Two Deaths

This sweet grandmother passed away last Monday, a shock to us all. If you remember we visited this family last month (Qiufen, the girl, is a friend) and slept in Grandmother's bed. That bed and all her personal possessions have been burned in the the Daoist funeral ritual. Qiufen and I are working on writing down Grandmother's life story.

Pan Jian is a young man who I used to visit at the orphanage. He is much smaller than Titus, but is actually 13 years old. Because of his illness, people who love him had been Asking that he would pass away; he was ready. Those close to him feel confident that he will join us in glory with a resurrected body.

Ishmael, My Son

China has two people groups of Islamic faith:

1) Uighurs are not ethnically Chinese but rather from the Turkic ethno-linguistic group, more closely related to and resembling Central Asians such as Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Kyrgyzs, etc. There are about 10 million Uighurs in China, mostly in the far northwest province of Xinjiang.

2) Hui are the descendants of Arab men who

intermarried with Han Chinese women as they entered China via both the northern and southern routes of the Silk Road, with influxes occurring in the 7th and 13th centuries. Hui exhibit a more Chinese phenotype, but retain semblances of their Arab fathers. Though their population of 12 million is spread across China, it is concentrated in the north-central provinces of Ningxia and Gansu. Hui are reputed as the least pious Muslims in the world. About 96% profess Islamic faith, 4% are ethnically Hui yet nonreligious.

(I like ethnography.)

Our dear Hui friends run a family hole-in-the-wall restaurant nearby. They've got three darling grandchildren. They're very poor but exceedingly warm and generous. Tonight the toddler granddaughter, Heiqiche, is sleeping on a box outside the doors of the restaurant, which is located on a busy, night-life sort of street. She had a serious fall recently so her arm is in a rag sling. The family was able to get medical help for her arm, but to do so the grandma had to travel with Heiqiche to their hometown in western China. I'm not sure why.

I've been trying to build bridges with these kind folks, emphasizing our similarities as people of belief and relative outsiders in Han Chinese culture.

I tried to tell them that Michael's middle name is Isaac, since of course Muslims also consider Abraham (that is, Ibrahim) their patriarch.

You probably know that the Qur'an and Genesis have areas of agreement, one instance is the basic story of Abraham being asked to sacrifice his son. It's not easy to communicate about this however, because I know the Chinese names for Genesis characters which are rendered from Hebrew, not from Arabic. Though I can say Abraham and Isaac in Chinese, those transliterations are different than what is used by the Hui, who only know Arabic names.

Simply telling the account of Abraham and Isaac immediately clicked with these semi-literate folks of oral tradition. They recognized the story before it had barely escaped my lips, and starting doting over Michael, smiling and calling him by his middle name, a name which is very familiar and dear to them.

I felt so satisfied having overcome a communication barrier and built a happy bridge!

The next day I was replaying the jovial scene in my mind, and suddenly realized that they were calling him ISHMAEL! Qur'anic tradition names Ishmael as the son who was nearly sacrificed, not Isaac, and of course Arabs believe they are descended of Ishmael's bloodline.

Now when we stop by to say hello, we are greeted as "Hello ISHMAEL! Ishmael, Ishmael, come in Ishmael!"

Ishmael, my son.

Pig Feet and Life Is Beautiful

I break the silence with ... a post about Pig Feet! Titus ate some for the first time this month, and it was love at first bite. You can imagine a selfish toddler saying "Cookie! Cookie!" Titus says "Zhu Jiao! Zhu Jiao!" that is, Pig Feet! Pig Feet!

The sun is shining on this first day of the spring semester. Titus began Chinese preschool, I substitute-taught one class, and Drew is in the classroom this afternoon. Neighborhood friends have returned after traveling during Chinese New Year holiday.

Life is Beautiful!

Countryside Weekend

Saturday and Sunday were two very educational days, spent in the countryside with my friend Qiufen and her hospitable family.

Household

The household includes father, mother, older brother, Qiufen and paternal grandmother. The family has a small plot of land where they grow rice and vegetables, but this is not the main source of income. The father has a stable construction job. The mother used to raise pigs, but now mostly does childcare. The older brother is doing a master's degree in badminton (what?) and Qiufen is a junior English major at our university.

Zhong Village

The family, surnamed Zhong, lives on the outskirts of Zhong village. Most of the people there are also surnamed Zhong, pointing to a common ancestor. The homes are built on the hillside overlooking rice paddies in the wet low grounds.

Amenities

The typical home is two stories, poured concrete, and quite spacious inside. Qiufen's house has four bedrooms, a squatty potty room, a shower room, kitchen, large hallway, and a central room for eating. Chickens live in the hallway. Each bedroom has a wood plank bed, wardrobe or dresser, and a desk. The central room has a short table and stools for eating. There is no living room or sofa. The floors and walls are concrete. Electric wiring is run outside the wall, from a switch up to a glass bulb dangling from the ceiling. I did not see any books or diversions besides the TV. (Oh, and older brother's laptop.)

There is no hot running water, no refrigerator, microwave, oven or gas stove. They get water from a pump, cook in a wok over a fire, and keep food in a wooden cabinet. In winter, the most food in the house at any time is this: rice, a jar of homemade preserved hot peppers, cabbage, fresh chicken eggs, onions, white carrots and some preserved meat. They prepared very special dishes for us. We ate duck, fish, chicken, beef, pork, carrots, cabbage, peppers, eggs, soup, dumplings and apples.

There is no heat or air conditioning. To stay warm they wear more clothes and the grandma carries around a basket of hot coal and sets it inside her long skirt. They boil water for drinking or bucket-baths.

Folk Religion

We took a mile walk to Qiufen's elementary school. At the schoolyard's center is a massive 400 year-old tree that is associated with superstitious folk religion. It is believed that large snakes and mysterious fire live inside the trunk. The school gate lady told us that she had just sacrificed a pig to the tree.

Walking back home, we happened across Daoist priests performing a funeral ritual, hoping that the ghost would not return to harass anyone with whom he had a grievance. Qiufen said that the family might pray for the deceased to be reincarnated at a higher social position. They were chanting, clanging cymbals and making a ruckus to scare away evil spirits.

Haircuts

On Sunday we walked to the village for haircuts. The local barber was ecstatic and refused payment -- instead, we should develop the pictures taken in her shop and return them to her.

Health Issues

During the weekend we got to know some neighbors as well. One skinny girl looked about 11 years old. When she walked her twiggy legs wobbled unnaturally. We found out that she was actually 21 years old, and the mother of a darling 3 year-old girl. In Chinese cities, it's actually not permissible to be married until after university, and not permissible to bear a child until age 26. But countryside folks have a different set of regulations. Anyway, Qiufen told me that the mother is probably suffering malnutrition.

Qiufen's mother Luo Jie also has physical problems. A countryside girl and the oldest of three siblings, as a child Luo Jie worked hard carrying heavy loads in the fields, resulting in chronic back pain. Qiufen massaged her mother's back each night. Luo Jie's younger siblings were able to receive an education and get jobs in the city. In fact, her younger brother picked us up from the train station in his SUV.

Grandmother stoking the kitchen stove. We all smelled like burning wood.

I kept the kids bundled as the temps were right around freezing.

All four of us slept in the grandmother's bed.

We learned so much.

I'm going to take an intermission from blogging. Perhaps I'll be back in a month.

Happy Chinese New Year!