since they could not even keep him from getting a traffic ticket.
Ma later told me that from that time forward, Pa stopped going to the tomb
sweeping ceremony. He would send money to Eldest Paternal Uncle and have him
buy a chicken for the ancestors to offer in Pa’s name, but Pa himself stopped
going up to the tomb. In 1999, there was a large earthquake in Taiwan. Pa and
Ma were visiting us in the US, and all their children in Taiwan had called in
reporting that they were safe, except for Eldest Sister, who lived closest to
the epicenter. Pa went out into the garden and began praying to Jesus for her
safety. I heard him, but I did not interrupt. Later, after Eldest Sister got
through to us, I asked Pa about his prayers. He told me that in his heart he
was a Christian, but because he had not been able to obtain permission from his
parents to NOT practice ancestor worship, he did not feel free to join in
Christian practice. He did, however, give his blessing to his children to
practice Christianity and to refrain from </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">worshiping</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"> him after his death. To
Pa, at least, this contract with his parents was very real, and he would not
breach it, even though he did not believe that they could adequately protect
him from the spirit world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">After discussing Shang Culture and ancestor worship, Unschuld
moves on to discuss the changes in beliefs about healing that occurred during
the Zhou Dynasty (1100-221 BCE). In the Zhou Dynasty, the ancestors gave way to
demons, and demonology became prevalent. Unschuld again notes that certain
segments of the population still practice a form of demonology against illness,
especially in Taiwan and Hong Kong. When some Chinese get sick, or at least
this was true still in the 1980s when I lived in Taiwan, they go to a temple or
to a shaman and have him write a <i>fu</i>,
a magical symbol. They then take this paper with the symbol and burn it. They mix the ashes with warm water and drink it as medicine. Although I never met
him, Ma and Yuni both told me that Grandpa Chu was able to write <i>fu</i>. Yuni said that he can remember
drinking warm water with ashes from a <i>fu</i>
when he got colds as a young child. Many of the taxis in Taiwan also hang from the
rearview mirror protective <i>fu</i> written
on yellow paper, which are sometimes folded up in a red silk bag. Teacher, too, told us
stories about drinking the ashes of <i>fu</i>
when she got sick as a child. As an adult, she believed that the efficacy of
the <i>fu</i> lay in the large glass of warm
water and in the fact that you were then supposed to go to bed to sleep off the
illness. She felt that the warm water had a purgative effect and the bedrest allowed your body to heal itself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
scholars of the Qin and the Han Dynasties seem to be the ones who developed the
various theories of systematic correspondence, which make up the theoretical
basis for TCM today. I will discuss those in another post. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-70365774792979863622013-06-23T19:59:00.000-07:002013-06-23T19:59:07.486-07:00Chinese Medicine in Lieu of Good Insurance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If
you remember, when I gave birth to my youngest child, Peace, something went
wrong during the surgery. In 1994, after all the stress of Eldest Sister’s
hospitalization and caring for three children in Seattle while Yuni worked most
of the year in California, the problems from that surgery began acting up. I
went to an urgent care facility because we no longer had comprehensive
insurance after Yuni began his own contracting business. The doctors were nice,
but they could not figure out what was wrong with me, and I could not afford
more extensive testing. In the end, I called a Chinese friend from church who
had studied Chinese medicine. He came to my home and took my pulses. Then he
wrote me up a prescription. The girls and I took the bus to the International
District in Seattle and got bags of herbs that we boiled to make decoctions for
me to take several times a day. Our whole house smelled of the medicine. This
particular friend was quite skilled; his prescriptions worked well. I took the
herbs for several weeks and felt fine. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
experience helped one of our American friends, who is a recovering heroin
addict. He had slipped on some ice, shattering his elbows, and needed
non-opiate pain medication. Since I knew a good Chinese doctor, I was able to introduce
my American friend to Chinese medicine. This time, my American friend’s wife
drove us to the International District, and we got the bags of herbs. His
prescription included a whole beetle in each bag. I taught my friends how to
boil the herbs to make the bitter brown liquid that would help with the pain.
It worked quite well, although my friend’s wife crushed the beetles inside the bags before she
put the herbs into the pot because she was afraid her husband would not take
the medicine, if he knew what was in it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Later,
we moved to California, and I was not so lucky with my next flare up of the
side effects of surgery. I got a referral from Chinese friends to a Chinese
medicine doctor near our southern California home, and her medicine made me
worse than when I started. This can be a real problem with Chinese medicine,
especially with practitioners outside of licensed Traditional Chinese Medicine
or Classical Chinese Medicine schools. In the mid-1990s, when these problems
occurred, Chinese medicine was not so popular outside the Chinese-American
immigrant community, and there were no state licensing requirements. It was
really a hit or miss kind of process. People would get referrals from friends
and try the medicine. If they felt better, they would go back. If they didn’t,
they would try another doctor. Some doctors were well-trained; others had a
little knowledge and just passed themselves off as Chinese doctors because they
could not get better work in America. Such "Mongolian doctors" still exist in the Chinese immigrant community, but they usually work from the back room of a shop that sells herbs and other Chinese knick-knacks. They are less apt now to put themselves forward as Chinese doctors. They frequently claim to have a special family recipe for a great herbal remedy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Now
there are many schools of Chinese medicine in California, and the state of
California has licensing exams for acupuncturists and TCM practitioners. TCM or
Traditional Chinese Medicine is the form of Chinese medicine practiced in
mainland China. It has been updated and made more scientific, but it is still
based on the traditional Chinese methods of diagnosis and treatment. Part of
the process of making TCM more scientific included the removal of Taoist practices,
the I-Ching, and astrology from TCM theory and practice. Classical Chinese
medicine is the line of Chinese medicine that retains those parts of the
tradition that were excised from TCM as being too “superstitious.” I have seen
excellent Chinese doctors in both the TCM line and the Classical Chinese
medicine line here in California. I think the best thing to do is to shop
around, ask for referrals from friends, and to be sure that the practitioner,
at the minimum, has a state license. There is now a Oriental Medicine Doctoral
degree (OMD) that further certifies a Chinese doctor’s level of training. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What
does astrology have to do with medicine? Why would it be a part of Classical
Chinese Medicine? I am not sure, but I did go to a Chinese doctor in Taipei,
who cast my </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">bazi</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;"> (</span><span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">八字,</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">eight character) </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">horoscope
as part of my medical history at the first appointment. I got a lot of help
from that doctor, and he was considered to be one of the best Chinese doctors
in all of Taiwan in the early 1980s. None of the Chinese medicine doctors that
I have gone to in America have used astrology in treating me. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">All
Chinese doctors that I have gone to seem to rely mostly on taking my pulses,
asking my symptoms, and looking at my face, eyes, and tongue. Occasionally,
they will smell my breath to finalize a diagnosis. When taking the pulses, Chinese
doctors use three fingers on each wrist to feel how my blood and qi are moving
in each of the main channels. They are not just counting how many times the
patient’s heart beats in a minute. They are feeling for the quality of the
pulse under each finger. Then they prescribe herbs, which now come in capsules
or powders instead of bags to be boiled. They also usually give suggestions as
to what foods will contribute to their patients’ health. The food suggestions
are tailored to each patient’s body type, and even act as catalysts for some of
the herbal medicines. More on all this in upcoming posts… <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-38549959339509015312013-06-12T16:08:00.000-07:002013-06-12T18:06:29.624-07:00Dragon Boat Festival<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JyVAzmWZsu4/Ubj99ffdvPI/AAAAAAAABeI/KZYGQVA_DOE/s1600/Dragon+Boat+Races173.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JyVAzmWZsu4/Ubj99ffdvPI/AAAAAAAABeI/KZYGQVA_DOE/s320/Dragon+Boat+Races173.jpg" width="228" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Today
is the 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar year; that means it is the day of
the Dragon Boat Festival. In the Chinese lunar calendar, summer runs through
the 4th, 5th, and 6th months, and 5/5 is a mid-summer festival. The official
name is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Duanwujie</i>. Because it’s
mid-summer, the poisonous snakes and insects are out (see my earliest posts
about the airplane-sized mosquitoes in Taipei during the 1980s). One tradition is to wear colorful bags of silk that are filled with
aromatic herbs to keep away poisonous beasties. These bags are called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">xiangbao</i>. When I was first in Taiwan, I
remember the street vendors selling them all over near my school. They were
often animal-shaped; you could buy a tiger or a lion or a dragon. The silk bags
were strung on a colored silk cord that you would hang around your neck. Other
practices include hanging rushes and moxa plants over the doors to your home to
keep out the noxious things. Some people drink Xiunghuang wine (rice wine with
realgar) to keep summer illnesses and toxins from harming them. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
favorite food of the season is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">zongzi</i>
or sticky-rice tamales. The legend behind this food is that the poet Qu Yuan
(343-290 BCE) of the kingdom of Chu got so depressed at the bad state of
affairs in his country that he committed suicide by jumping into the river on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Duanwujie</i>. He hoped that his death would
awaken the king and nobles to the fact that they were harming the country. The
people who saw him jump raced out with boats to try to save him, but they were
too late. They were unable to recover his body, so they dropped sticky-rice
tamales into the river to keep the fish from eating the corpse and as a
sacrificial offering to Qu Yuan’s spirit. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
the Liu family, Eldest Sister makes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">zongzi</i>
every year for friends and relatives. She makes a special kind of rice paste tamale with no added flavoring.
