Chinese Indonesian

Before the revolution we were slaves, and now we are the slaves of former slaves - Lu Xun

If somebody asked me, "what is it about yourself which influence they way you think, act and reason?". Being Christian(nominally) and Chinese(vaginally, which means that I was born from a Chinese mom with the sperm donated from Chinese Dad, not that I join the long march in 1934, schooled in Confucian academy or able to recite Chinese poem at will ) would be my answer. There are no way of escaping those two set of mind in all aspect of my life's. However, I think there are some elements in either being Chinese or Christian that are useless, pointless and senseless. What tick me off is that sometime people follow these customs (actions/habits of being Chinese or Christian) only for the sake of following them without any purpose or reason underlying those actions. It can be frustrating sometimes.

I personally think that Chinese overseas is one of the most racist people in the world. Well we don't burn mosque, kill indigenous people or live separately from local Indonesian(............actually we do for the last part), not that we don't want to, but because we don't have enough Chinese people in Indonesia I suppose. Our brand of racism is passive racism (the kind of racism that were exhibited by the ordinary German when NAZI detains, tortures and expels the Jewish people). My grandma and dad is an enthusiast Chinese nationalist (like most of middle aged Chinese Indonesian). Well, my grandma is a staunch communist sympathizer. I think they watch CCTV (中国中央电视台) more than they watch local Indonesian news. By the way, I love my family very much, it just that my way of seeing who I am and their way of seeing who they are diverges more and more. I don't even know anymore what does it take to become a Chinese. A large portion of Chinese Indonesian ( especially from Medan, I detest Medan-nesse, they are the most vain, shallow and pretentious group of people alive that I know, by the way I was born there) think that if they do these :

1. Speak mandarin fluently, without any hint of knowledge about Chinese history
2. Listen to popular Chinese Music without understanding what the song is all about
3. Watch Chinese TV series or movies, and believing that Yoko is a historical character ,Judge Bao is a judge wiser than Salomon and Hong Kong Triad is a bunch of honorable and loyal people.
4. Befriend Chinese Malaysian and Singaporeans rather than the other ordinary non-mandarin speaking chinese Indonesian friend (when you study abroad)
5. Go to Beijing for a quick Mandarin course (because your parent believe that China is where the future is, no longer western country) when you finish university and find yourself jobless. In the end you become a jobless bump who can speak broken Chinese.
6. Exploiting Chinese peasants to have a prosperous business in China
7. Celebrating Chinese New Year excessively
8. Eat in Muara Karang and claiming that the best kuey tiaw in the world can be found there
9. Gamble a lot. Casino, soccer bet, lottery...all scheme to quickly get rich while refusing to do any honest but hard working job
10. Wearing gold necklace and a lot of gold rings to exhibit your oppulance
11. Speaking loudly and intrusively in Hokkianesse or any other Chinese dialect (mainly Hokkiannese) at public place
12. Treat Indonesian maid inhumanly
13. Money-oriented
14. When asked, where do you come from? you answer I am "CHINESE-Indonesian" Rather than Indonesian
15. When selecting your mobile phone number, you look for the one with a lot of number '8'
16. You fight to the death to get married on 8-8-2008 because married on that date can somehow brings you a lot of luck in your marriage life even though you are a jerk wad.
17. Your parents refuse your decision to marry your long time girlfriend because your Chinese zodiac clashes(chiong!!) with her.
18. Your house is inhibited by more Chinese Gods and their prayer sanctuary than your family.
19. Reading, quoting and discussing The Romance of Three Kingdom a lot, and treat it as historical material rather a historical novel with most of the materials invented.
20. When you go to IKEA, you're not trying to find a furniture that is practical and efficient to suit your small house, but you want to find a furniture that can channel a positive 'chi' to multiply your business or improve your marriage based on your muddled knowledge of feng shuism. No method can help you maintain a healthy marriage as good as a bed that is furthest away from the front door, preferably diagonally opposite the entrance also. On a subliminal level, this gives you the extra feeling of protection, stability and security. The worst possible scenario is to have your bedroom facing or close to the front door.
21. You feel happy when you find a stranger with same Chinese surname, which imply that your ancestor come from the same region in China hundred years ago. When that "family member - stranger" ask to borrow your money,you suddenly become very hard to be contacted.
22. You refuse to do anymore shopping in Care Four because that company provide donation to support Tibet independence

