Brian and I commonly refer to Friday, September 16, 2011 as our Worst China Day. That was the day we made our first attempt to go to the Foreigners' Entry and Exit Bureau in order to get a residence permit (i.e. legal approval to stay in China). The university had just given all 2000 of us international students a talk on the terror that would befall us if we did not get this permit. So we went. Upon arrival, we were greeted with pushing, throbbing, screaming, and sweaty mobs, as WAY too many international students bombarded an office that had done nothing to prepare for our visit. The visa officers, on the verge of panic themselves, told us to go home, because there was no way we'd get our paperwork approval that day.
Our Worst China Day then continued with the horrifying failure of trying to secure a taxi to return to campus. People pushed us and ran past us to grab an empty cab in a city that we soon learned had an extreme shortage of them. Fast forward through some more repulsion and culture shock (let's just say it involved chest-shaking firecrackers at 4:45pm). When we finally met a friend-of-a-friend for the first time at a bar that evening, with no time to clean up beforehand, we were enraged, exhausted, and smelled to high heavens. Like I said, Worst China Day.
Our new friend could tell (and smell!) that we'd had a Bad China Day, and he advised us to take note of the Two Chinas: one is the seething, pushing, panicky masses we'd just encountered. That China will easily cause a coronary if you let it. So our friend invited us to see the other China: the one of his friends and colleagues who have helped him in times of adversity, who have shared meals and birthdays with him, who have invited him into their homes and offered much-needed hospitality. We didn't have those friends yet, but he assured us that once we did, they'd be the China we should focus on.
I remembered my new friend's advice the two times I was physically assaulted in China. The first time, an old lady sitting on the curb stood up, screamed, and hit me with a stick when I walked by her. The second time, one spring day earlier this year, a middle-aged man on a bicycle came at me from the other direction as I was walking on the sidewalk, and he slapped me. Yup, it was a good ol' fashioned drive-by slapping. For both incidents, there were many other people around me at the time (after all, it's China--there were ALWAYS many other people around me!). For both incidents, I was the only white person around. I don't know exactly why either person assaulted me, but I have to guess it had something to do with my race.
Which leads me back to the Two Chinas. I was SO tempted after both assaults to focus on the hate of the people who attacked me. I asked myself, "why?" I replayed the events in my mind, over and over again, to try to see if I'd done anything to contribute to the incident. I remember my shock after both incidents, standing there numb and speechless for a few seconds before I screamed the F-bomb at assailants already out of earshot. I subsequently asked God to forgive me for my curse, forgave my assailants, and asked God to bring peace to all involved. I was looking at the One China, and I had no answers. Only "why?" and chaos.
Yet the other China was there, too. After I posted something about the second incident on the Chinese version of Facebook, many Chinese friends offered their condolences, prayed for me, and strongly renounced the hate I had encountered from their countryman. A few offered to go with me to the local police station so I could report the incident, and one actually did so.
My friend Shelly took a few hours out of her evening to meet me in a part of the city not convenient to her so we could file a report. Shelly translated for me, stood by my side, and advocated for me when the police man became hostile towards me. "Was anything stolen?!," the officer screamed at us in Chinese. "Were there any injuries? If not, then why are you bothering me with this?!" Shelly held her ground, looked him in the eye, and replied, "Because it is your job to protect this community. There is someone going around assaulting foreigners, and it is not right. It is your job to report this incident. Maybe there are others who will come forward. This incident needs to go on the record because if this man is caught, he needs to face what he has done." Shelly stood her ground with steely silence. After a few tense seconds, the policeman huffed in exasperation, then finally made a report of my incident.
I have no idea if that assailant was ever caught. I would've loved to meet him personally to tell him I forgive him. I have no idea if I was the only one he assaulted, of if there were others. Either way, I pray to God that whatever rage caused him to slap me may melt away into love. I faced Two Chinas with those assaults, and I am choosing to focus on the China of love from Shelly and others. That is the China that will endure at the end of the day. That is the China of God.
Friends of color, LGBTQ friends, Muslim friends, differently abled friends, female friends, immigrant friends in the US: I implore you to look for the Two Americas here in the US. You have undoubtedly felt the rage of the One America. You too may be asking, "why?." You may be searching your hearts to see if you've done anything to contribute to the injustices you've encountered. Perhaps you feel shock, you feel numb, and you feel speechless. Perhaps you've understandably screamed an F-bomb (or ten!) of your own. Yes, there is certainly One America here, and it isn't pretty. There are only "whys?" and chaos. I pray you can find the American equivalent of Shelly, those who are renouncing the hate, offering prayers of compassion, and advocating for justice.
American citizen friends, especially white Americans who fit conventional social norms: which America will you be? Will you be my assailant, attacking foreigners simply because of their otherness? Will you be the policeman who can't be bothered to report an incident if he personally doesn't see the significance of it, wanting to disregard the pain of another? Or will you be Shelly, an advocate for your hurting friends, even to the point of inconveniencing yourself and putting yourself at risk?
