Tidbits From the World

Les villes de Santiago du Chili et de Montréal sont très distantes. En vol direct, sans escale, la distance est de 8777 km. Mais si on voulait y aller seulement par voie terrienne, sans utiliser l’avion, la distance serait de 13000 km. Le chemin que j’ai pris était un peu moins long. Je suis allé de Santiago à Arica en autobus, ensuite d’Arica à Tacna en taxi, de Tacna à Lima en autobus, ensuite j’ai pris l’avion de Lima à Fort Lauderdale, Floride, États-Unis et puis l’autobus jusqu’à Montréal. Un voyage de 9161 km… Voici comment s’est déroulé le voyage:

La ciudad de Santiago de Chile y la de Montreal son muy lejanas la una de la otra. Por vuelo directo, sin escala, la distancia es de 8777 km. Pero si uno quisiera viajar solo por tierra sin nunca usar el avión, la distancia sería de 13.000 km. El camino que yo he tomado era un poco menos largo. Me fui de Santiago a Arica por bus, de Arica a Tacna por colectivo, de Tacna a Lima por autobus y después, tomé el avión de Lima a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Estados Unidos y finalmente el autobus a Montreal. Un viaje de 9161 km. Así se pasó mi viaje:

Après avoir dit adieu à mes amis de Santiago, je suis allé à la station centrale d’autobus de Santiago. Sur cette photo, je suis accompagné de Gerson! Si l’autobus n’avait pas été en retard, je l’aurais manqué. Je suis arrivé 15 minutes en retard, mais heureusement, les employés de la compagnie d’autobus étaient encore en train de mettre les bagages dans la soute. Température: 32ºC.

Después de haberme despedido con mis amigos de Santiago, me fui a la estación central de bus de Santiago. En esta foto soy yo con Gerson! Si el bus no hubiese partido con retraso, yo lo habria perdido. Llegue con 15 minutos de retraso, pero afortunadamente, los empleados de la compañía de bus estaban todavía colocando los bultos en la bodega. Temperatura: 32ºC.

Un phrase importante quand on s’apprête à faire un voyage dans une région dangereuse, écrite sur la porte de l’autobus… “Deus é fiel”, une phrase en portuguais qui veut dire “Dieu est fidèle”. C’est bon à savoir quand on roule sur des montagnes dans lesquelles de nombreux autobus et voitures se sont écrasées après une fausse manoeuvre du conducteur.

Una frase importante cuando uno se va viajando por una región peligrosa, escrita en la puerte del bus… “Deus é fiel”, una frase en portugues que significa “Dios es fiel”. Es bueno saberlo cuando uno viaja en montañas dónde mucha gente murió después de haber caido en ellas.

Voici à quoi ressemblent ces montagnes au nord du Chili. La route est très près du ravin…

Así parecen las montañas en el norte de Chile. La autopista está muy cerca al barranco…

Arrivée à Arica, la dernière ville au nord du Chili, un jour et demi plus tard. Température: 25ºC.

Llegada a Arica, la última ciudad al norte de Chile, un día y medio mas tarde. Temperatura: 25ºC.

J’en ai profité pour visiter un peu la ville. J’ai trouvé cette statue du Christ avec une inscription qui dit “Aimez-vous les uns les autres, comme je vous ai aimé”. Au dessus, on voit l’emblême du Pérou et celui du Chili. Arica était une ville péruvienne qui a été conquise par les Chiliens lors d’une guerre du XIXe siècle. Depuis, elle fait l’objet de certains conflits diplomatiques entre le Pérou et le Chili. La Bolivie s’en mêle aussi, parce qu’elle aimerait bien avoir Arica dans son territoire pour avoir un accès à l’océan.

Aproveche para visitar un poco la ciudad. Encontré esta estatua del Cristo con una inscripción que dice “Amaos los unos a los otros como yo os he amado”. Arriba, se ve el escudo peruano y el chileno.

Le soir venu, il était temps de prendre le taxi (nommé “colectivo”) jusqu’à Tacna, la première ville au sud du Pérou. C’est la façon la moins chère de traverser la frontière avec un véhicule.

En la tarde, tuve que tomar el colectivo hacia Tacna. Es la manera mas barata de cruzar la frontera con un vehículo.

À la frontière, le douanier m’a posé quelques questions et m’a donné un visa de 30 jours.

En la frontera, el aduanero me hizo algunas preguntas y me dio una visa de 30 días.