Instead, you dip them in sugar or peanut powder or soy sauce, depending on
your taste. Those kind can be eaten cold. In Taiwan, we also buy <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">zongzi</i>
fresh at the market or from street vendors. They usually have sticky rice, a
piece of pork, a piece of shitake mushroom, some other pickled vegetables, and
a boiled egg yolk in them. They are wrapped in bamboo leaves, tied up with
cotton string, and boiled until they’re cooked. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When
Pa and Ma were living with us in the US about 10 years ago, we made our own <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">zongzi</i>. We got the bamboo leaves at the 99 Ranch Market.
We half-cooked the sticky rice, par-boiled the pork, and soaked the shitake
mushrooms. We also stir-fried the veggies to make them taste good. Then we
folded the bamboo leaf into a triangle-shaped cone and put in a spoonful of the
partially-cooked rice. We added our goodies and put another layer of rice on
the top. Then we folded the rest of the bamboo leaf over to make a pyramid-shaped
tamale and tied it all up with the cotton string. We tied the whole bunch
together and boiled the tamales in the big wok. We stored them in the refrigerator and
reheated them by steaming them or zapping them in the microwave for a minute or
two. Definitely a delicious treat!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
southern China, where there are lots of streams and rivers, the people
celebrate <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Duanwujie</i> with dragon boat
races; hence, the English name “Dragon Boat Festival.” The boat races
commemorate the boats racing to save the poet Qu Yuan, and besides, water sports are
great fun on a hot summer day. Dragon boat races are now popular outside of
China, too. Here in Long Beach, we have our own dragon boat races in July or
August (<a href="http://www.lbdragonboat.com/">http://www.lbdragonboat.com/</a>). They are not tied to the lunar calendar,
and they do not occur on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">duanwujie</i>,
but they are a lot of fun.</span></div>
</div>
Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-90301733882378976152013-02-09T17:57:00.000-08:002013-02-09T17:57:18.930-08:00Happy Chinese New Year 2013--Year of the Water Snake<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5MBnBZIprw8/URb8nAOUd2I/AAAAAAAABdY/36HW-OekfLA/s1600/Chinese+New+Year%27s+Party+016.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5MBnBZIprw8/URb8nAOUd2I/AAAAAAAABdY/36HW-OekfLA/s320/Chinese+New+Year%27s+Party+016.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Today
is Chinese New Year’s Eve, and if you are a faithful reader of this blog, you have probably already cleaned your home, bought new red clothes, and loaded a
groaning table full of Chinese delicacies to eat with your gathered family, so
that at midnight you can set off your firecrackers to blast out the Year of the Water
Dragon and welcome in the Year of the Water Snake. Or maybe you haven’t… </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Recent news
articles discussing the Chinese New Year report that people in China and Hong
Kong do not like the Year of the Snake because they think it comes with a
poisonous bite. The last two times the Year of the Snake rolled around were in
1989 (Tiananmen Protests) and 2001 (9/11). But Chinese fortune-tellers in Hong
Kong and Taiwan say that 2013 is the Year of the Water Snake, which will
not be as poisonous. They say that the year will bring slow and steady
improvement as we pull out of the global financial and economic doldrums. Street
vendors, however, are less happy about the Year of the Snake because fewer
people want to buy commemorative Year of the Snake figurines, like they did last year in the
ever-popular Year of the Dragon. Instead of selling snakes, the vendors are
selling monkey figurines because wearing a monkey necklace can bring good luck,
especially to people born in the Year of the Snake, or so says the old wives’
tale. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
Chinese horoscope for this year says that the Year of the Snake is the yin year
in the pair of Dragon-Snake; therefore, it will bring us restful energy. In
this year, however, we should not settle for mediocrity but should push
steadily forward. The Snake is a thinker, not a doer. So the Year of the Snake
is good for developments in science and technology and for those in academia
(Yay… this is the year I will start working on my PhD). Water strengthens this
aspect of the Year of the Snake because it’s the element (of the Five Elements:
wood, fire, earth, metal, and water) that is most closely associated with
scholarship. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Chinese astrologer I consulted online said that the Snake is a positive sign for
advancing new ideas, great works of literature, art and philosophy. It is a
sign for mysticism, reflection, and introspection. But, it is also the Chinese
sign most attuned to picking up vibes, revealing scandals, and taking revenge. The
fact that this is the Year of the Water Snake means that communication,
networking, and interpersonal relationships will be enhanced, if you are
careful to avoid offending others. I guess that is what the written blurb on my
Chinese calendar means. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
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Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-85855589779416303912012-12-30T22:37:00.000-08:002012-12-30T22:37:38.933-08:00Talking Around an Issue to Make a Point<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">After
reading my last post, I expect many people are wondering how Yuni could get
away with threatening to not support his parents and escape being censured for
his own lack of filial piety. That is an art in Chinese family negotiations. I
never heard Yuni threaten his parents outright. And yet, his parents felt that
he had delivered an ultimatum regarding his support of them in their old age. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">How
did he do this? He talked around an issue until his point was taken. </span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Yuni
couched everything in terms of how the older generations must be patterns of filial
piety so that the younger generations will learn from them and continue on in
the proper traditions. Yuni never mentioned himself. Instead, he talked about
how our young daughters would be corrupted from the proper practice of filial
piety, if they were to be allowed any contact with my father, especially
unsupervised contact. He waxed eloquent about his fears of not being supported
or cared for in his old age because he had allowed his children to be infected
by the germs of American disregard for filial piety. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
most he said about himself was that he could not understand how a college
professor like my father would not realize that his actions could corrupt his son-in-law, who
might then follow in his footsteps. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Yuni
used this line of discourse whenever my father was mentioned until finally,
everyone in our household gave up broaching the subject to him. And when he
failed to give his parents their usual fat red envelopes for the next Chinese
New Year, he just said that we did not have the money. He gave them something
but much less than usual, and much less than we had given them when we were
really poor after just arriving in America. Those years he had taken extra work
on the weekends to make sure his parents had enough. From what Ma told me
later, those thin red envelopes spoke volumes and really frightened her. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">After
this experience Pa and Ma no longer supported me as much in the family for fear
of losing their security in old age. I had passed a test with the clan in
helping out Elder Sister, and now Yuni wanted me to be treated as if I were
really Chinese. There would be much less slack cut for me because I am white.
