I have a beef with one of the major satellite news networks. It has a regular spot in which local reporters around the world give news on their own country. It is often interesting and gives a perspective different from that of a western observer. So far, so acceptable. What I find mildly irritating is that, for a station purporting to be a global organization, the reports never include features from what might be considered the “home country”. It leaves one with the feel that the seemingly global organization is using this slot to bring the exotica of rest of the world to its core audience, and not, as it suggests in its advertising, share experiences in a genuinely cross cultural way.
I am reminded of this minor beef as I was about to make the same mistake myself. Today is Qing Ming Jie (pronounced as ching ming jheeye) and I was going to write a piece about this exotic local custom and simply leave it at that. Somehow, that does not seem to be enough. Simply to introduce the quaint customs of the locals, even with a measure of respect, risks trivialising what is, for the Chinese, an important moment for remembering the dead. The challenge is to introduce this festival in a way which creates genuinely cross cultural solidarity rather than provide a hermetically sealed window through which to view, but not encounter, the exotic “other”.
Qing Ming Jie, literally means “Tomb Sweeping Day” and is the day when families visit ancestral tombs, to tidy them up, to offer flowers, food and incense to the spirits, and especially to mourn, hopefully with some peace, those who have died. It is a family event, and one is one is observing filial piety rather than religious duty in spring cleaning the family grave on this day. In modern cities, family plots are a rarity, but visits to columbaria take their place with barely any emotional adjustment. In traditional Chinese communities outside China temple visits would be part of the day’s round, but in China proper, I am a little unsure of this custom as temples are much fewer and tend to be tourist sites rather than places which have a spiritual feel.
This year the festival is a public holiday, for the first time. The government has adjusted the annual holidays, shifting them in such a way to emphasise Chinese culture and not communist ideology. Those who read the entrails for signs of good or ill in the Chinese body politic have their own opinions of the import of the move; I simply am fascinated to see how this impacts on the average urbanite, who now has the time to perform these important family rituals.
Praying for the dead is significant in most cultures and the feel of this day is not that different from the November 2nd observances in Catholic communities around the world. In some countries, the customs are elaborate, one thinks of the Philippines or Mexico especially, but even in places constrained by “stiff upper lip” reserve, the day invites a revisiting, at least mentally, of the graves of the dead. My sense is that the Chinese, even without our Faith, would have no difficulty in understanding the human elements of “our” Qing Ming Jie on November 2nd.
If we really are going to live happily in a global village it is not enough to satisfy our passing curiosities about the picturesque customs of places far away. We need to engage sympathetically in each others lives. As China begins to take its place in the family of nations, it is not enough to be temporary tourists among their quaint customs. Instead the invitation is to link their traditions with the similar elements in own experience. Today, for myself at least, that means setting aside a little time and, although I won’t be offering flowers or incense to placate the spirits of the dead, taking a moment to remember the dead, particularly Chinese people I have known, and saying, in solidarity with those sweeping tombs,
Eternal Rest Grant unto them, Oh Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them,
May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, rest in peace. Amen.
Tags: Beijing Diaries