then they are certified Chinese. My God, and we said we are the people who invented paper and gun powder. Obviously I exaggerate some of the items in the list, but in a larger picture it is what Indonesian Chinese is all about. Appearance...appearance and appearance. Meanwhile, what I think that can constitute of being a real Chinese are

1. Joining HRIC (中國人權) and actively promote Human Right in China, those people in China are all our brothers. If we care about being Chinese, i guess caring for other Chinese is no less significant. "It is inhuman for anyone to sacrifice his own brother to the wolf for him to escape safely" - Zhou Enlai. This does not mean that you believe all the western media told us.
2. Living through the Chinese Famine, white terror by the Guo Mindang, Cultural Revolution, political and social oppression in your daily life, forced abortion when you have more than two children, seeing your children get killed in the Tienanmen Square Massacre. Then you can called yourself Chinese.
2. Do not make excuse for all the stupid things that the government of People Republic of China had done and continue to do. Tienanmen Square massacre, The debacle of great leap forward which kill 15 million Chinese, AIDS epidemic (caused by greedy Chinese people who pay others for blood to be sold but keep on using the same syringe to gain more profit) in rural China that is hidden by the government, social and political repression that is still happening today.
3. Learn more about the history of China good or bad, not just from what your parents had told you, but find it for your self. Library is free. Try China Wakes - Nicholas Kristof or The Search for Modern China - Jonathan Spence for introduction. It's an exhiliarting journey.
4. Stop exaggerating how great China is now, if it is that great, why don't you move back to China

"Culture is the effort to provide a coherent set of answers to the existential situations that confront all human beings in the passage of their lives." - Daniel Yankelovich

5. When Chinese culture/habit is no longer relevant, don't keep on doing it for the sake of being Chinese. Foot binding, Chinese superstitions, Infatuation with number, these are some of Chinese culture which are just plain silly. It may be a coherent set of answer when they were introduced long time ago, but I think it's time to move on. I see a lot of Chinese couple, who married on a "good" day(picked carefully by a group of Chinese fortune teller, grandmother from both side), using a special marriage oil lamp on their first 3 night, their bedroom arranged in such a way to bring a good fengshui, the male-side presented a wondrous betrothal gift and dowry, but in the end, they qua rel and fight a lot like any normal couple. When they decide to divorce, usually one of the parent stupidly say that "their marriage is bad from the start because their Chinese zodiacs do not match or if the girl/guy come from different type of Chinese (Khuntien, Hakka, Hokkianesse, Cantonese), the parents will blame this too". They will create all kind of blame you can think of, and forget the main problem, the couple themselves do not work hard enough on their marriage.
6. Be more appreciative to our adopted country, I can honestly said that China has not given me anything compared to Indonesia. Why don't we give something back to Indonesia (*the writer has migrated to Australia*) rather than critizing and complaining.
7. Lastly, whoever you are, Chinese, Australian, Indonesian, in the end it does not really matter. Associating our self with any particular group of society is just a way to ignore the feeling of loneliness and desolation about the world. We think that it may be easier if we align our self to a particular group of people to inject some significance into our search of identity.

“The first thing I remember about the world...is that I was a stranger in it. This feeling, which is at once the glory and desolation of homo sapiens, provides the only thread of consistency that I can detect in my life.” - Malcolm Muggeridge

But we are never meant to be created for this world. Our soul is too big to be confined or defined. There is a spark inside each of us that long for each other. Imagine how many technology or human invention that is useless if we learn to trust and love each other more. Things like firewall, lock, alarm, tazer, security gate, anti-virus, gun, nuclear weapon. All of these are originally invented to ensure our safety and freedom. In the end it secludes and imprisons us. Same with color. God created color to brighten our life, to enrich our vision. But we human, in our selfishness use color as reason to oppress each other. We see color not as variety but division.

