Discovery of America

Seems like lots of nations want to claim credit for "discovering" America. The explorer commemorated in this statue was Chinese. He allegedly got to America hundreds of years before Columbus. When we speak of America's discovery, I don't think we're using the right term. Europeans invaded an already populated continent.

Pride

I teach two sections of oral communication. In these classes, almost any activity is fine, if it motivates students to talk and listen. Joe brought a few of his puppets along, and they've been a big hit. Here, Pearl the Pig, in a display of patriotism, wears an Uncle Sam hat. Don't know if you can see it, but the logo on Joe's shirt says "ETSU Pride."

Old Wounds

The foreign teachers here in Weihai are an international group: New Zealanders, Canadians, Americans, Australians, British, Korean, Japanese. I feel sorriest for the Japanese, as the Chinese have such negative feelings about them because of the history of warfare between their two peoples. It's something outsiders do not fully comprehend, like the tension between the English and the Irish in the British Isles.

I think the Japanese nationals teaching here are very strong people. There is a palpable tension between Japanese and Chinese on the basis of history.

The Chinese have erected many monuments in memory of those who died in military conflicts with Japan. Liu Gongdao island, just off Weihai's coast, is one such memorial. Above: flowering gardens on the island. Below: Joe standing at the entrance to an exhibit.

Columbus Day???

In a recent email, my son Mike mentioned he'd been off work for Columbus Day. Columbus Day?? I can honestly say I haven't thought about that holiday since I arrived here. We just finished celebrating the mid-autumn mooncake festival. People kept giving me boxes of these heavy little cakes with Chinese writing on the outside and fruit filling on the inside. Kind of like nth degree Fig Newtons. The Mooncake Festival, which comes at the time of the harvest moon, coincides with the national holiday. It's like I'm on a different planet.

Who's afraid of the Flying Spaghetti Monster?

While China has many Christians... and Buddhists and Muslims, atheism is still the official position of the Communist state. Members of the Communist Party must attest to their atheism. Still, many people, including many of my students, believe in God. This I know because the kids write about this in their papers, though this is sometimes off topic.

The Chinese don't like religion, especially Western religion because they believe the British misused religion to control the Chinese during the colonial period. And of course, Karl Marx did not care for religion because he felt it was used to keep ordinary people in line.

Lately, there's been an upsurge of atheism in Western countries, chiefly in response to fundamentalist protests against the teaching of evolution. In a parody of religion, a group calling itself the "Pastarians" are contending the world was created by a flying spaghetti monster. Here are a couple of their websites:

http://www.venganza.org/

http://www.venganza.org/2006/09/24/evolution-is-a-fraud.htm

Some Pastarian literature is really funny, but it can also be inane and tasteless. These folks argue against religion by making it sound ridiculous. Ridiculing something is not the same as proving it wrong. Logicians say that arguments based on ridicule are informal fallacies-- in other words, they don't lead to the truth. It's interesting these people can't find better support for their position.

I don't like it when the Communist state tries to suppress religion. But I don't like indoctrination in any form-- including Christian indoctrination. I think the best way to help people arrive at truth is to teach them to think.

Above: The Flying Spaghetti Monster

Below: The Chinese Dragon and Knot of China