Spiritual Formation Institute Seminar on Chinese Beliefs and Culture

SFI Seminar 2011/2

The Christian Approach to Chinese Beliefs and Culture

Date:             2.00pm - 9.30pm, Saturday 9 April 2011

Place:            Berea, Holy Light Church
                     11-C, Jalan Gertak Merah, 80100 Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Speaker:         Canon Daniel Tong

Cost :              RM 20.00 (inclusive of seminar materials, refreshment and dinner)

Registration:     Please register with Sister Grace Soon of HLCE (Tel:07-2243285)

Synopsis of seminar

Session 1: Chinese Traditions

Believers in Christ desire to honour and please Him, but do often struggle with doing so while yet respecting and continuing to uphold the ethnic cultural heritage that is ours as Chinese. This struggle between faith and culture is not something new. In this session, principles with which to evaluate the acceptability or not of a cultural belief and practice to the teaching of the Bible will be presented. A number of Chinese festivals will be explored so to help participants understand how these principles are to be applied. 

      Session 2: Ancestral Veneration

The call to honour our father and mother is universal. In Chinese tradition, this thought has been extended to the care of and obedience to our dearly departed. What does the Bible have to say about this? What are we to make of the traditional practices of venerating our departed ancestors? In this session, we will seek to better understand the Chinese perspective, and determine that which is acceptable or unacceptable for us who believe in Christ. 

                          Session 3: Feng Shui 

The Chinese have practiced Feng Shui for thousands of years, but how much do we really understand this practise? Is it really a science? Why do people engage in this practise? Feng Shui has enjoyed renewed interest in South East Asia in recent years. In this session, we will explore the origin of this practise and seek a deeper understand of its primary principles. This will provide us with a better basis with which to decide on whether or not we should engage in Feng Shui.

Biodata of speaker:

Canon Daniel Tong is Vicar of the Chapel of the Resurrection – a Parish under the Diocese of Singapore (Anglican), the Chaplain of the Saint Andrew’s Junior College and author of three books – A Biblical Approach to Chinese Traditions and Beliefs, A Biblical Approach to Feng Shui and Divination, and Praying Right

all are invited.

Other forthcoming SFI seminars

12 March 2011 - Spiritual Formation Seminar by Dr Alex Tang

14 May 2011 - Spiritual Formation in Children by Dr Alex Tang

20 August 2011 - Training for Teachers in Children Ministry by Mona Chia

The Best Yee Sang in Malaysia

The best Yee Sang I have tasted this year is a take-away Yee Sang from Ichiban-boshi in Great World Shopping Mall in Singapore! It was brought across the causeway to my dining table in Malaysia.

More about Yee Sang, read my post here

The 13 components in the Yee Sang each has its significance

1. Chuka kurage-Excellence
2. Red Sweetened Ginger-Luck
3. Peanut Crunch- Wealth
4. Pickled Leek-Divination
5. Sweetened Lime- Merit
6. Pickled Cucumber- Advancement
7. Winter melon- Harmony
8. Fried Sesame- Prosperity
9. Chuka Wakame- Youth
10. Pickled melon - Tanquility
11. Pok Chui Biscuits- Affluence
12. Five Spice, cinnamon and pepper Powder - Fortune
13. Salmon - Abundance

Benjamin Spock Versus Tiger Mum

It is surprising that a parenting memoirs would stimulate such an uproar that does justice to the roar of the tiger itself. The debate and name calling is still roaring across the social media; facebook, twitter, television and blogsosphere. I am sure that it will not be long before the movie about a "tiger mum" will be out soon. The choice on who will act as "tiger mum" will be a tussle between Julia Roberts and Angelina Jodie.