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. - Abraham Lincoln

What kind of christian are we?

Main Entry:

prag·mat·ic

Pronunciation:

\prag-ˈma-tik\

Function:

adjective

Etymology:

Latin pragmaticus skilled in law or business, from Greek pragmatikos, from pragmat-, pragma deed, from prassein to do — more at practical

Date:

1616

1: archaic a (1): busy (2): officious b: opinionated
2: relating to matters of fact or practical affairs often to the exclusion of intellectual or artistic matters : practical as opposed to idealistic <pragmatic men of power have had no time or inclination to deal with…social morality — K. B. Clark>
3: relating to or being in accordance with philosophical pragmatism

These days, it's very hard to define what is a Christian? Similar with the situation 2000 years ago, Christianity today has been plagued with different beliefs and practices. This is not a new thing, even though both side of Christianity tried to exaggerate theirs position. The liberal position is that the Christianity that we believe in ,is no more significance than other "Christianities" (Arianism, Ebionites, Gnosticism, Marcionism, etc). While the conservative Christians believe that the doctrine and belief of contemporary Christian stays the same for the last 2 millenniums, started out with Jesus's teaching.

What can I say about this fact (what is the original christianity is?) related to the contemporary Christianity situation is that "it does not really matter at all". From my experience of going to church (especially Indonesian church) for the last 10 or so years is that you're hardly heard the preacher talks about this kind of stuff. It maybe that the weekly service is not the right forum to discuss this matter, maybe....or maybe that....Christianity starts to adapt some of its aspect to conform with other religions, mainly that a religion does not have to be grounded on historical basis. It's never easy to discuss about religion, people get offended easily. I can understand that very well, because when you believe something to be the absolute truth, it's kind of irritating to hear other people questioning that truth. There is no way of getting around that.

Only after the exposé of the Da Vinci's code, that people start to wander about the authenticity of their belief. It is a sad situation when a badly written fiction novel serves as a catalyst for truth seeking journey. I am ashamed to admit this, but that is the case for me too. It's not that Da Vinci's code make me disbelieve everything that has been taught to me, but it did make me realise that I don't really know why I believe what I believe.

That realization 4 years ago set me on a path of constant questioning and doubting. Nevertheless, as Socrates said, ho de anexetastos bios ou biôtos anthrôpôi, The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being. From this journey I learned to become a pragmatic Christian. I use this term after I read a book called variety of religious experience by Willam James. He is one of the most widely known pragmatism philosopher aside from John Dewey. What he explained in his book matched with what I observe when attending a church or hanging out with my fellow Christians. It's that a religious experience can be considered real or truth not based on fact or historical basis, but merely on the unique experience of each person who participate in it. This conclusion bothers me a lot, because I believe that in order to believe something ,it's non-sensical to rely on experience, especially experience which cannot be verified objectively. However this conclusion explains why there are so many kind of Christianities, whose teachings can hardly be reconciled between each other. I love it when Christians justified this schism by claiming that God gives different vision to each of us, hence we have to pursue our own vision. And every time i hear that only decency that keeps me from screaming "that's a lot of bullshit". Even in Perth, you can find 15-20 different Indonesian churches.....the fact is that no one follows what ישוע (Yeshua) had taught us 2000 years ago. By following, I don't mean people who can follow completely all of Jesus's teaching. What i mean is that people have different view of who Jesus and what his teaching is. Hence you have emerging Christians, red letter Christians, dispensationalist Christians, apocalyptic christian, Bishop's Spong Christians, Unitarian Christians, LDS, and on and on and on and on. And when someone start to make noise about these difference, these well meaning and good natured Christians hush them up and tell them that what we do is more important than doctrine, moreover what is the point of arguing while millions of children died needlessly in Africa, millions of young girl are sold to be laboured as prostitutes in Asia. It does not seem like a priority isn't it ,

• to know when was the actual time Jesus is crucified, is it before or after the passover
• to know whether Jesus acknowledges that the holy spirit is part of the holy trinity or is it the invention of latter Christians
  
• to know whether Paul is a sexist or not.