Even though we were living in America, I actually sank deeper into the family’s
Chinese culture. </span></div>
</div>
Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-76435774038327622872012-12-15T21:44:00.000-08:002012-12-15T21:44:17.831-08:00Resolving Family Conflict Chinese-style<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">That summer, Pa and Ma visited us in America after
Yuni had returned to the Seattle area from his job in California. Pa was having
problems with his eyes. They were sore, and sometimes he had trouble keeping
them open. We got a referral from my grandmother to her ophthalmologist and
took him for a number of exams. The ophthalmologist could not find anything wrong,
except that he had dry eyes, so she prescribed eye drops and encouraged him to
buy sunglasses to protect his eyes in Taiwan’s fierce sunlight. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">While the visit was ostensibly about Pa’s health
problems, he also had two other reasons for wanting to speak with us. First, he
wanted to see if he could persuade Yuni to allow me to see my father, and
second, he wanted to talk to us about adopting Elder Sister’s daughters, Sheep
and Monkey, because they were having trouble in school after the shock of losing
their father. Since it was summer, Yuni had quite a bit of work. He was
remodeling a bathroom for some friends and laying marble floor-tile in a large
old house on Capitol Hill in Seattle. While he was gone, Pa asked me about the
situation with my dad.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Pa was hoping to find someone in my family to work
with him in traditional Chinese style. If you recall, when my sisters-in-law had problems with their in-laws, they moved back in with Pa for
several months. Then Pa and Yuni negotiated with the in-laws to resolve the problems. Pa thought that if my dad’s brother and my brother would be
willing to come out to broker a détente between my dad and Yuni, he and Ma
could place pressure on Yuni to call off his “grandchild embargo.”
Unfortunately, my uncle lived in California and my brother in New York. We
decided that it would be too much to call on either of them to travel to
Seattle for this purpose. As a back-up plan, Pa had brought gifts for my
father, which he then demanded that Yuni allow me and the girls to deliver with
him and Ma. Yuni said it would be okay as long as my dad’s girl friend was not
present. My dad was not amenable to that condition and insisted that since they
were getting married soon, his fiancée should be able to meet my in-laws. When
Pa and Ma tried to force the issue with Yuni, he threatened to deny them
monetary support during their retirement. And this ended their attempts to
restore our relationship with my father. While Yuni was at work one day, Pa and
Ma apologized to me for allowing Yuni to be spoiled as a child by his
grandmother. They confessed to being unable to control him, and they baldly
stated that they would need his support in their old age, so they were afraid
of offending him more. I appreciated their efforts and told them not to worry
about it. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Yuni’s ox temper became more deeply entrenched. When
we mentioned his sisters and reminded him how their relationship with Pa was so
important to their marriages, he countered with the story of the Chinese friends
whose bathroom he was remodeling. They were northern Chinese who had moved to
Taiwan and then to the US. Their daughter-in-law had not been allowed to return
to see her parents in Taiwan for the ten years that they had lived in the US,
and she was only allowed one thirty-minute phone call with her parents every
month. Pa said that the Liu family had no such rules, but Yuni just growled and
glowered at him. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In the end, Pa became quite depressed about the conflict
with his son. Ma quickly suggested that we work on the applications to adopt
Monkey and Sheep and that we stop discussing anything related to my “unfilial”
father. I was doing a translation job for a client working with an immigration
attorney in Seattle, and the attorney gave me the forms and instructions for
adopting children as a professional courtesy. He also gave us a list of all the
documents we would need, and my sisters-in-law sprang into action getting the
documents from the Taiwanese government and having them delivered to me to be
translated. In order to qualify financially, we needed to pay off our home
mortgage, and all the siblings in the family pooled their money so that we
would be debt free. Pa gave us the money to pay off our car loan on the van. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Yuni finished up his two jobs, and before starting
his next project, he took off work for ten days so that we could drive down to
California with Pa and Ma to visit my mother. We drove down along the Oregon
Coast and then spent a week with my mother in Long Beach, CA. We took Pa and Ma
to Knott’s Berry Farm, Disneyland, Universal Studios, and Sea World. Pa was not
happy. The sun in California was bothering his eyes, he was worried about Elder
Sister, and he was annoyed at Yuni for not giving him face in the situation
with my father. It was the most unpleasant ten days I have ever spent with Pa
and Ma. Yuni also registered his father’s displeasure, but instead of giving
in, he refused to talk to them on the phone after their return to Taiwan, and
Ma later reported that he failed to send them money the next Chinese New Year. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I was stunned to learn that Yuni had turned on his
parents because they had supported me. I was also pretty angry, but I didn’t
let him know it. If he thought that his “ox temper” could win the day in the
family, I was going to go mano a mano with my “ox temper.” I, too, was born in
the Year of the Metal Ox, and I could be just as stubborn as he. But my
stubbornness would be in taking the course of Chinese feminine virtue. I would
wear him out by my feminine endurance, just as Elder Sister was planning to endure
in her situation with her in-laws. It took three years before Yuni allowed me
to speak to my dad again, and it took almost five years for him to allow my
kids to spend time alone with their maternal grandfather, but in the end, the
relationship was healed. </span></div>
</div>
Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-41389003411766165172012-12-02T13:06:00.000-08:002012-12-02T13:06:33.092-08:00Working through Cross-Cultural Family Conflict<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I was certainly stunned by Yuni’s screed against my
country, my family, and my person. I understood his point of view on everything
because I had experienced with him how much harder life is in America for
immigrants and minorities than it is for middle class/upper middle class
whites. I was living as an immigrant in my own country, and it was a strange
feeling. When I was on my own in a fully English-speaking situation or when I
was out with my white relatives, I was treated with deference and respect. My
opinions were respectfully heard and carefully weighed; even if my ideas were
not implemented, they were not dismissed outright. When I was out with Yuni and
my children, we always spoke Chinese. People looked at me differently when I
was part of a group of “foreigners.” We would be seated in the worst seats at
restaurants; no one listened to us or took us seriously. Some of my
acquaintances would even refuse to acknowledge me when I was in my Chinese context.
They would look past me when I greeted them and walk hurriedly away. At least I
had the option of going out alone and being white; Yuni did not have that.
