Monday, October 29, 2007

Unlucky Rats

Chinese people have lost faith in a Communist government. Even though they are bombarded with propaganda, like in the People's Daily and on CCTV, most people tend to ignore it. Even though nationalism is a driving force in the economy, citizens pat themselves on the back for their own successes. And many people, including myself, believe that the leaders now make policy for sustainable development while the ideals of marxism-leninism and maoism have been abandoned.

The Communist party has lost its core, its cultish following, and has focused on making money - which tends to make the country happier and healthier. But despite this new-found respect for a market economy, the Party still insists on having the power to prevent and overthrow a rebellion and will take any action necessary (even above the law) to protect national stability. In other words, China's Communist Party has transformed from a totalitarian regime, where each individual was coerced into participating in the reforms while abiding to the tenets of Maoism, to an authoritarian government, where people are left alone to pursue their own lives and lifestyles as long as their actions and words don't undermine the authority of the Party or help foster social instability.

But with socialism and maoism evaporating from the hearts of the people, the government is afraid that it will be replaced with allegiances to another faith. A religion perhaps. The Party has thrown hundreds of underground priests into prison, Xinjiang (a Western territory with a large Muslim population) has seen strong religious oppression as the government tries to flood the region with Han Chinese, and Tibetan Buddhists are losing their culture and religion fast. The Dalhi Lama fled under Mao and a new regulation was just issued stating that if monks planned on reincarnating, they must seek state approval - rebellious souls could reek havoc!

Despite the Party's efforts, religion is still growing and it will be interesting to see how it spreads in China throughout the 21st century. But for most regular citizens, there is no religion to fill that void of comfort and faith. Without organized religion or faith in the idealism of a government, the Chinese have been forced into superstitions - and follow them religiously.

For example, 4 is pronounced similarly to "death" so there are no fourth floors in China. 8 is the luckiest because it is pronounced ba, close to fa, and facai means "become rich". If you are going to a wedding, an acceptable gift amount is 999 yuan because 9 is pronounced similarly to "a long time" which is hopefully how long the couple stay together. During holidays like Spring Festival, superstitions are extremely important. For Chinese New Years on every front door the character fu, meaning prosperity, is written upside down - "upside down" is pronounced dao and is similar to the word meaning "toward" - Prosperity Will Come To You.

There are dozens of such superstitions that involve a play on words but the craziest superstition I've encountered yet has to do with the Chinese calendar. We are all aware that the Chinese have a 12 year calendar with animals for each year. I thought is was fun, like the Zodiac, to read about the personalities for each year. But I recently learned that parents purposely have children on the luckiest years (which include the rat, pig, and especially the monkey). The superstition of giving birth during one of those lucky years is so powerful, that schools are having difficulties handling the fluctuations in class size. Imagine being a teacher or school principal and having to deal with 300 third graders one year, but 500 third graders the next. I'm a rat and that is traditionally very lucky since it is the first animal of the cycle, but my fellow Chinese friends hate being rats - especially those that had just graduated with a huge class and are now struggling to find work.

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