In another sense, the uproar over the memoirs a "tiger mum" is long overdue because it points to a deeper root cause. It is due to a clash of civilisations. Northern Americans are rudely awakened to the fact that there is another ancient civilisation existing amongst them. It is a clash of worldviews. It is the Confucian way of nurturing the "perfect man" versus Dr Benjamin Spock's way of "permissive" parenting. It is parental enforced discipline versus "allowing children to be children." It is a clash of socio-cultural construct of what childhood (and a child) is - whether something to be moulded or something that is hidden inside and be allowed to emerge on the own. It is the developing of cultured pearls by irritating the oyster versus allowing the crysalid to reveal the butterfly within. It may even be, as the author of the Time magazine article suggests that Americans feel threatened by the Chinese (read the article here)

The Chinese or Confucian way of parenting may look harsh and rigid from someone looking in from outside the Chinese or Confucian worldview. The photos in the Time magazine article is telling. Yet generations of Chinese adults are by and large fairly well adjusted individuals. They were not traumatised by the parents. Their self-esteems are fairly intact. In a community-based culture of shame, Chinese or Confucian upbringing nurtures children to take their rightful place in such society. The American way of parenting can only be understood from the worldview of individualism, self-esteem and autonomy. Yale law professor and self styled "tiger mum," Amy Chua is in a unique position to evaluate both types of parenting.

Her comment that American parents go to great length is insulate their children from suffering, discomfort and pain is insightful. This has a tendency to create individuals who are self-indulgent and self-centered. Another comment is that American parents lavish too much praise for too little efforts exerted. In other words, American parents tend to overpraise. This may be for what the child should have done in the first place such as doing their chores or keeping their rooms clean. Overpraise may be given for mediocre efforts. Unfortunately, this have of way of positive reinforcement that being mediocre is okay. The teachings of Dr Benjamin Spock which have influenced generations of American on parenting need to be reviewed.

The 'drill. drill, drill' aspect in Chinese parenting is often decried as cruel and deforming to the child. It is the Confucian way of learning. Yet in any aspect of life, it is the repetition of certain actions that helps us to master that activity. We learn to write by repeatedly tracing the alphabets on paper. Recently Malcolm Caldwell points out in Outliers, that exceptional people are exceptional in their various endeavors because they have already repeated that action at least 10,000 times.

A point that is often missed or not highlighted in a critique of Chinese parenting is a timeline. Critics often see the shaming (name calling) and the drilling aspects. What they do not realise is that this is done only when the child is very young (about 2-6 years by my estimate). As the child grows older he or she are given the opportunities to act responsibly, and the shaming and drilling aspects are reduced. I believe that it is an important aspect of Chinese parenting that must be highlighted. It is not that we Chinese are cruel and uncompassionate toward our children. In parenting, we Chinese have tough love. We love our children so much that we are willing to put them through a difficult period when they are young in order that they will grow up to be responsible and disciplined people when they are older.

.

A Fascinating Box of Mandarin Oranges

Received this circular box of mandarin oranges for the Chinese New Year. The box cover has four movable parts.

the two eyes and horn may be moved to form the face of a lion

the eyes may be moved to form the symbol of a bat
which is considered lucky by the Chinese

the mouth opened shows the juicy mandarin oranges underneath

.

Books on the Overseas Chinese

Picked up these books from Borders, Singapore last Friday.

(2007) published by Centre for Malaysian Chinese Studies, Kuala Lumpur

(2008) published by World Scientific, Singapore

Looking forward to reading them.
.

The Chinese Pakua

Ong Hean-Tatt (2007), The Chinese Pakua: An Expose, Kuala Lumpur: Pelanduk Publications


Dr Ong presented some interesting conclusions from his extensive study of the Chinese Pakua. The Pakua is a powerful mystical symbol of the Chinese. The circular eight-side diagram, often with a central mirror (or yin-yang symbol) hung over doors of Chinese homes to ward off evil. Its origin remains a mystery.

Ong postulates that the Pakua originates from Mesopotomia, the origin of human beings and is a device for recording the historical origins of the Chinese people. The Chinese people were from Akkadia in Mesopotamia and migrated to China overland after the Tower of Babel incident in the Bible.

The ‘Gammadion Four Directions’ design of the Pakua is a symbol of the Garden of Eden with its four rivers. The ‘Four Heraldic Animals’ arrangement of the Pakua indicated the worship of Shang-Ti, the Supreme and only God, surrounded by His four major angels. The ancient Chinese were monotheistic until the Eastern Chou period (771-256 BC) where polytheism was introduced. This monotheism occurred because the Chinese came from the same region as the Hebrews people.