After being so privileged from birth in Taiwan due to his status as a male, he became
an eternal pariah here in the US, regardless of his intelligence, skills, and
other qualifications. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I also felt quite sympathetic to Yuni’s sorrow about
Elder Sister’s situation. He had not been with his family as they worked
through their grief in her hospital room because he was their main breadwinner
and had had to return to the US to earn needed American dollars. I know that he
felt isolated in his grief and a little jealous of me and our daughters for
“taking his place.” One of my Japanese friends likes to share her favorite
things with me, and she wants me to resonate with her feelings (her English
words) about almost every detail. It seems that to her, friendship means we
need to like the same movie stars, eat the same foods, and be in almost total
alignment. When my American family and friends speak of resonating with others,
it generally means that we share crucial core values, but there is room for
much variance in the minutia of our personal likes and dislikes. I have come to
realize that this idea of totally “resonating” is also important in Chinese
families. The shared stories, the legends, and the general emphasis on the
group all act to bring people into a close harmony of feelings that we do not
have in American families. I think part of the reason Yuni felt out of sorts
about Elder Sister’s situation was that he missed the family gatherings, which
would have attuned him to his family’s new upbeat determination to help Elder
Sister reclaim her position as a chaste widow in Eldest Brother-in-Law’s
family. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I could understand his criticism of my family, but I
could not “resonate” with him in this matter for the simple reason that I had
two gut reactions, one in Chinese and one in English. My Chinese gut understood
his critique, but I relate to my family in English, and my English gut said it
was unfair of him to impose Chinese culture upon people who had no clue about
the cultural standards being used to evaluate them. My failure to closely
resonate with his feelings precipitated the first major fight of our marriage,
and I decided to ask for some input as to how to resolve things. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">My American friends had no idea what to tell me. My
Chinese friends from more modern, urban families said that their families had
not adhered so rigidly to the traditions since their grandparents were small children,
and they did not know what to say to me, either. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Eventually, I got some good advice from the
Taiwanese mothers of my ESL students. They told me that Yuni’s situation was
quite common among Chinese immigrant men and that he was actually handling things
pretty well. Many immigrant Chinese men in the US become violent against their
wives or develop addictions to gambling and alcohol. Some even get so depressed
that they do not work; they just sit in front of the TV all day and leave
everything to their wives. My friends said that since Yuni was working, I should
just let things go. They believed that after awhile, this would blow over. They
thought that he had a lot of pent up frustrations and was just blowing off
steam. One of the ESL mothers also suggested that I call one or two of my
sisters-in-law to get advice from them. All of the ESL mothers exhorted me to “endure”
this episode of what we dubbed “Chinese Husband in America Syndrome.” After
moving to California and becoming friends with women of other Asian immigrant
groups, I expanded the name to “Asian Husband in America Syndrome,” and one of
my professors at CSULB informs me that her research shows it is really just
“Immigrant Husband in America Syndrome.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Since Yuni was away from home, working in
California, I thought it was a good time to call my sisters-in-law to see what
they had to say about the situation. They told me that Yuni has an “ox temper.”
He was born in the Year of the Ox, and he is stubborn like an ox. He is usually
placid and good-natured, but when provoked he has an unpredictable temper that
occasionally turns violent. They said that since marrying me, his temper was
much improved. They also told me that when he “goes into ox mode” (</span><span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">發牛,</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">fa niu</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">), the best thing to do is to NOT directly
contradict him or he digs in his heels and takes years to come around. They
suggested that I follow Elder Sister’s example of being an exemplary woman so
that he would be shamed into better behavior. My sisters-in-law also exhorted
me to “endure.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">And so, I decided to give Yuni more time. I believed that his outburst
was mainly precipitated by frustration at his lack of social status in America
compounded with the shock and grief of Eldest Brother-in-law’s death, the loss
of face at Eldest Brother-in-law’s funeral, and his worry over Elder Sister’s
precarious situation. We had been married for seven years, and things had been
pretty good. I was not ready to throw in the towel after our first major
disagreement. I had encountered Yuni’s “ox temper” before, and I agreed with my
sisters-in-law that direct conflict usually made things much worse. In the end, I did
what he told me, keeping my kids away from my dad and not driving the family
van. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">My dad was not happy about being cut off from contact with his
granddaughters. I tried to explain my situation to him, but he understandably
felt that it was all horribly unfair. Other members of my American family tried
to talk me into pushing Yuni, a few even going so far as to suggest that
perhaps I should divorce him for being too controlling. I totally understood
where they were coming from, but I also knew that they did not understand the
cultural and psychological context for Yuni’s tantrum. I was still working
every day from 4:30 am until 1 am with my translation jobs, homeschooling,
housework, and tutoring. It was an exhausting schedule, and I didn’t have the
time to figure out how to explain the cultural differences to my American
relatives. I just said, “It’s a Chinese thing,” and trusted that the American
culture would give us enough leeway to let Yuni take his time. I have to say
that while my family was not entirely happy with my decision, they did respect
me enough to let me make my own choices. I truly appreciate them for giving me that
freedom. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">I also want to clarify that my American family members were extremely
supportive of us when we first arrived in the US and have continued to be
supportive ever since. Although they did not pick up on our lack of food, they did
give us warm clothes, money to repair the car, books and other educational
supplies for the children. They provided lots of encouragement and support in their
American way. Many of Yuni’s negative feelings about them stemmed from his
cultural expectations that family finances should be more communal. Unlike the
situation in Chinese families, in a typical extended American family, finances
are not handled in a communal or semi-communal pot. My American family was also
looking for plain speaking, but Yuni did not want me to come right out and tell
them that we were forced to rely on the food bank donations from our neighbor.
Again, I think this was a problem with cross-cultural communication. Yuni was
hoping to experience resonance and to feel that my family accepted him to the
point of being beyond the need for words. He got frustrated when the
relationship did not reach that level, but that is not a place where typical
white American families even try to go. Americans value straight-forward speech
and open communication. I am extremely grateful for my American family’s
openness to and tolerance of my Chinese lifestyle, and I also have to give Yuni
much credit for (spoiler alert) eventually getting past his cultural prejudices
and learning to get along with my dad. </span></div>
</div>
Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-30120049255801119422012-11-23T18:15:00.001-08:002012-11-23T18:15:35.201-08:00An Immigrant's Views on American Morality<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">After
my paternal grandmother’s death, Yuni and I had a protracted disagreement about
whether or not my father had been unfilial to his mother in her final days. We
went back and forth on this; he was quite emotional and told story after story
from his family lore about filial piety. I, on the other hand, was more
legalistic, and I kept saying that it was not fair to judge Americans by
Chinese cultural standards and that the situation was quite different from his
reading of things, especially in an American cultural context. I would counter
Yuni’s moral tales with an appeal to logic and say that it is not fair to condemn
an American for something that is not immoral by American standards. One day
something snapped in him. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Yuni
responded to my arguments about American moral standards with a tirade against
America and its hypocrisy. He said that America engages in false advertising.