I am so grateful to Shelly and to others in China who showed the REAL China, the one of love and compassion. Theirs is the Kingdom of God. May it be so in the US, as well. Come, Lord Jesus.
Our Worst China Day then continued with the horrifying failure of trying to secure a taxi to return to campus. People pushed us and ran past us to grab an empty cab in a city that we soon learned had an extreme shortage of them. Fast forward through some more repulsion and culture shock (let's just say it involved chest-shaking firecrackers at 4:45pm). When we finally met a friend-of-a-friend for the first time at a bar that evening, with no time to clean up beforehand, we were enraged, exhausted, and smelled to high heavens. Like I said, Worst China Day.
Our new friend could tell (and smell!) that we'd had a Bad China Day, and he advised us to take note of the Two Chinas: one is the seething, pushing, panicky masses we'd just encountered. That China will easily cause a coronary if you let it. So our friend invited us to see the other China: the one of his friends and colleagues who have helped him in times of adversity, who have shared meals and birthdays with him, who have invited him into their homes and offered much-needed hospitality. We didn't have those friends yet, but he assured us that once we did, they'd be the China we should focus on.
I remembered my new friend's advice the two times I was physically assaulted in China. The first time, an old lady sitting on the curb stood up, screamed, and hit me with a stick when I walked by her. The second time, one spring day earlier this year, a middle-aged man on a bicycle came at me from the other direction as I was walking on the sidewalk, and he slapped me. Yup, it was a good ol' fashioned drive-by slapping. For both incidents, there were many other people around me at the time (after all, it's China--there were ALWAYS many other people around me!). For both incidents, I was the only white person around. I don't know exactly why either person assaulted me, but I have to guess it had something to do with my race.
Which leads me back to the Two Chinas. I was SO tempted after both assaults to focus on the hate of the people who attacked me. I asked myself, "why?" I replayed the events in my mind, over and over again, to try to see if I'd done anything to contribute to the incident. I remember my shock after both incidents, standing there numb and speechless for a few seconds before I screamed the F-bomb at assailants already out of earshot. I subsequently asked God to forgive me for my curse, forgave my assailants, and asked God to bring peace to all involved. I was looking at the One China, and I had no answers. Only "why?" and chaos.
Yet the other China was there, too. After I posted something about the second incident on the Chinese version of Facebook, many Chinese friends offered their condolences, prayed for me, and strongly renounced the hate I had encountered from their countryman. A few offered to go with me to the local police station so I could report the incident, and one actually did so.
My friend Shelly took a few hours out of her evening to meet me in a part of the city not convenient to her so we could file a report. Shelly translated for me, stood by my side, and advocated for me when the police man became hostile towards me. "Was anything stolen?!," the officer screamed at us in Chinese. "Were there any injuries? If not, then why are you bothering me with this?!" Shelly held her ground, looked him in the eye, and replied, "Because it is your job to protect this community. There is someone going around assaulting foreigners, and it is not right. It is your job to report this incident. Maybe there are others who will come forward. This incident needs to go on the record because if this man is caught, he needs to face what he has done." Shelly stood her ground with steely silence. After a few tense seconds, the policeman huffed in exasperation, then finally made a report of my incident.
I have no idea if that assailant was ever caught. I would've loved to meet him personally to tell him I forgive him. I have no idea if I was the only one he assaulted, of if there were others. Either way, I pray to God that whatever rage caused him to slap me may melt away into love. I faced Two Chinas with those assaults, and I am choosing to focus on the China of love from Shelly and others. That is the China that will endure at the end of the day. That is the China of God.
Friends of color, LGBTQ friends, Muslim friends, differently abled friends, female friends, immigrant friends in the US: I implore you to look for the Two Americas here in the US. You have undoubtedly felt the rage of the One America. You too may be asking, "why?." You may be searching your hearts to see if you've done anything to contribute to the injustices you've encountered. Perhaps you feel shock, you feel numb, and you feel speechless. Perhaps you've understandably screamed an F-bomb (or ten!) of your own. Yes, there is certainly One America here, and it isn't pretty. There are only "whys?" and chaos. I pray you can find the American equivalent of Shelly, those who are renouncing the hate, offering prayers of compassion, and advocating for justice.
American citizen friends, especially white Americans who fit conventional social norms: which America will you be? Will you be my assailant, attacking foreigners simply because of their otherness? Will you be the policeman who can't be bothered to report an incident if he personally doesn't see the significance of it, wanting to disregard the pain of another? Or will you be Shelly, an advocate for your hurting friends, even to the point of inconveniencing yourself and putting yourself at risk?
I am so grateful to Shelly and to others in China who showed the REAL China, the one of love and compassion. Theirs is the Kingdom of God. May it be so in the US, as well. Come, Lord Jesus.