Je me suis acheté un billet avec la compagnie Flores, une des compagnies les moins chères du Pérou. J’étais le seul touriste à bord! L’homme que l’on voit sur la photo, est un vendeur ambulant. Le chauffeur l’a laissé entrer pour qu’il vende de la nourriture.

Compre un pasaje con la compañía Flores. Una de las compañías más baratas de Perú. Yo era el único turista a bordo! El hombre que se ve en la foto es un vendedor ambulante. El chofer le dejó entrar para que vendiera comida.

De la nourriture très bonne, comme cet épi de maïs chaud avec du fromage!

Comida muy rica, como este choclo caliente con queso!

Tacna est une ville portuaire et duty free. Alors vous pouvez vous imaginer que l’autobus était plein d’articles de contrebande! Plusieurs personnes achètent des vêtements à Tacna à des prix vraiment très bas et les revendent à Lima.

Tacna es una ciudad porteña y duty free. Entonces uno se puede imaginar que el autobus estaba lleno de artículos de contrabanda! Mucha gente compra ropa en Tacna a precios muy bajos y después los vende en Lima.

Et les plusieurs contrôles policiers n’ont pas suffit à éliminer tous les articles de contrebande!

Y los varios controles policiales no bastaron para eliminar todos los artículos de contrabanda!

À Lima, j’ai rencontré une amie que j’avais connue en août. Je n’ai malheureusement pas pu voir d’autres amis qui étaient occupés quand je suis arrivé…

En Lima, encontré una amiga que conocí en agosto. Desafortunadamente, no pude ver todos, por falta de tiempo… No me pude quedar mucho tiempo en Lima, tenia que tomar un vuelo.

Je me suis retrouvé sur le pont où je m’étais fait attaquer en juillet (cf.Lien vers l’article), encore par erreur, mais cette fois, j’étais accompagné et on était en pleine journée. J’en ai profité pour prendre trois photos. Température: 21ºC.

De repente me encontré en el puente donde me asaltaron en julio (cf.Vínculo al artículo). Otra vez por error, pero esta vez no estaba solo y era el día. Aproveche para tomar tres fotos. Temperatura: 21ºC

L’attaque s’est produite ici, au lampadaire.

El asalto ocurrio aquí en el foco.

Finalement, l’aéroport…

Finalmente, llegue al aeropuerto…

J’ai toujours peur de prendre l’avion, surtout quand, avant d’entrer, un technicien appelle un mécanicien avec son walkie-talkie pour qu’il vérifie “un problème”…

Siempre tengo miedo de subir a un avión, especialmente cuando, antes de subir, un técnico llama a un mecánico con su walkie-talkie, para que vea “un problema”…

L’avion a décollé, j’ai alors quitté l’Amérique du Sud. Le vol était très mouvementé. Il y avait beaucoup de turbulences. Je me suis endormi… mais je me suis réveillé en sursaut, quand j’ai entendu une alarme sonner, j’ai vu des lumières rouges clignoter, j’ai entendu tous les passagers crier “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” et j’ai senti que la seule chose qui me retenait à mon siège était ma ceinture! L’avion était en train de tomber! J’ai regardé par la fenêtre. C’était la nuit, je ne voyais pas grand chose, sauf des nuages… qui ressemblaient à l’océan… Je croyais que l’avion était en train de s’écraser dans l’océan… mais finalement, le pilote a repris le contrôle de la situation. Après une chute libre relativement longue, l’avion s’est stabilisé et a continué sa route.

El avión despegó, deje entonces Sud-América. El vuelo estaba muy agitado. Había muchas turbulencias. Me acosté, pero de repente me desperté cuando escuché el sonido de una alarma, ví luces rojas parpadeando y escuché los pasajeros gritando “AAAHHHHH!!!” Senti que lo único que me mantenia a mi asiento era mi cinturon de seguridad! El avión estaba cayendo! Miré por la ventana. Era la noche. No veía mucho, salvo nubes… pero que me parecían al océano… Creía que el avión estaba cayendose en el mar… pero finalmente, el piloto estabilizo el avión. Después de una caida libre relativemente larga, continuemos el vuelo hacia Estados Unidos.

Je suis arrivé à Fort Lauderdale au matin. J’ai visité la ville durant quelques heures.

Llegue a Fort Lauderdale en la mañana. Visité la ciudad durante algunas horas.

J’ai mangé une vraie pizza américaine! Avec le pepperoni par-dessus le fromage et avec l’huile dégoulinante!

Comi una verdadera pizza americana! Con el peperoni encima del queso y el aceite chorreando en la ropa!