It promotes an American dream of equal opportunity for all, but then when foreigners
come, they do not have the same opportunities to rise up the social ladder, no
matter how hard they work. He said that America makes promises to allies that
it will promote democracy around the world, but then, it abandons those allies
when they become inconvenient, like when Nixon abandoned Taiwan and opened the
door for normalizing relations with mainland China—a Communist country. He said
that American society claims to be Christian and moral, but it is saturated
with all kinds of blatant immorality. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Then,
he started in on my family. He was upset that my family treated him as an
“outsider” by demanding a written business plan before they would lend him
money for his contracting business. He was upset that my grandmother discouraged
us from “going on the dole.” Her word was law to him because she was a family
elder, but her request made our lives exponentially harder. He was upset that
my family members did not realize without being explicitly told how much we
were struggling when we first came to the US and that we had had to rely on our
neighbor’s contributions from the food bank to keep our children fed. (He
contrasted this to his parents, who had figured out our food problem within
hours of their first visit to us in the United States.) He was upset that my
dad, as a college professor and university administrator, did not hold himself
to a higher standard of morality (according to the Chinese yardstick) than the
rest of society, so that he would be a proper example to his students,
children, and grandchildren. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And
finally, he began venting against all men who damage their homes by having
affairs. He went on and on about the shame he and his parents had suffered at
Elder Brother-in-law’s funeral. He began weeping at the thought of Elder Sister
having to raise five children under the burden of so much debt, while Eldest
Brother-in-Law’s former mistress held all of Elder Brother’s cash assets. And
he finished by calling me a stupid, rich American who could never understand
how most of the people in the world suffer in poverty while we complacently
enjoy our luxurious, opulent lives. Then, he raised his hand as if to hit me,
told me I could never speak to my father again, pushed me against the wall, and
left the house for hours. When he came back, he refused to speak to me for
days. After about a week, he would give the kids messages to relay to me, and
he would only “hear” me, if I relayed messages back to him through the kids.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
was stunned by his outburst, and I really did not know how to respond. His rant
against America was similar to complaints that I had heard when I was an
exchange student in Costa Rica and Germany during high school. I also heard the
same objections to American policies in Taiwan before I was married. I knew
from my personal experience of adjusting to Chinese proprieties and
sensibilities in Taiwan that certain cultural taboos are not universal
practices and that it is hard to avoid having a visceral and strong reaction
when your taboos are unwittingly trampled upon by the dominant culture. And our
seven years of marriage had taught me how different our two families are. I
believed that Yuni mainly needed psychic space to deal with his grief about his
sister’s tragedy, and so I went on with my daily routine as though nothing had
happened. It was hard, but that was what my Chinese mother-in-law and sisters-in-law
would have done in the same situation. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Fortunately,
Yuni had to return to California to continue his job there. His parting words
were spoken directly to me: “Do not allow the children to see or speak to your
father’s girl friend. Do not drive our new van (and our only car). If you do
either of those two things, I will divorce you.” </span></div>
</div>
Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-48939146740096946592012-11-16T14:39:00.001-08:002012-11-16T16:32:32.893-08:00The Consequences of Being Labeled "Bu Xiao"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Chinese society has much less room for individualism
than American society. As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of Ma’s worst
threats to my daughters, when they engaged in inappropriate behavior, was
“Everyone will talk about you.” The absolute worst punishment in the Liu family
was for Pa and Ma to give one of their children or grandchildren the silent
treatment. They would make a big show of turning their backs on the person,
refusing to look at them, and when the parents were shunning a person, no one
else in the household could speak to that person in their presence. Usually the
culprit repented quickly with tears and gifts for the parents, and then, after
Pa and Ma had harangued them sufficiently, life returned to normal. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One of my Chinese roommates before I was married
lived in a single-parent household, which was quite rare in Taiwan in the
1980s. She told me that her father had taken up with a mistress despite the
fact that her mother had two sons and was quite good to her parents-in-law.
This woman’s father was taking family resources and giving them to his mistress
despite his own parents’ admonitions. In the end, my friend’s paternal
grandfather had gone to court and disowned his son for being unfilial. He had
transferred title to the son’s share of the family’s wealth to his grandsons
and given my friend’s mother trusteeship over her sons’ assets. My friend’s
paternal grandparents lived in the household with her mother until their
deaths, and her father was barred from attending their funerals. This sounds
quite extreme, but a few other examples suggest that it was common practice
during the previous generation in Taiwan.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Yuni’s Eldest Maternal Uncle lived in Taoyouan far
away from the rest of the family in Toufen. Ma told me that he and his wife had
been banished from the family home by Grandpa Chu because his wife had been
unfilial to Grandma Chu. Eldest Maternal Uncle’s Wife had spread lies about
Grandma Chu that had caused Grandpa Chu to beat his wife in front of the clan
in order to regain face. When the lie was exposed, Grandpa Chu was furious. He
banished his eldest son and daughter-in-law from the combined family household.
Because their son was the eldest grandson, he did not totally ostracize them
from the family, but they were forced to make their own living without family
resources. Upon Grandpa Chu’s death, control of the family property went first
to Second Maternal Uncle and then passed to Third Maternal Uncle when Second
Maternal Uncle passed away unexpectedly in his early forties. Third Maternal
Uncle helped raise his youngest brothers who were still teenagers when Grandpa
Chu and Second Maternal Uncle passed away. Third Maternal Uncle held the real
power of top family elder, even though Eldest Maternal Uncle and his eldest son
still performed their ceremonial roles at funerals, death anniversaries, and
weddings. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Our foster daughters from Fuzhou, China, also lived
in great fear of being labeled unfilial. Their brother and parents got into
debt from a failed business, and their mother forced the girls to drop out of
school to work and help pay off the family’s debts. I suggested that since the
girls were living with us in California and their parents were in New York,
there was nothing their parents could do to force them. But the girls told me
that if they got a reputation for being unfilial in the Fuzhou Chinese-American
community, they would not be able to get jobs or even marry respectable
husbands. They did manage to work out an arrangement with their father (the
only person who could trump their mother) to keep themselves from being forced
into marriages with older men willing to pay high bride prices, but they had to
drop out of college to work for their parents until they could find acceptable
husbands, who would then let them finish college after they married. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">When Yuni branded my father as unfilial to the point of
causing his mother to die of a broken heart, he fully expected that the girls
and I would cut ourselves off from having any further relationship with my
father. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">While I had been living long enough in the Chinese culture to
understand at a gut level why he felt this way, I could not accept his attempt
to impose Chinese culture on our relationships with my American relatives. And
I told him that he was being unreasonable because Americans did not live by
Confucian ethics. I said that my father’s actions were not wrong according to
the American culture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Well, that certainly was the wrong answer… </span></div>
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Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-31646969022249489052012-11-03T10:18:00.000-07:002012-11-03T10:18:04.112-07:00 Branded "Bu Xiao" (不孝,Unfilial)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">In earlier posts, I mentioned that filial piety is huge in Chinese culture.
If you watch Chinese soap operas, you can see a recurring theme of an elderly
parent, usually a mother, becoming ill with distress when a son is unfilial.
If the son fails to mend his ways at the first sign of his parent’s illness,
and especially if the parent dies as a result of becoming ill from his lack of piety, the son gets
branded as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">bu xiao</i> or unfilial by
society. Such a label is something my friends from Taiwan and China fear
because it means a total loss of credibility in the community. In imperial
China, even the emperors had to avoid having a reputation of being unfilial
because it could mean that they would lose the “mandate of Heaven,” making them
vulnerable to a coup. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">I also mentioned that Ma told stories about filial piety to her children
as a way of encouraging them to be assiduous in their filial piety towards her.