These questions seemed irrelevant....hence the usage of term pragmatic Christians. Wouldn't it be sort of pathetic to argue this stuff with people like Mother Teresa, or other missionaries who selflessly help others but not necessarily subscribes to the right teaching (orthodoxy). Kierkegaard faced this problem 153 years ago and he argues that belief in Christianity boils down to a leap of faith.

And how does God's existence emerge from the proof? Does it follow straightway, without any breach of continuity? Or do we have an analogy to the behavior of the little Cartesian dolls? As soon as I let go of the doll it stands on its head. As soon as I let it go, I must therefore let it go. So also with the proof. As long as I keep my hold on the proof, i.e., continue to demonstrate, the existence does not come out, if for no other reason that that I am engaged in proving it; but when I let the proof go, the existence is there. But this act of letting go is surely also something; it is indeed a contribution of mine. Must not this also be taken into account, this little moment, brief as it may be, it need not be long, for it is a leap. - Soren Kierkegaard

Thoughtful Christians does not like to use this term (leap of faith) because it implies ignorance, they said that believe in God is leap into the light, not into the dark. Personally, I don't know. What I know about Christianity is this
1. There is a lot of discrepancy and inconsistency in the bible, not just a minor one, but also a major. one You can find a book that purport to explain away all those difficulties (Gleason Archer or Norman Geisler book), but the explanation does not seem natural. It's sometimes convoluted and requires more faith to believe in the explanation rather than the question.

What has been presented as Christianity during these nineteen centuries is only a beginning, full of mistakes, not full blown Christianity springing from the spirit of Jesus. - Albert Schweitzer

2. Christianity claims to change people live. But again, people fail you. I read in some blog about a girl whose parent converted to Christianity, and how their life changes after their conversions (e.g they quarrel less, etc, you know the story). One day, their (the parents) friend tell them that they should go to Israel because it's an amazing experience to go to the holy land. The mom become "obsessed" with the Israel trip and that obsession upsets the dad. and caused some commotion. However, the mom keeps her faith and pray every day for "blessing"to come on their business so they can go to Israel. Well God blessed them. In a short time. they have enough money to go to Israel and enjoy the holy land experience to see the mount, where Jesus perform his sermon, the sea of Galilee where he walks on the water. While a small percentage of that money can be used to provide basic immunization for peasant's children across China to make sure they don't die in their first years, or basic sleeping nets for hundreds thousands children in Africa to be protected from malaria which kill half of them every year. BUT HEY!!! It's their money.....who am I to tell them what they need to do with their money.

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. - Acts 42 - 47

Maybe Jesus feels sad that those people do not see where he did his ministry 2 thousands years ago, a land that is now filled with such a hatred that Palestinians parents hate Israeli more than they love their own children. Where a fight is quite a common thing in the church of holy sepulchre (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7357496.stm), not just a normal fight but a fight between clergymen. Maybe Jesus do not care about dying children. Just maybe...

Or you can look at all those girls who enjoy watching sex and the city a lot, who talks about it in their blog. Who follow religiously all the episode and watch the DVD over and over again, while claiming that they are Christians. You better not telling them that sex and city is a series which do not actually promote a good christian value. They will massacre you for it with their self righteousness reply. Again they will remind you that, who are you to judge them, and as long as they are being good people, what is the harm of watching those kind of TV series. Again..they are pragmatist Christians. I am sure Jesus will weep when He saw some of his children watch TV series, whose main theme is sex, not just any sex, but kinky sex as a part of normal healthy life style. No wonder, because most of the writers are gay male hence the obsessions of the characters with penis size.