J’ai fait la rencontre d’un prophète sans-abris qui aurait déjà, selon lui, plusieurs disciples. Il aurait guéri une femme du sida et un homme du rhume. Le tout, grâce au Saint-Esprit qui contrôle ses gestes, ses paroles et ses prières.

Sur cette photo, il pose avec sa femme.

Conocí a un profeta sin techo que cuenta con varios discípulos, segun él. Él habría curado una mujer del sida y un hombre de un resfrío. Todo, gracias al Espiritu Santo que controla sus movimientos, sus palabras y sus oraciones.

En esta foto, se ve él con su esposa.

Je suis ensuite allé à la station d’autobus de la compagnie Greyhound, la seule compagnie qui offre un service dans toute l’Amérique du Nord. Avec cette compagnie, il est possible de voyager d’un bout à l’autre de l’Amérique du Nord, du sud du Mexique au nord du Canada, de n’importe quelle ville à n’importe quelle autre ville. Le seul problème c’est que l’autobus fait beaucoup d’arrêts. Il arrête à chaque grande ville pour laisser sortir des passagers ou en faire entrer de nouveaux. Et, quelques fois, il faut changer d’autobus.

Después, fui a la estación de bus de la compañía Greyhound, la única compañía que ofrece un servicio en toda América del Norte. Con esta compañía, es posible viajar de un extremo al otro de América del Norte, desde el sur de México al norte de Canadá, de cualquier ciudad a cualquier ciudad. El único problema es que el bus tiene muchas paradas. Se para en todas las ciudades grandes del camino para dejar entrar o salir pasajeros. Y, a veces, hay que cambiar el bus.

Voici de quoi a l’air un billet de Greyhound. La liste et l’horaire de tous les arrêts.

Así parece un pasaje de Greyhound. Se ve la lista y el horario de todas las paradas.

En plus, il y a un billet pour chaque arrêt. Un employé vous enlève un billet quand vous arrivez à un des arrêts.

Además, hay un pasaje para cada parada. Un empleado te quita un pasaje cuando llegas a una parada.

Voyager par la compagnie Greyhound est la façon la plus économique de parcourir de longues distances au Canada et aux États-Unis. Chaque personne dans l’autobus a une destination différente. Chaque personne a une histoire différente. Il est très intéressant de voyager avec cette compagnie et de connaître des gens pour la plupart extra-ordinaires.

Viajar por la compañía Greyhound es la manera más económica de recorrer largas distancias en Canadá y en Estados Unidos. Cada persona en el bus tiene un destino distinto. Cada persona tiene una historia distinta. Es muy interesante viajar con esta compañía, porque uno conoce gente bastante extraordinaria.

Cette fois-là, j’ai fait la connaissance d’une famille monoparentale composée d’une mère et de cinq enfants, obtenus de trois hommes différents. Ils allaient à Pittsburg.

Esta vez, conocí a una familia monoparental compuesta de una madre y de cinco niños que tienen tres padres diferentes. Ellos iban a Pittsburg.

Un mormon qui allait à Salt-Lake City possédant 20% des actions de la compagnie Yahoo!. Si c’était vrai, il serait multi-millionaire, voire milliardaire. Je lui ai demandé ce qu’il faisait dans un autobus de Greyhound s’il était si riche. Il m’a répondu que si Dieu avait voulu que l’homme vole, il lui aurait donné des ailes.

Selon sa croyance, à sa mort, Dieu lui donnera une planète pour qu’il puisse la diriger en tant que Dieu.

Un mormón que iba a Salt-Lake City. Me dijo que posee 20% de las acciones de la compañía Yahoo!. Si es verdad, es multi-millonario. Le pregunte, si era tan rico, por qué viajaba por Greyhound? Me dijo que si Dios hubiera querido que los hombres vuelan, les habria dado alas.

Segun sus creencias, cuando muera, Dios le va a dar un planeta para que sea el Dios de este planeta.

Et un ex-prisonnier. La seule façon que j’ai trouvée pour le prendre en photo sans qu’il le sache, c’était en faisant semblant de me prendre une photo à moi-même! Il est entré en prison en 1989 et en est sorti en 2000. Il allait à New York City.

Y un ex-preso. La única manera que encontré para sacarle una foto, sin que lo supiera él, era de hacer como si yo me sacase una foto a mí solo! Entró en la carcel en el año 1989 y salió en el 2000. Iba a Nueva York.