One of her favorite stories, especially for her sons, was the story of Youngest
Maternal Uncle standing up to his elder sisters-in-law to protect his mother:</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">After the Maternal Uncles had divided up the family assets and were all
living in separate households, Grandma Chu was supposed to travel from
household to household, living with each son and daughter-in-law for two weeks
at a time. Each son had a room in his home for Grandma Chu, and while Grandma
Chu was living in a household, the daughter-in-law had to cook special foods to
manage Grandma Chu’s diabetes. This was a chore because Grandma Chu had to eat
six small meals per day, and she could not eat sweets or dishes cooked with sugar. Several of the Maternal
Uncle’s Wives worked outside the home, and they could not always meet Grandma
Chu’s needs. Her diabetes was worsening, but nothing she said was sinking in
with her sons and daughters-in-law. Once, after receiving news that her
diabetes was worsening at a doctor’s appointment, the Maternal Uncles held a
family council about Grandma Chu’s health. They and their wives were arguing
and bickering because no one wanted to be taxed with taking off two weeks from
work every other month to cook for Grandma Chu. Grandma Chu was distressed
to the point of tears, and Youngest Maternal Uncle stood up and said to his
elder brothers and sisters-in-law: “Wives can be changed like clothes, but I
only have one mother. If you do not care enough for our mother to give her a
pleasant life in her old age, then I will take her into my home and order my
wife to not work so that she can devote herself to caring for our mother. You
can pay me a certain amount every month for the support of our mother. If my
wife won’t do this, I will divorce her and find a wife who will care properly
for my mother.” That stopped the bickering. Youngest Maternal Uncle’s Wife was
amenable to caring for Grandma Chu full-time, and the other Maternal Uncles
were happy to pay a small sum every month towards their mother’s care. Grandma
Chu was overjoyed being allowed to stay in one home where someone would take care
of her special diet. The legend of Youngest Maternal Uncle’s filial piety
became part of the Liu family lore, as one of Ma’s oft-repeated stories. </span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">Over the past month I have laid a theoretical and descriptive foundation about the workings of Chinese families, and now I would like to return to the thread of my own story and describe what happened at my own grandmother’s funeral. If you remember, I went off
on this tangent about masculinity and the battle between the sexes, leaving
myself and the girls on a trans-Pacific airplane flight rushing home to the US to attend my paternal
grandmother’s funeral, after having seen Elder Sister safely through her ordeal in
the hospital in Taiwan. The girls and I landed safely in Seattle and met Yuni and my dad
in the airport. Yuni’s plane from California had gotten in a hour or so before
ours did. We went home, and a few days later, we attended the funeral. The
girls had plenty of appropriate clothes, since we had been to so many funerals over
the course of that year. Everything went well until the family dinner after all
the funeral proceedings were over.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">By this time, Yuni’s English was quite good; he felt especially
comfortable talking with children. My uncle’s three children are not too much
older than my own children, and Yuni sat among the six of them as
self-proclaimed “king of the kids.” He kept them quiet and well-behaved while
the rest of the adults discussed family matters that were not as interesting to
him. Since it was a funeral feast, and since my grandmother had been good to him,
Yuni began questioning my cousins about their last moments with Grammie. He did
this in a manner reminiscent of what his family had done after the deaths of
Grandma Chu and Eldest Brother-in-Law. He was beginning the creation of Grammie’s
hagiography. I was involved in the discussion with the adults, so I do not
quite know what he said when he asked his questions, but he suddenly became
very perturbed. When the meal was over, he demanded that I talk to my cousins
about the last time they had seen Grammie. Their story was that they had
visited her on Christmas Day and she was happy talking to them. Then my dad had
come in with his girl friend, and she had turned her face to the wall, refusing
to speak. The next thing they knew she was dead.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">I asked their mother about this, and my aunt said that Grammie’s health
had not been good prior to Christmas. My uncle’s family had been with her in
her room at the convalescent home for 30 minutes before my dad and his girl
friend arrived. Grammie spoke with everyone for another 20 minutes or so, and
then she had felt so tired that she rolled over to take a nap. My uncle’s
family left at that point for Christmas lunch with other relatives, and they
were so busy with holiday festivities that did not get a chance to visit her
again. Grammie passed away two or three days after Christmas, and health care
professionals believed it was because she had seen her family, she had been ailing for some time,
and her death was the result of normal post-holiday let down often seen among the
elderly. I translated this to Yuni, but he would not accept it. Just as his
youngest cousin’s story of the men in white was proof that Grandma Chu had gone
to heaven, so also my young cousins’ version of Grammie’s death was to him the
most truthful and unbiased account of the situation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">And from my cousins’ story, Yuni came up with this very Chinese
interpretation of what had happened at Christmas: Grammie had really liked my
father’s second wife because she was quite good at caring for elderly people. Grammie
was sad because my father was divorcing his second wife, depriving his mother
of her accustomed caretaker. While Yuni had huge problems with men having
mistresses, especially after the situation at Eldest Brother-in-Law’s funeral
in Taiwan, he claimed to make no judgment in this instance about the fact of my father's divorce.
However, he believed that my dad should have settled his divorce by buying Wife
Number Two a house near Grammie's nursing home and paying her handsomely to continue caring
for his mother until her death, and then beyond as a way of thanking her for
her service to his parents. Yuni felt that in the matter of his divorce, my dad
was completely ignoring his mother’s wishes with respect to her choice of
care-taker. To be a truly good and filial son, my dad should have chosen his
wife to suit his mother, as in the legend of Youngest Maternal Uncle. In Yuni’s
view, Grammie had turned her face to the wall on Christmas because she had been
deprived of spending the holiday with Wife Number Two, and therefore, she had
died of a broken heart. Ergo, my father is an unfilial son. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">Yuni and I were carrying on this conversation in rapid Mandarin Chinese
at the edge of the private dining room where we had had the funeral dinner, and so of course, my family didn’t know what was going
on. Yuni and I argued about this in the car on the way home, but anything I said was to no avail. In the end,
Yuni’s reading of the situation fit the typical Chinese soap opera plot lines
and his family legends too well for him to accept any other possible
explanation. And so, in his eyes, my father was branded as the worst kind of unfilial
son—the kind who aggravates his mother to death. </span></div>
</div>
Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-71603697917755314492012-10-28T08:16:00.003-07:002012-10-28T08:16:28.084-07:00Inside vs. Outside: the Modern Chinese Battle of the Sexes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">Last week I
discussed the late imperial Chinese family in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Story of the Stone</i>, a family that was wealthy and prominent. Many
of the patterns described in the novel are similar to average Chinese families.
One of my former professors has done historical research on the families of the
coastal areas in Fujian Province. She found that the men would go out to work
on long sea voyages, trading and doing business in Southeast Asia. While the
men were working “outside,” the women would manage the family’s holdings and
businesses “inside” China proper. Anthropologists studying the Hakka subculture
historically and across Southeast Asia found that Hakka men would frequently
travel long distances to find work, leaving their women in the family’s home
town to raise the children, care for the elderly, and run the family’s farm and
businesses there. The Hakka also have a dense concentration along the
southeastern coastal regions in northern Guangdong Province and the mountainous
regions of Fujian Province. I find it interesting that these two linguistic
subcultures seem to give their women more equality in earning money because the
Fujian and Hakka dialects are thought to be the oldest Chinese dialects.
