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This blog entry has been sent by email to the friends we made in China during my semester as a Fulbright Senior Lecturer in Changchun at Northeast Normal University in 2005 and again as a Senior Specialist in 2008.
To all our friends in China, some for whom we have emails, some we don’t:
[Chen Yanxu, Giao Fenyun, Hongyan Lu, Li Ailian, Li Ang, Li Jing, Nie Apiping, Qi Jing, Qiu Yunlang, Shan Jinguo, Su Fang, Wang Haiyan, Wei Yanhui, Xu Gang, Xu Yansen, Yao Wenyong, Yin Ping, Yu Dewei, Zhu Liming, and many others—I am thinking from memory since the list is not handy right now]
[Left: Red plum Blossom in the Snow–Sitong Liu, Xiaotong Wang, Xiaohan Yang; Right:
Music of Yaos–Yiiqing Liao]
Time for my annual Chinese New Year email!
I’m writing this on January 25, and our church calendar today remembers Li Tim-oi, the first woman in the Anglican Communion to be ordained a priest. She served in Hong Kong and received her ordination to help meet the challenge of the Japanese invasion. Her English name was Florence (after Florence Nightingale) and I could not help but think of the Florence we all know from the classes together in 2005—Xu Fulan. I think Li Tim-oi would have liked our Florence for her good mind and kind heart!
A news article the other day caught my attention. It reported a motto: “Create a paradise.” This is the motto of Beijing’s Baijiazhuang primary school – a message stamped on its front gate in bright red calligraphy.
As our New Year and Chinese New Year come around once again, I’m afraid none of us have done all we could have done to “create a paradise.” No doubt we each and all have much to celebrate, but we all, collectively, have some soul searching to do, as well. You call it the “year of the monkey”…and we have a political campaign going on so “monkey” seems somehow just right! Goat wasn’t too bad, either. Monkeys and goats have their virtues, but we can do better!
A world with growing numbers of refugees, whose numbers will swell as climate change begins to create refugees of its own—a world where increasing numbers of leaders and would be leaders are trumpeting the virtues of “us” versus “them”—a world where lots of folks see the resort to violence as somehow preferable to the longer process of solving problems. Not the most encouraging picture!
And we intellectuals—given the gift of broader and deeper knowledge, and the usually greater affluence that made those gifts possible for us—we bear a higher responsibility for using clearer and more compassionate words, for seeing in broader, more visionary perspectives, for living with greater degrees of courage and patience.
Each of us, and each of our countries, must of course find our own way through the complex issues at hand…but all of us, regardless of personal experience or national identity, can try to keep a clear head and an open heart. And those two qualities outlast a lot of the so-called solutions that enjoy, at least briefly, a higher visibility.
Of all the things that encourage me the most, one is most certainly that age gives most people a perspective in which to see each new doomsday prognosis or prediction as quite likely short-lived. I also find encouragement in how many good writers continue to write, in your country and mine.
But another great encouragement comes from the fact that Nancy and I can sit here in the heartland of America and know the friendship of good people around the world, foremost among them the students and faculty and friends we met and knew in China in 2005 (and when I returned again in 2008). We still cherish our memories of our lives lived closely among you for a few months, of how you befriended us, of your generosity toward us…and of how much talent and dedication you brought to your studies and teaching. We thought of you all last night (Saturday, February 6, 2016) as we enjoyed the Chinese New Year festivities put on at our university by its Chinese students. (See the two photos above.)
Other parts of the world matter, of course, some of them with more significance at one moment than another. But clearly, our two countries are the two giants of the earth for the foreseeable future. We can make a difference to future generations the world over. Possibly that difference begins in bearing in mind that giants must be very careful when we stand tall, move around, or even roll over—lots of earth’s creatures depend on our being concerned and careful citizens of the planet! Among them are the children at the Baijiazhuang primary school—and their class mates the world over.
I never know for sure who still gets my emails. Whoever does, know we still think of you and hope you will forward this message to others. Especially if anyone sees Zhang Ying or Li Zeng from the department or Li Yinga or Samuel Sun (our wai bans on my two visits), we hope they know our continuing gratitude and affection.
Wishing all of you a very Happy Chinese New Year! Chuck and Nancy Peek
2010 Fifth Avenue
Kearney, Nebraska 68845 1-308-293-2177 cpeek.cp@gmail.com
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