Bagues et bracelets en or… et bourré de tatouages. Il en avait partout. Sur les mains, sur le cou, le visage et il nous a confié qu’il en avait même un sur le pénis! Il nous a dit que ça faisait très mal… Sur le cou, il s’était fait tatouer le nom “Michelle”. Sous l’oeil, il s’était fait tatouer une larme, tatouage caractéristique des prisionniers.

Anillos y pulseras de oro… y lleno de tatuajes. Tenía por todas partes. En las manos, en el cuello, el rostro… y nos confió que también tenía uno en el pene! Nos dijo que duele mucho… En el cuello, su tatuaje dice “Michelle”. Bajo el ojo, tiene una lagrima, tatuaje caracteristico de los presos.

Durant la nuit, un pneu arrière a éclaté…

En la noche, un neumático estalló…

La conductrice a appellé une compagnie pour qu’ils changent le pneu.

La conductora llamó a una compañía para que cambien el neumático.

À Fayetteville, en Caroline du Nord, le froid commençait à se faire sentir. Semblable au froid automnal canadien. Température: 12ºC.

En Fayetteville, Carolina del Norte, el frio apareció. Temperatura: 12ºC.

L’autobus est arrivé à Washington DC dans la soirée! La station d’autobus se trouvait à trois coins de rue de l’avenue “Capitol” et, de là, la Maison Blanche se trouvait à 11 coins de rue. Malheureusement, l’arrêt n’a pas duré assez longtemps pour pouvoir voir la Maison Blanche de plus près. Température: 6ºC.

El bus llegó a Washington DC en la tarde! La estación de bus se encontraba a 3 cuadras de la avenida “Capitol” y la Casa Blanca se encontraba a 11 cuadras de la esquina. Desafortunadamente, la parada no duró bastante tiempo para ver la Casa Blanca de mas cerca… :-( Temperatura: 6ºC.

Dans l’État de New York, la neige a commencé à apparaître sur le chemin. Température: -8ºC.

En el estado de Nueva York, nieve empezó a aparecer en el camino. Temperatura: -8ºC.

Transfert d’autobus vers Montréal…

Cambio de bus a Montreal…

À la frontière, l’autobus s’est arrêté à un magasin libre de taxes.

En la frontera, el bus paró en una tienda sin impuestos.

Tout est plus économique dans ce type de magasin. Remarquez la valeur du dollar canadien, égal au dollar américain (depuis quelques mois déjà!).

Todo es más barato en este tipo de tienda. Noten el valor del dolar canadiense. Igual al dolar americano (ahora tengo la prueba!).

Aux douanes canadiennes, on ne pose pas beaucoup de questions. On ne fouille pas les sacs, il n’y a pas de machine à rayons X ni de chiens renifleurs… du moins là où je suis allé…

En las aduanas canadienses, no preguntan mucho. No miran lo que hay en los bultos, no hay maquina de rayos X, ni hay perros antidroga… Al menos, en las aduanas donde fui yo.

Je suis finalement arrivé à Montréal, après un voyage d’une semaine. Température: -22ºC; 30 cm de neige.

Llegue finalmente a Montreal, tras un viaje de una semana. Temperatura: -22ºC; 30 cm de nieve.

Let’s leave China for a moment to see some pictures that I took in Russia. Here are some pictures from Saint Petersburg.

The two-headed eagle is the symbol of Russia.

When you visit Russia, you might find here and there the old Russian emblem, that of the USSR. The Russian letters SSSR (CCCP) stand for Soyuz Sovietskikh Sotsialistichekikh Respublik (Союз Советских Социалистических Республик), which means Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics. On the emblem you can see the slogan of the USSR “Proletarians of the World, Unite!”

The bear is also the symbol of Russia. Here, a cub is given milk on a park bench.

Officers in a train station are looking for privates who are out without permission.

Have they gotten their permission to go out?

A car driver is arguing with a traffic police agent.

“Come on, have a ride in my taxi!”

Some people say that Saint Petersburg is like a northern Venice because of the Neva River and some other smaller rivers that go through the city.

A lot of people fish at the Neva River.

An Orthodox Church, in which the most important religion in Russia is followed.

A prayer.

Vladimir Lenin gives a speech, from a balcony, in which he tells the revolutionaries to not give up the socialist revolution, in 1917.

Here is the balcony today. By a strange coincidence, the day that I took this photograph, a Coca-Cola car was parked just under the balcony. History is full of 180° turns.