Perhaps their practices reflect the earlier more balanced view of women in
Chinese culture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">As large clans
break up and move off the family farms, these patterns are changing. When Ma
and Pa were married, Pa’s eleven male cousins and their living parents, wives
and children all lived in the three-sided family farm house up in the hills
near Hsinchu. They shared much of the hill left to them by their ancestors with
their distant cousins in the Upper House. The family had rice paddies, fruit
trees, vegetable plots, and pig pens. The men and women worked in the rice
paddies, and after the crops were planted, some of the men like Pa would go to
the cities to work as laborers. While Pa was gone, Ma remained at the family
farm caring for her elderly in-laws, raising her pigs for market (this was her
own business), and raising her young children. Although the pigs were Ma’s, she
was subject to the economic predations of her father-in-law, Grandpa Liu, who
would frequently go into town and buy things for himself against the credit for
that year’s pig. It drove Ma crazy because she never knew if there would be
money to buy things for her children when she finally slaughtered the pig. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">After Pa moved his
family off the farm, he managed everything, and because Ma is illiterate, she
worked for Pa at his construction sites when she had finished her household
chores, which included washing in the creek behind the house all the laundry
for her kids, her mother-in-law, her husband, herself, AND all of Pa’s
apprentices, as well as cooking meals for 16 or 20 people three times a day
over a wood fire. When I married into the family, several of Pa’s daughters
were working at factories because Pa’s business could not support the family and
pay his debts. Pa encouraged me to work part-time teaching English because it
gave the family face to have a teacher among them and because it was reliable,
well-paid work. Everyone contributed a certain amount to the communal pot, the
amount of which was negotiated between each family member and Pa and Ma. The
rest of the money that each person earned was theirs to spend or save as they
pleased. Yuni was the only one who kept what he earned to himself. He would
occasionally buy gifts or pay a bill, but as the heir-apparent, he would be
supporting his parents in their dotage, and no one begrudged him his freedom
early in life. (I think I was supposed to force him to pay into the communal
pot, but when we were first married, I did not speak enough Hakka to understand
that he didn’t have a separate arrangement with Pa to contribute to the
household.) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">Third Maternal
Uncle ran his household much differently. He had 21 people under his roof.
Three of his five sons were married, and their wives and children all lived
with him. He controlled absolutely all of the money. His eldest daughter-in-law
had been a nurse before she got married, but he forced her to quit her job and
work together with her husband in the family business making banisters. Pa
frequently berated Third Maternal Uncle for not sufficiently diversifying the
family business interests. When I was first married, Pa was just recovering
from bankruptcy, and Third Maternal Uncle was at the height of his power. Uncle
did not even allow his children to handle money. He would give them small
amounts of spending money before any function. In the end, this strategy did
not work because when Third Maternal Uncle wanted to retire, his sons and
daughters-in-law did not know how to handle money. I do not know all the
details, but I know that Ma was quite sad about the situation in her brother’s
family after they split into small households, and Pa felt fully vindicated in
his criticisms of Third Maternal Uncle’s method of running a household. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">I think that Pa
and Third Maternal Uncle show two mindsets among traditional men facing the
modern reality that women can get real jobs outside the home. Pa is more
forward-thinking and pragmatic. He does not feel threatened in his masculinity
to have his daughters and daughters-in-law working outside the family business.
He personally ran his business for the benefit of his clan. After his debts
were paid off and he had enough work, if any of his nephews needed work or when
his sister’s husband lost his job, Pa gave them work at his construction sites.
He was always grateful that Eldest Paternal Uncle had given his family rice
from the family farm to keep them from starving during the worst of his
bankruptcy problems. Ma says that the bankruptcy changed Pa a lot. I never knew
him prior to the bankruptcy, but from the beginning of my marriage, Pa was
accepting of working women and appreciated their contributions to the family.
He would even call me and Elder Sister in to the men’s discussions to ask us
our opinions about business or the world situation. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">Third Maternal
Uncle, on the other hand, did not want his wife to work after she had daughters-in-law.
He had her dress up in fancy clothes with make-up and jewelry. He was an
absolute authoritarian. He kept total control of all the money and did not even
trust his sons. In the long-run, his daughters-in-law resented him and his “indolent”
wife, and his sons racked up gambling debts instead of running the business
properly after Third Maternal Uncle had retired. If the cousins’ wives had been
allowed to keep their outside jobs, and if the sons had been given their own
money to manage, I don’t think Third Maternal Uncle’s family would have gotten
into quite the troubles as it has. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">I mentioned in an
earlier post that my time in the hospital caring for Elder Sister seemed to
change the dynamics of the family. In one respect, it pushed the boundaries
open to women because Elder Sister and I handled everything without much input
from the men. Because I am well-educated, I could read the hospital chart on
Elder Sister’s bed, which was written in English to preserve confidentiality. I
could also converse intelligently with the doctors. My friend, the lawyer, is a
woman, and so when I asked Wenzhu to consult with us, I did not need to bring
in a male because women and their friends are all part of the realm of
“inside.” Pa and Yuni had given Elder Sister carte blanche to speak for
herself. With Pa’s blessing, I worked with her to find a way for her to keep
her children and support them. Pa and Ma would come down at least once a week
to visit, and we would report to them and discuss things with them. We did not,
however, consult with the Liu family’s heir-apparent, Yuni. In the past, he was
the most highly educated in the family, and as heir-apparent, he handled many
of the family’s business matters, even when he was in elementary school. I
believe that Pa and Ma saw my efforts as Yuni’s contribution through his wife,
and because these things related to Elder Sister’s health and children and were
handled among Eldest Brother-in-law’s business associates and my female
friends, these things never left the realm of “inside.” And I believe that on a
certain level, Yuni felt the realm of “inside” had expanded to a threatening
extent. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">Since China’s
defeat in the Opium Wars in the mid-19<sup>th</sup> Century, there has been
talk about the “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yinification</i>” of
Chinese men. This means that Chinese men are seen as weak and unable to handle
the challenges of the modern world. This kind of discourse continues in both
Taiwan and China, as spoiled only sons have a hard time competing in the modern
world. A friend of mine, who has worked long and hard in Japan raising money
and founding shelters for victims of domestic abuse there, said that her
perception of the situation in Japan is that the men went from a situation of
complete privilege with respect to women to one in which women can own
property, attend schools, and compete in the workforce. She asked me if I
thought that Chinese men might not be facing the same crisis of identity. I
believe that she is right. The realm of “inside” has broadened to include the
“outside,” and educated, modern women are succeeding without any help from the
men in their lives. To men who have been spoiled and pampered by mothers and
grandmothers just because they could pee standing up, it must come as a rude
awakening that the world does not revolve around them. Like Baoyu, many of them
are adept at the use of the temper tantrum to get their way, and when as grown
men they throw tantrums, domestic violence can result. </span></div>
</div>
Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607441034503290367.post-30617350563411169752012-10-19T20:53:00.003-07:002012-10-19T23:13:24.552-07:00Inside versus Outside: the Traditional Chinese Battle of the Sexes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Over
the last few weeks, I posted quite a lot about Chinese ideals of masculinity.
