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Last night I went over to this girls house. Sometimes this girl is really annoying, but over the break she let let me borrow some VCDs and I kept them for 30 extra days and she had to pay the fine. So I though tI would make it up to her by having her mom cook me dinner. The dinner kinda sucked, but it was free so why am I complaining. Her brother was there to on break from Ningbo (sp?). For a lame chinese dude he was pretty interesting. One thing about chinese people, espiecially students, is that they love bullshit slogans like the ones you see on the walls of guidance counselour offices. This was very apparent at the english contest I judged, where all the speeches were about working hard. It was actaully kind of funny, they all presented these trivial dichotomies “some people say that hard work is the most important thing in life, However I believe love and loyalty are more important” Someone must of taught them to start that way.
Dealing with this bullshit is one of the most annoying things about chinese english speakers. I once went to an english corner where the topic was something like, “the delusional world, Is a disconnect from reality shaking the grounds of our world?” except hte words were more obscure and the grammer was worse, it was a talk about people spending to much time playing video games.
So back to this girls brother. After exchanging some small talk he says “do you mind if I ask you a question?” What I supposed to say yes? So then he asks me what is the meaning of life? I could have got all philosophical on him and told him that I thought the question was meaningless, but I gave my standard respoonse (becasue I’ve been asked this question before in english corners) “it’s different for everybody.” Then he gives me his answer “love.” Aww how nice I think, what a cliched load of shit.
But later in the night we are watching movie about White snake and her man. Which is like the chinese version of romeo and juliet, except for juliet is a snake. In talking about the implications of the movie, he expands on his theory of “love.” It turns out that he is rather buddha like about the whole thing. He says that even though nobody loves him, he has no wife, he loves everybofy. Therefore he never has a sad day and he is never tried. He did seem rather serene and self confident, and I grew to like better the more I got to know him.
It also got me thinking avout the implications of religion on Chinese society. In america the cultural edifice of christianity is ever present, but I don’t really know what the direct impact of buddhism and taoism are on China. In fact in the story about White snake. Religion is plays an ambigous role in the film. In the end it is a fight betwwen a buddhist monk and white snake that cause the tragedy to occur. I read someting once about how zen buddism and japanese militarism led to the fanatacism and suicide tactics of the japenese in WWII, but I’m not sure if anyone has said anything about buddism and chinese communism.