Old women are probably the people who are suffering the most from the collapse of the Soviet Union right now. Without any pension, or almost nothing, they try to survive by selling fruits picked in the garden of their Dacha (countryside house).

Boris. He is the man behind some of the comments in this blog! After four years of being Internet pen pals, we finally met in his home city. He was my guide, my translator, my historian and my sociologist everywhere in the city. I would flood him with questions. Every answer that he would give me opened the door to a new question. So, long cycles of questions and answers were always taking place until Boris could not answer anymore and would say, “Alexandre, I don’t know! »

The summer camp that I attended last July, for some legal reasons, was not really a “summer camp” (even though it resembled a camp), but rather a “Summer School”. As Mister Lee, the organizer of the School, put it, this was a “Spiritual School”. A school in which Mr Lee, throughout a week-long program, tried to teach his young students some notions that are completely foreign to the current normal curricula for primary school and high school in the People’s Republic of China: critical thinking and self-fulfillment through civic education.

The first notion was probably the most complex and the one requiring most diplomacy from Mr Lee and his assistants to lecture about: development of critical thinking. In a country where all media are State-owned, it is easy to accept all the facts that are brought forward without using readily available sources on the Internet. Some very controversial taboos were addressed in the summer school. Some students were shocked to hear for the first time of their lives the questioning of the very foundations of their own education. For instance, one of the volunteers who came from Beijing, delivered a speech that questioned the One China Policy. This policy aims at preserving China’s territorial integrity as it was before the fall of the last dynasty in 1911 – however without Mongolia and some other lost territories. That is all the provinces included to what is called “China Proper” (Beijing, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Hunan, …), as well as provinces mostly populated by ethic minorities (Tibet, Xinjiang), Taiwan and the sorrounding Islands currently under the jurisdiction of the Republic Of China, the South China sea and some borders that are yet to be internationally recognised. His point was that China is a very huge and complex country and it would not be that bad if one of its provinces – if their respective populations were to agree – would separate from China and form their own independent country. Boom. This very statement had the effect of a bomb on the students. One of them, startled by what she had just heard said to Ying “听得不舒服” (this makes me uncomfortable). Of course, the purpose of this speech was not to make regional separatists out of these young students. There was no separatist in the room. The idea was to open the door to critical thinking. To teach the students how to be able to accept the possibility of an idea that goes against the biggest taboo currently in China, or at least, to make sure that these children would hear a different viewpoint for the first time in their lives, and then start building a free mind.

The second notion, individualism, was much less controversial at the political level, than the first notion, but nevertheless was still somewhat unsettling for family relationships. In China, there is a concept that makes children the “private properties” of their parents. Having a child is an investment for the future. A child must therefore have a successful career in order to get a high salary and help their parents when they retire. The first step to success is education. You have to study, everyday, from 8 a.m to 11p.m, you must go to school in the summer, in July and August, and then take English classes when time permits. But why in the world should a student work that hard at school? Or, the question as asked by Mr Lee: “WHO are you doing all this for? WHO do you work for? WHO do you study for?” To this question, many students answered that they wanted their parents to be proud of them. This is when Mr Lee asked them “What are YOUR dreams?”.

So the students, one by one, presented to the class their dreams.  Some of them dreamed of working in a big city and becoming rich, while some others dreamed of staying in the countryside and grow vegetables.

Some other students chose to talk about their past, their moving past, recalling a lost parent, the despair of life in poverty, while others perhaps leading a happier life chose to talk about their aspirations.

The first day of the program, the wake-up time was set to 6 a.m (and the day ended at 11 p.m!) Early in the morning, we climbed one of the hills around the town where the school was located. The course was steep, wet and muddy.

Once on the summit, the students would sing and read poems in an ambiance that resembled very much to Evangelist Christian summer camps in the USA where biblical verses are read in the nature. But in this case, there was nothing religious.

The second day, at the same time, we climbed a second hill. The soil was less muddy and the course less steep, so coming down was easier.

In passing, we met various farmers who climb and go down the hill every day without feeling tired!

Old but fit.

But 6 a.m really was too early to get up. The students and the volunteers were exhausted. A student complained about it, and then Mr Lee gave a demonstration of democracy to the students (did he plan it all?) So a proposition was put forward to modify the schedule by removing the early morning hill-climbing, moving the wake-up time one hour later and have the children read poems in the school playground instead of at the summit of a hill. After a heated debate, the vote was carried out and the result was very close: 20 yea: 19 nay for the modification of the schedule! Therefore, from that day on, there was no more hill climbing. By chance, the students were present in an odd number. Had the result of the vote come out as a tie, Mr Lee would have had to use his power of vote to break the tie, which might have been viewed by the children as an authoritarian move, and might have confused the students in their idea of a “perfect” democracy.