These ideals were formed and developed in the traditional agrarian society. In even
earlier posts, I discussed the position of Chinese women throughout history,
and I think I mentioned the idea of inside/outside. The Chinese have a saying: </span><span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">男主外,女主內。</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">(<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nan
zhu wai, nü zhu nei</i>. Men are in charge of the outside; women are in charge
of the inside.) This means that men work outside the home, acting as officials
and running businesses, while women work inside the home, managing the domestic
finances, raising the children, and keeping the household fed and clothed. As I
discussed in a post on the position of women, in antiquity, women were
responsible for sericulture and acted as a balance to men, who were responsible
for agriculture. Although the patriline became supreme as ancestor worship
became popular among commoners and was limited to only the ancestors of the
husband, the balance between inside and outside was still important to each
family’s economic success. Third-wave feminist scholars of the history of
Chinese women have found documentary evidence that as late as the Song Dynasty
(960-1279 CE), women owned and ran businesses and that women retained the
property of their dowries, returning with that property to their natal families
in the event that they were widowed. Women were not legally considered chattel
until China was conquered by the Mongolians during the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368
CE). When Han Chinese rule was restored in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 CE),
women regained some of the earlier rights, but they were more restricted than
they had been the medieval era of imperial China, especially as the cult of the
chaste widow grew during the Late Imperial Era.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">If any of you took
my advice and started reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Story
of the Stone</i>, you can see that the realm of “inside” could be quite broad.
The women, in particular Grandmother Jia’s favorite granddaughter-in-law Wang
Xi-Feng, ran a household that resembled a business conglomerate. Xi-feng was
responsible for feeding and clothing scores of family members and their
servants. She also supervised repairs, oversaw the family’s farms, coordinated
the management of the family’s businesses within the city, and in general,
wielded an incredible amount of authority. BUT as a woman from a high official
family, she was behind the scenes. She could not run the family’s pawn shops;
instead, she managed the poor cousins who worked in the shops. As the family met
with disaster, none of the women appeared before the Emperor or officials; the
men of the family, especially the men who had passed the civil service exams,
could and did deal with problems by meeting with the emperor and other imperial
officials. Thus, in this case, “inside” referred to all the family’s
enterprises NOT related to the government, while “outside” referred to the
imperial posts and official duties that the top males of the family fulfilled.
This novel was written during the Qing Dynasty, but set in the Ming Dynasty. It
has been called China’s “novel of manners” because it describes in great detail
the lives of members of imperial China’s upper classes. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">Under this
paradigm, women have great responsibility and a fair amount of freedom, but
they obtain their status and businesses from the highest-ranking male in the
household. Ultimate legal responsibility for actions of household members falls
to the high-ranking males as well. Therefore, the women in the story had to
find ways to stay in favor with the males, if they wanted to keep their power
in the family. Wang Xi-feng used her connections to Grandmother Jia and her top
daughter-in-law Lady Wang to get into power, but she worked from dawn to late
at night to keep her power. She had to keep her husband sweet to keep her
power, and she had to be more efficient than the other men so that they would
continue letting her see to everything. It is obvious throughout the entire
book that Wang Xi-feng is never totally secure in her position. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">The only women
free of the need to suck up to the males or higher-ranking females are the
mother of the highest-ranking male and the mother of the heir-apparent. Their
status as mothers of the top sons trumps everything. One reason that Wang
Xi-feng is in a precarious position, the reason perhaps for her desire to hold
the reins to the “inside” business power, is that she has a daughter, but no
sons. In the beginning of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Story of
the Stone</i>, when the family is in royal favor and at its peak, Grandmother
Jia and Lady Wang thoroughly enjoy a life of luxury, privilege, and ease due to
their status as mothers of high-ranking sons. All their days are spent in the
pursuit of pleasure. When Grandmother Jia’s highest-ranking son, Sir Zheng,
tries to temper his mother’s behavior, she uses the weapon of filial piety
against him. Because a reputation of being unfilial (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">bu xiao </i></span><span lang="ZH-TW" style="font-family: "PMingLiU","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">不孝</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">) can ruin a man’s
career, Sir Zheng is always forced to retreat in defeat from the women’s inner
sanctum where his mother reigns supreme. And Grandmother Jia continues enjoying
her life of ease. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">The mother of the
heir-apparent is supposed to ensure that her son studies the proper books, which
will allow him to pass the civil service exam and inherit his father’s
positions in government. This becomes a problem in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Story of the Stone</i> when Grandmother Jia insists on indulging
her favorite grandson in his aversion to studying for the exams. Because
Baoyu’s elder brother died young (before the beginning of the novel), Lady Wang
is afraid of putting too much pressure on her one remaining son—her ticket to a
life of ease. Baoyu is an extremely emotional young man, and he has perfected
the art of the tantrum. Before the reader even meets Baoyu face-to-face, tension
builds among the servants who are terrified of Baoyu’s horrible tantrums that
literally make him ill. The need of the mothers to pander to the heir causes
them to undermine the authority of the men in the realm of inside and to
totally spoil Baoyu. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">Towards the end of
the book, when the family is in rapid decline after Wang Xi-feng’s shortcomings
as a semi-literate steward of the family businesses come to light and the
lesser wastrel men are caught in crime and debauchery, Grandmother Jia uses her
feminine morality to rally the family and turn the situation. Whereas she had
been the leader in extravagant living at the beginning of the novel, after the crisis, Grandmother
Jia takes the lead to economize and sacrifice for the sake of the family.
Because she is the eldest and highest-ranking family member, the rules of
filial piety require all the other family members to accompany her in austerity
measures to repair the family fortunes. In this instance, Grandmother Jia
combines filial piety with feminine martyrdom as a way of shaming the men (and
the younger family members) into doing the right thing. She pulls out her secret
stashes of cloth, jewelry, and money accumulated over her long life-time and
donates them to the family to pay fines and cover household expenses. She also
gives up all but one or two of her servants to economize. Her exemplary
feminine virtue becomes a guilt-trip that forces the men to do the right thing.
(Martin Huang’s books discuss how feminine examples of virtue are a frequent
literary theme used to shame men into behaving properly. )</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">Outside the novel,
Chinese women traditionally use their sons to carve a place in their husbands’
households. They are frequently considered outsiders until they bear a son, and
even then, the husband and wife sometimes compete for influence over the heir.
Mothers have a strategy in preparing for their old age: they undermine
the fathers in their stories to the sons to make the boys feel sorry for the
mothers. They do this to ensure that after the fathers retire or pass away, the mothers
will be pulling the strings in the household. Chinese mothers tell wonderful
stories of all they have suffered in raising their children and in exhibiting
filial piety to their thankless in-laws. The stories instill a deep layer of
guilt in the children’s hearts, guaranteeing that the children will leap to
serve their mother’s every whim in her old age. At least, that is the hope of
the mothers… This is part of the battle between the inside and the outside and
something at which Ma Liu excelled. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: PMingLiU; mso-fareast-language: ZH-TW;">The scenario of
grandmothers spoiling their eldest grandsons also seems to be a perennial
condition in Chinese families. Pa often complained that Grandma Liu had
thwarted all his attempts to discipline Yuni, a fact which Yuni cheerfully
confirmed out of Pa’s hearing, describing how Grandma Liu would have his sisters
complete his punishment chores while she took him into the kitchen for a bowl
of noodles to “take away the fright” of having been scolded. Ma certainly
continued this tradition by spoiling her eldest grandson after Yuntian got
married and had sons. </span></div>
</div>
Teresahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831169405732892599noreply@blogger.com0