My Thanksgiving Day celebration that I had planned to indulge on with Cory has been postponed several times. I had felt quite torn as to what I wanted to do for this festival. Knowing that the best parts of Thanksgiving were celebrating with family I realized the obvious void which had been created by the space which separated us. The importance of holding onto true memories came into place again as I was extremely pleased to be able to remember many Thanksgiving festivals completely in my mind’s eye. I was even able to almost taste the food exactly as I had tasted in so many times before.
Cory and I had the honor of attending recently a sixty-eight year old Professor’s birthday party. I was incredibly aware of the importance which this celebration entailed by the specific arrangements prepared by the hosts. In Chinese culture, the host pays for everyone else on their birthday. As Cory and I neared the hotel entrance we were greeted by over twenty prior students, classmates, and friends of the host. It was an incredible honor to have so many friends, family, and students at this birthday party. In all, there must have been over fifty people in attendance. The meal itself was as good as I have tasted in China. There were more dishes prepared than previously I had seen as well as a massive four-tiered cake which was perfectly presented in the front of the dining room.
The entire dining hall was booked and left for only the guests of the host family. Only hotel waiters and waitresses were allowed into provide refreshments and food. The refreshments included a bottle of sweet tea, rice-based herbal tea, beer, and baijiu. Water is never provided for at meals unless previously requested.
The food included wonderful assortments of meats dishes with vegetables. There must have been fifteen different dishes served at each table. Every time I eat out at a traditional Chinese meal I feel as if I was eating at a buffet style restaurant for all the variety of food served at the table. It is always such a treat for me to be able to try an incredible variety of meats and vegetables at every meal.
The ceremony itself included many formal toasting to the host and his health. Everything from the color, shape, and design of the birthday ornaments covering the dining hall held important meaning. The Chinese character on the birthday banners were written in traditional not simplified Chinese characters.
After many formal speakers came up to wish the host great health; singing began from the guests in a karaoke style manner. People were pressured to sing as they consumed greater amounts of liquor. Many formal pictures were taken throughout the ceremony as well as the videotaping of the celebration. The pictures were very traditionally documented in Chinese fashion along with the pomp and pageantry associated with important birthdays.
I was honored by the guest to give a little speech in front of the guests. I obliged and did my best to honor him using English and Mr. Tian as an interpreter. On any other occasion I would have used Chinese; however, I felt that the situation merited a direct and fluent translation and not my attempt to show respect to the Chinese language.
This ceremony as much as anything reiterates to me the importance of ceremony in Chinese culture even today. To forget how ancient and respected Chinese culture is in China would be a big mistake. I was greatly honored to share in this meal as was Cory.
Living in Chinese society has the taught me the value of patience in a whole new manner. My apartment now has a broken window, television set, and bedroom light. Cory’s apartment’s bathroom almost collapsed on him from a leak through the roof which has hindered him for about a month now. Cory and I have still been unable to get our flights booked yet for S.E. Asia even as we have been trying to get Mr. Tian’s niece to help us for over two months now. It is strange to think about how something can be finished over night in the United States and take literally weeks or months to do in China.
I have been voraciously reading through the novel, “Shogun” which is based on Japanese culture in the 17th century. I have learned quite a bit about a culture in which I had many predisposed beliefs about. I know much now about Shinto, bushido, Buddhism, etc. I have also learned how incredibly corrupt some Jesuits, sailors, samurai, priests, etc were during this period of history. I think one of the most revealing things for me was how the main character, “Blackthorne” was forced to really compare European and Japanese culture against one another as he found his love for “Mariko” growing in him. I found that at that time there was much to be desired in Europe such as, the filthy cities, pollution, religious wars, Ottoman invaders, plague, etc. In Japan, there were also many detestable things like murdering for pleasure, samurai, assassins, etc. However, Japanese culture promoted things like religious tolerance during a time of religious confrontation in Europe. Even if the main reason for such tolerance was that Jesuits priests acted as intermediaries between Japan and foreigners.
Today, western culture has taken many things from Japanese culture such as the importance of staying clean. In Europe, bathing was extremely uncommon for people due to their belief that bathing hurt a person’s health. Japanese culture also promoted clean cities; whereas, European cities were detestably foul in the 17th century. Japanese culture was also extremely open in the forms of sexuality during this time period compared with European views on the body, sex, etc. Women in Japanese culture held an incredibly important position as they took care of all the financial burdens of the household. They were important advisors to the men as well as physically able to offer combat as some where samurai as well.
There are many clear examples also where Japanese culture honored things which were incredibly revolting, such as the sanctity of life itself. Death was ritualized in a manner in which the lust of killing and battle was found extremely preferably to life itself. Shame and honor were the two greatest pieces of Japanese culture which I have learned from so far. Their importance today I am sure is still very crucial in understanding Japanese society today. In the novel, a person will commit instant seppuku if they feel that they have betrayed their honor or shamed themselves beyond hope of repair.
The last piece I found incredibly interesting was that the author referred to samurai as having three hearts. The samurai have one heart for their men, another for their family, and a last one secret to only their inner self. After reading this and thinking about it some time I believe that most people have this three-tiered heart as well today. I believe that most people are not true to and keep their inner heart trapped away from anyone who is actually willing to help. It is important I think to sometimes let go of that inner heart to open yourself up to the possibility that someone can actually make that difference in your life.
No comments:
Post a Comment