In all, there were 6 part-time volunteers, available for only one week; one full-time volunteer; Mr Lee and his wife. Each volunteer brought something different to the school. Ying and I brought the “foreign world”, two students from Guangdong (also known as “Canton”) taught singing, a philosopher from Beijing (whose name means “love for philosophy (爱哲)”) taught some fundamentals of democracy and philosophy, a teacher also from Canton, from an ethnic minority, showed  the students images from her native village. The full-time volunteer, a poet, helped Mr Lee in his enterprise and added his point of view to tackle some problems. On this picture, both Cantonese students are teaching how to use one’s voice to sing. The guys are separated from the girls.

Ying described her experience abroad in the USA.

“Westerners vs Chinese”

Westerner’s world view vs Chinese’s. The relationships between an individual and five different elements: (other people, family, objects, nature and God). In Westerners, according to Mr Lee’s assessment, the most important relationship, the one that encompasses everything, is between an individual and God, while in the Chinese, this relationship doesn’t exist, as shown in the diagrams (the dotted circle in the left diagram represents this relationship in Westerners). According to Mr Lee, what is lacking most in the Chinese, is spirituality, as practiced in the West. Mr Lee is an Evangelist Christian.

As the program was advancing, the presentation progressively grew more religious. Some movies were presented, many of them recounting the lives of great historical personalities (which also appeared to be Christians). Among them: Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King and Gandhi.

There was also a non-religious movie that was presented: the Wizard of Oz. At the last day of the camp, there would be a reenactment of some scenes from the movie made by the students. There was three teams of actors, each team would play the same scenes. The best actors in each team would be declared as the winners.

Here are some photos of the play.

The best actors, chosen by a secret vote.

At the end of the camp, a guestbook was put at the disposal of the students so that they could write down their thoughts. They could write about anything: their aspirations, their opinion on the camp, etc.

The camp was interrupted two times to receive book donations made by benefactors. The books that Ying donated arrived exactly on the last day!

The organization which organized the camp is above all an NGO whose objective is to build libraries in rural China. To date, they already have built 4 libraries in 3 Chinese provinces. This organization was founded by some intellectuals from Beijing. Mr Lee told me that the building of a library costs approximately 40000元 (USD 5800)  in equipment (computers, projector, …), in furniture and in other expenses (for example: notebooks). Then, you add 10000 to 20000元 (USD 1500 to 3000$)  annually on top of it for maintenance. This NGO is represented by 5 intellectuals, each of them unique in their approach, but all sharing one common view: the importance of civic education in China. This is not an organization with a political purpose, nor is it religious. If you would like to help this organization in any way, you can directly contact Mr Lee at the following address: liyingqiang@gmail.com

At my University, there are a lot of evangelical christians studying Chinese. Some of them are active missionaries, while others prefer to keep their faith to themselves. I talked to one of my classmates, who is a University professor in Brazil, and he told me the reason why he studies Chinese. He said that many Chinese now immigrate to Brazil. The parents have a business while the children go to school. Those of age to attend college are “forced” to study some practical majors that they might not be that much interested in, for instance Medicine, Law, International Business, etc. As a result, many Chinese students are depressed and lost, some of them even have suicidal thinking. My classmate, being a professor at a Sao Paolo University and a student counselor, found a way to appease his Chinese students, to make them cope better with the pressure put onto them by their family. Of course, as a Christian, he used a religious method of appeasing. His rationale is that if these students become Christians themselves, they should cope better with pressure, having the lord behind supporting them and giving them strength to go forward in their lives. But now the question is: how do you convert a Chinese to Christianity? The Chinese being largely a “godless” people as I’ve heard many people say, pragmatic and proud atheists, it seems a little more difficult to convert them to any religion. So, the method my classmate found consists in using some Chinese characters to “prove” his Chinese students that the Chinese people believed in the same God 3000 years ago as the Christians do today. Let’s take a look at his selection of characters that, arguably, prove that the Chinese people are actually unsuspecting Christians…

I will start here with the most explicit one, the one that most captures the imagination, the traditional character for the verb “to come; to arrive”.

This ancient character was created well before Jesus’ arrival on earth, yet it seems to depict a man being crucified along with two other people (the two thieves who were crucified at the same time as Jesus). Let’s take a closer look:

There seems to be a “cross” from which two “legs” are protruding on the bottom. And here is the interesting part:

Each one of these red parts on this character means “people; person”.