And look at some of these churches
1. City Harvest (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_harvest)

It is the first titanium-clad building in Asia and is modeled after the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Special limestone for part of the building was imported from Europe. The front of the building has a world class fountain wall which is lit up at night. There are more than 200 parking lots within the building.

The lounge area on the first floor has plasma television monitors built into the walls featuring the local television programming or video recordings of past church services. There is a café, a rooftop garden, a children’s playground and wading pool, a baptism pool, and even a small putting green for golf enthusiasts. Cool Mist fans blast out moist air over the entire rooftop area to ward off the daytime heat. The bathroom facilities were designed by French designer Philippe Starck.

The auditorium (which is underground) covers 1,700 square meters and is totally column-free. There are two artist make-up rooms directly behind the stage. The stage was created by Dan Hess, a designer who formerly worked with Christie’s Auction House in New York. It features a bright LED screen.

2. Crystal Cathedral(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Cathedral)

World-famous architect Philip Johnson designed the main sanctuary building, which was constructed using over 10,000 rectangular panes of glass and can hold 2,900 worshippers. The church is also known for its 320 rank, five manual pipe organ Fratelli Ruffatti. The instrument incorporates the large Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ built in 1962 for New York's Avery Fisher Hall. The rectangular panes of glass are not bolted to the structure; instead they are glued to it using a silicone based glue. This and other measures allow the building to withstand an earthquake of magnitude 8.0. constructed by

The first church services were held in space rented from the Orange Drive In Theatre. In 1961, the congregation moved to a new sanctuary designed by Richard Neutra. Construction on the Cathedral began in 1977 and ended in 1980. The initial estimated cost of the church was $6 million, but the final cost was over $17 million (about $55 million in 2007 dollars). One way Dr. Schuller found to help finance the construction of the Crystal Cathedral was to invite donors to give $500 for each of the 10,000 rectangular panes of glass, which raised over US$5 million by its completion. Upon moving from the old Neutra sanctuary to the new Johnson sanctuary, the congregation changed its name to the Crystal Cathedral Congregation.

Is all that necessary?!! Is all that necessary??? Is all that f**king necessary???!!!!

Then I see my 32inch Aquos LCD TV lying the corner of my living room. I see $60 Duxton pillow unused in the corner of my bedroom. I see $450 Dyson Vaccuum Cleaner that is used only on a small apartment. I see all the waste I accumulate for the last 25 years of my life. It's all seemed unnecessary......it's all seemed frivolous. I guess this frustration that turn people to become a pragmatic christian. The constant struggle between being good and staying bad....maybe the last nail to shut people to become pragmatic christian.

The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Matthew 26:41

3.That the Hand of God guides every step that I take is a fact that I know, like I know that the sun shines every day. I seldom looks at the sun, but without it, it's impossible to see anything. Everything that I'd been through with my soon to be wife, without God, we would have been separated long time ago.

“A coincidence is a small miracle in which God chooses to remain anonymous.”

4. My fascination with people like Mother Teresa, Malcolm Muggeridge, C.S.Lewis, Albert Schweitzer, Soren Kierkegaard, Blaise Pascal, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who are all Christians, who came different background and emphasize on different style of christian living. Nevertheless, they are seemed to possess the other worldliness and the uniqueness of the early church.

Albanian Nun, British Spy/Journalist, Irish English Professor/Writer, German Doctor/Theologian/Musician/Humanitarian, Danish Philosopher, French Mathematician/Philosopher. The motto "E Pluribus Unum", Unity in Diversity sums up what this all about.

In the end, pragmatist Christianity seems like a reasonable way to bridge these contradictions. My journey keeps on going, and I guess the curse of uncertainty will always plague all steps that I take. I hope that in the end, whatever I believe, let it be that I believe it thoroughly and thoughtfully not for the sake of practicallity and convenience.

And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. - 1 Corinthians 15:14