http://www.mylot.com/w/keywords/kaifeng.aspx MyLot Discussions About kaifeng en-gb http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/520936.aspx The Jews don't feel they are Jews if they are not persecuted. "I am persecuted, therefore I am" seems to be their motto. The Kaifeng Jews in China were the only exceptions. I had never met a minority person in my extensive travels in China that behaved in a fearful manner showing that they had been oppressed subjects in China. NEVER. By and large I can tell you that Hans have treated the minorities very well -- sometimes even better than they have treated themselves, as in the case of more stringent population control policies for the Hans. That's right, which other nation in the world would officially let their minorities have more kids than themselves even if there were a population control policy in place? Where there weren't any written scripts to begin with, the Han majority had literally been inventing systems of writing for the minority peoples who only had spoken languages. I had never seen or heard anything like that in history or in the other nations I had been to either as a sojourner or stayed for prolonged periods of time. So the way the Chinese had treated the Jews at Kaifeng was not exceptional, and the assimilation process of the Jews there was not a unique phenomenon. Minority peoples become part of a nation only if they are fully accepted as equals not as a matter of policy but as an intrinsic aspect of its national behavioral pattern. No Chinese would ever pick a Jew out of a crowd and say, "He is a Jew, let's trash him." China didn't grow to be a nation of 1.3 billion people for no reason. There are 56 nationalities inside her borders. Do you think any of the other 55 nationalities would join our nation in its consciousness if they feel alienated in any way? Why were there Jewish ghettos in Warsaw and not in China? The siege mentality of the Polish Jews was not accidental. It was a relic from centuries of alienating persecution by the Catholic Church because the Jews were identified as Jesus Christ's murderer. How ridiculous can monotheism be? The Catholic Church did not even allow the Jews to own land. That pushed the Jews into professions that needed money-managing skills instead of leading comfortable lives as landlords in Europe, and that's the historical reason why Jews became such skilled bankers nowadays. Take the Tibetans as another example. These folks have their own traditional calendar and this year their New Year's Day fell on the same day as the Chinese Lunar New Year. The Hans encourage all the nationalities inside China to be self-respecting minorities and so they go out of their way to promote minority cultures. During the past week, if you go to all the Spring Festivals for Chinese New Year celebrations, you will feel the cohesive power of the Chinese nation, and if you were a foreigner new to this feeling of close affinity, he will want to become part of the celebrations. In time, the assimilative process works into one's subconscious, and one becomes a Chinese -- all naturally and without coercion or pre-planned policies. In contrast, look at how the Soviets treated the Afghans from 1979-89 when they occupied the land. When the Russians were in Afghanistan during those years, they forced the elite Afghans to study Russian by sending them back to Moscow. They enforced an education curriculum emphasizing the study of Russian, just like White Americans forced young Native Americans to study and be brought up in English schools in their policy of forced assimilation of the original occupants of the land. What could be crueler than to force one to forget about one's cultural roots? If you had read the French novel about the "Last Lesson" when Alsace-Lorraine was ceded to Germany in 1870, talking about giving French language lessons to kids living in those two hitherto French provinces for the last time, you will understand the feelings. Similar feeling existed amongst many Chinese in Taiwan when the island was ceded to Japan as a result of the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. To this day the lingering emotions affect the Sino-Japanese relations, and such a colonial educational system was responsible for the mangled personalities of the Taidus whose parents were brought up as Japan loyalists on the island -- they are Chinese but many (such as Lee Tenghui) have Japanese hearts. Coming back to persecution of minority peoples through shepherding them towards abandoning their customs and languages, I would point to the fact that such persecution is counter-productive in the long run. In fact, instead of forcing laowais to learn the Chinese language even though China is presently the engine for global economic growth, the Chinese are flocking to study foreign languages in droves. In time though, after we have ventured outwards to enter the foreign markets just like the foreigners are entering ours, and China's national strength has increased further, many laowais will naturally want to study Chinese. In fact, this has begun to happen already. Never by force or coercion. If they enjoy it, they will do it. Jews were assimilated in China because they were treated as equals due to the intrinsic value system of Chinese culture, not because one culture was better than the other. Fri, 29 Dec 2006 14:38:34 GMT andygogo http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/871503.aspx I am invited to teach English in an English Training Center near my university. It is located in the largest inhabited area of our city and now more than 50 students are studying there. More people are planing to join the programme in recent days. To my surprise, many kinds of people－teachers, policemen, doctors and housewives,they are all very interested in it and worked so hard to learn English that shorked me a lot. they lisiened to my talk carefully just like their children. listening, reading, writing& speaking, all assignments I gave them were finished on time even some of their homework could be marked as "excelent". I talked with them at break time to promote understood mutually, I found all of them have a strong desire to communciate with others especially foreigners. Because of living nearby our university, they have more chnces to meet foreigners,to communciate with them is the best way to open their eyes and get more business opportunities(some are shopkeerers). Of course, the most important reason for them to learn is to keep their jobs or looking for a higher salary. They put a big investment into English learning for their children and themselves in order to keep pace with the amazing developing of our country. I still remembered about 10 years ago, a foreigner appeared in my city must be an explove news just like someone say hi to an alien today. But now,people from U.S Germany Australia India,Korea and many other courtries are working and living with us and we are getting along very well. My city-Kaifeng, the capital of China and the largest city in the world in the 11th century are waiting for a new life. I'm looking forward to worink for her and now to teach my fellowmen to learn English is a way to thank her Mon, 12 Mar 2007 00:28:26 GMT dreamhere