Here is the character that means “person”. So, for my classmate, the traditional character which means “to come, to arrive”, is a pictogram depicting the Christ being crucified along with two other people (the two thieves). To him, this character was prophetic: it was created one or two millenia before Christ’s arrival on earth, thus the ancient Chinese, according to him, believed in Jesus as their saviour. His Chinese students back in Brazil seem to be receptive to his ideas.

Now, the character for “righteousness”. It depicts:

A lamb and

“me; I”. Thus, “I, the lamb“. In the Book of Revelation, the lamb is used as a metaphor for referring to Jesus (the Sacrificial lamb). So if you analyse this character,

who is “righteous”? “Me”, the “lamb”, Jesus Christ.

Now let’s take a look at this very rare character:

This character, made up of two trees and a woman, means “avaricious; greedy; never satisfied”. For my classmate, this is a clear reference to Eva in the Garden of Eden, who commited the original sin. “She” was “greedy” in a garden containing two “trees”…

Another example he gave me:

This character means “boat; ship; vessel”. The right part of the character is made up of two elements:

“Eight”, which according to him, was written differently inside the character “boat”, where both lines of this character are joined by a horizontal line (the upper-right part of the character).

And underneath, there is a “mouth” or “people”. Therefore, in the character for “boat”, there are “eight people”, a reference to Noah’s Ark, which saved eight people from the great Flood…

All this to me sounds a little like the “Da Vinci Code”, or the hidden code in the Torah. One can take any selection of Chinese characters and interpret them as they wish. This was the first time I heard a religious interpretation from the characters, but many times before have I read or heard interpretations (mostly false) concerning the construction and origins of the Chinese characters. But the fact is that only about 10% of the simplified characters currently in use in China are pictographic, that is they carry a meaning within their structure. The rest, roughly 90%, is made up of phono-semantic compounds, wherein one part of a character describes a very approximate idea, while another part describes an approximate sound. (This system was more accurate in older times, but today, both the pronounciations and meanings of the characters have evolved).

Here is an example of a phono-semantic compound:

This is a ideogram meaning “forest”. It is composed of two “trees” each represented by four strokes. The pronounciation of this compound, in mandarin Chinese, is “lin”.

This is a radical meaning “heart”. It is not a caracter and it can only be used as a particle inside a character. It is used to convey meanings pertaining to feelings, mood, spirit, etc.

And now, this combination of the aforementioned two particles forms a phono-semantic compound. The right part of the character describes the pronounciation (lin), while the left part gives an approximation of the meaning. (It has to do with feelings). This is the only etymology that one can take from this character. General meaning + pronounciation. The ancient Chinese used this method to conveniently invent new characters (a writing system uniquely composed of ideograms or pictograms would be impractible). This character is a synonym to the one we saw earlier:

“Avaricious; greedy; never satisfied”. Both characters are phono-semantic. In this case, the upper part gives the pronounciation (this time, “lin” is an approximation to the actual pronounciation “lan”, an example of how the Chinese writing system can be inconsistent). The lower part is a “woman”. The “woman” radical is often used in characters having a bad connotation, for instance: the characters for “slave”, “anger”, “to pout”, to only state a few. Now, that’s very far from the Garden of Eden!

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In Xi’an, there are many restaurants that claim to serve real Xinjiang food, but they are mostly owned by Chinese muslims of the Hui minority. Hui cuisine is different from the Uyghur’s (hereafter referred to as “the people from the New Territories/New-Territorians“, to avoid having my website blocked by the pesky Great Firewall which seems to automatically block any website containing any reference to this people…) Xinjiang means “New Frontier” or “New Territory” in Chinese, it is the name of a Chinese province located at the North Western part of China, it shares borders with Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Chinese language has two terms for this people: “the Weiwuer people: 维吾尔族” and “the people from the New Territory (New-Territorians): 新疆人”.

There is that one restaurant close to my apartment where they serve genuine food from the New Territories. They have great noodles, with great sauce and bread… oh good bread is so rare in China! Their food is great, the exotic ambiance is fabulous, but their service, let’s put it this way: sucks. They lie to their customers whenever a request is too troublesome to be fulfilled, for instance if you want noodles, but they want to sell off all their rice, they will tell you that they have no noodles anymore, and two minutes later you will see one of the staff eating noodles. They are harsh to their customers and act like real misers in front of money… but anyway, it’s basically the only place where you can taste one of the best foods in Xi’an, so I guess it’s the price to pay for good bread and noodles.

