"中国: The Sign of the Times" (#158; Topic F)

Going through dated magazines at the beach earlier this week, I came across an essay, with an eye-catching bilingual title (shown above), by Anna Quindlen (Newsweek, 5/1/06). Though it made reference to President Hu Jintao's visit to USA in late April, the essay was clearly based upon a trip the author made some time ago. At times, Quindlen was worried: "... the percolating issue ... was whether, given its [China's] size, its economic clout and its increasing dominance in the world today, it will someday eat our lunch." Well, there is a Chinese saying: 天下沒有不散的筵席 [There is no banquet under the sun that does not end]. So, having lunch at someone's backyard must necessarily end -- the issue is not whether, but when. At times, Quindlen conveniently glossed over some unpleasant history: "Many Americans came to know it [China] only vaguely, as a nation to which Christian churches sent missionaries to supplant ancient religions with a more modern one." No, no, no. No #1: Americans such as Warren Delano (#139-140) first came to China as opium traders. No #2: China has no native religions -- teachings of Confucius, mislabeled as Confucianism in the west (that is, as if it were a religion), are moral directions, not religious dogmas. All religions in China were imports -- Buddhism was from the near west (India) in the 1st century; Nestorians, persecuted in the middle west, found safe harbor in China in the 7th-8th centuries; Jesuits, from the far west, entered China in the 16th-17th centuries as unauthorized aliens and evicted, in toto, following an imperial edict, in 1707. Even its label, 宗教, is an import, from Japan. No #3: after being defeated by Britain in the Opium War in 1842, China, through unequal treaties, had no choice but to open her doors, thereby allowing British missionaries (and American counterparts riding on Britain's coattail) unrestricted right to proselytize. These missionaries had nothing to supplant -- most Chinese are not followers and view all religions with equal disdain.