Other evidences were
• Chinese pictograms are similar to the Sumerian writings and also contain amazing descriptions of the legends of Creation, the Flood and the Tower of Babel suggesting a similar origin.
• The Chinese Pakua’s astrology is circumpolar which is similar to the Hebrew-Biblical stars system suggesting they both originated from ancient Babylon (subsequent astrology was elliptical).
• The Magic Square symbol of the Chinese Pakua is similar to the Hebrew Kabala Sigil of Saturn.
• The Chinese Ganzhi system of twenty-two symbols is the precursor of the twenty-two Hebrew Sofrot alphabets of the Hebrews.

Ong also suggests that the Nine Emperor Gods Pakua is a memorial of the time of the nine patriarchs of the Bible; Adam to Lamech (Noah was the tenth). The eight-family of the Pakua are the eight members of Noah’s family who survived the Flood. The Five-Poisons Pakua (the Dragon Boat Festival) is an ancient memory of the Tower of Babel where a war was fought to destroy Nimrod. The 5th Day of the 5th Moon, also known as the Summer Solstice, is a day for human sacrifices. The Dragon Boat races are apparently held for accidents to happen and people to die. This day is equivalent to the time of Saturnalia and May Pole Dance. The Kadazans of East Malaysia also have their harvest festivals around the same time, which in the past also meant head hunting. “This day is evidently some very ancient memory among many cultures of a universal event of a great evil.”

As in his earlier book, Ong reiterated that the Chinese dragon or ‘lung’ was not the limbless ‘Biblical serpent-dragon’ but a limbed-winged holy seraphim of God!

This is an interesting book that bears further study. Ong is making a case that the Chinese people were originally monotheistic and that the Chinese Pakua contains symbols of Biblical history. However throughout its long history it has acquired occultist properties and powers.

.

Yee Sang or Yu Sheng, a Raw Fish Salad

Fishermen along the coast of Guangzhou traditionally celebrated Renri, the seventh day of the Chinese New Year, by feasting on their catches. This practice may have started in Chaozhou and Shantou as far back as the Southern Song Dynasty. In Malaya's colonial past, migrants imported this tradition; porridge stalls sold a raw fish dish which is believed to have originated in Jiangmen, Guangdong province that consisted of fish, turnip and carrot strips, which was served with condiments of oil, vinegar and sugar that were mixed in by customers.

The modern yusheng dish originated in Malaya in what is modern Singapore during Chinese New Year in 1963 and was invented by master chefs Hooi Kok Wai, Lau Yoke Pui, Sin Leong and Than Mui Kai, commonly known as the four 'Heavenly Kings' of Singapore's restaurant scene of the 1960s and 1970s. The taste of the original raw fish dish was standardized with a special sauce using plum sauce, rice vinegar, kumquat paste and sesame oil, and the fish was served with carrots, chilli, turnips, limes, jellyfish, red pickled ginger, sun-dried oranges and other ingredients, turning this simple dish into an exquisite salad with 27 ingredients. The original dish used raw mackerel, although in deference to the popular wishes of customers, salmon was later offered as an alternative. Initially intended as a promotional gimmick to drum up business to Hooi, Lau, Sin and Than's respective restaurants, this dish rapidly became popular all over Singapore and has since spread to Malaysia and Hong Kong as well.

Since then, yusheng has become a staple Chinese New Year dish in Singapore as well as in Chinese communities in Indonesia and Malaysia and is typically available only during this festive season. It is also popular in Hong Kong. Read more here

IF YOU love yusheng, the raw fish salad that the Chinese eat during the Chinese New Year period, you have this man to thank for it. Chef Hooi Kok Wai, 68, was one of the four 'Heavenly Kings' of Singapore's restaurant scene in the 1970s who created the dish. Read more here

Year of the Rat: Chinese Lunar New Year

Wishing all my Chinese readers, Happy Chinese New Year