The restaurant is always full… of people. They are mostly family members of the owner. Sometimes you see customers, other fellow New Territorians, or even Han Chinese, who come to have a taste at some halal food (which is translated in Chinese as “清真食品” (clean and real food)).

Over a period of one year, I have been very few times to that restaurant. I had always been repelled by the complete lack of courtesy from the staff. But last week, I finally got some human touch from the family.

I was happily surprised when, after taking a picture right outside the restaurant, I was asked by the owner, and subsequently by everyone in the restaurant, to have their portrait taken. I therefore took a picture of each one of them, in front of the Shahada, the Muslim declaration of belief pictured above, behind the man. It is written in Arabic and means “There is no god but God and Muhammad is His prophet”.

I think they are all family members, but I could not make sure as we had no common language. Their Mandarin is even worse than mine! and they certainly don’t speak English. They speak Uyghur, a turkic language, and some of them speak Arabic as well.

She is, I believe, the wife of the owner of the restaurant. She is the one who manages the money… a very harsh and straight-forward woman. If you’re trying to pay your meal with a 100-yuan bill, she will bluntly ask you for smaller denominations. Seeing her smile on this picture is particularly moving for me.

On that day, when I ordered my food, she came with the noodles. I said “xie xie (thank you)” and she looked at me with a puzzled glare, as if it was the first time she heard the word. Then, I called her again and asked her for some “na’am” (bread), she came back with my na’am and I said “xie xie” again. She gave me the same suspicious look. Then, I called her a third time for one mutton kebab, and she came again to my table with the kebab, this time smiling and she said:

“PAKI! here’s your kebab!”… I thanked her and said in a mix of Mandarin, French, English and what I believe to be Arabic…

“Me… no Paki… Paki, no, no, no!”

Everytime I grow a beard, I am always asked if I am Pakistani. Han Chinese ask me… Indians ask me… Hui minority people ask me and now, this New Territorian also assumed I was Pakistani. She replied with a question, in her language:

“You’re not Paki?… Are you Turkish?”

No.

“Are you Kirghiz?”

No.

“Are you Kazakh?”

No. “I am from Jianada (Chinese for “Canada”)”.

“Jakarta?”

She then asked the other people in the restaurant if they knew that place called “Jakarta”…

“No, not Jakarta… KA-nada!”

Ah! Canada!

She followed with a question, which I naturally didn’t understand… I said “bu mingbai”, which is Chinese for “I don’t understand”, but she probably didn’t understand me either, it was like a dialogue of the deaf.

Then, some random customer turned over and translated to me what she had just said… in perfectly clear French!

“Elle demande: Comment vous appellez-vous?” (She is asking: “What’s your name?”).

Alex…

“Alex! isbdgo fsdif fafsdaf”. And she left.

I had not heard French spoken so clearly by a non native for a very long time. I was so amazed and happy that I went to his table to chat with him. It was my first conversation with a man from the New Territories. And it was very instructive.

Some of the cooks.

When I go to class every morning at 8 o’clock, I see this young guy peeling carrots and potatoes and preparing the meals for lunch. He looks very young and tired.

Last weekend was Eid al-Adha, the festival of sacrifice in which an animal, usually a sheep, is sacrified by Muslims.

The following day, I had the pictures printed and I gave them a copy of their portraits.

I hesitated before putting this picture on this article, because it sort of destroys its whole positive mood. But I think it is important to mention one of the reasons why there are racial tensions in China. The customer in the restaurant who spoke French to me (I did not take any photo of him) told me that he is often mistaken for a foreigner when he walks in Xi’an. Some people greet him in English, in a manner way too familiar to any expatriate in China: “HHHaallllo!”, and he is often asked which country he is from. He never replies that he is from the New Territories because, according to him, the Chinese are afraid of those people. He prefers to say that he is from Kyrgyzstan. New Territorians are almost always tagged by the Chinese (and not only by Hans) as thieves, bums and lazy students who get a free pass to higher education from the government. In that kind of environment, integration is very difficult, if not impossible. The whole concept of “Harmonious Society” of the current administration will have to be reconsidered…

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Christ Hanzis (The belief in a Christian God through Chinese Characters).

Born-Again Christians (One Month with Evangelical Christians in a Chilean Church). [French and Spanish only]

Religion (A photo of a follower of a mysterious religion in Peru).