Dragon Boat Festival Thoughts

Actually, this is the first time that we have 3 days off to celebrate this traditional Chinese festival-Dragon Boat Festival. I miss the Zongzi mom made when I was a kid, and I could really feel what Dragon Boat Festival was during that time. I am quite pessimistic that Chinese traditional culture is fading away at a faster speed than we would expect. To some extent, Taiwan is conserving our culture traits better than we do. Maybe I have not reached the real rural area to observe the real Chinese traditional culture reality, but I heard people are building Christian churches all over the country in rural areas. Frankly speaking, It’s quite scary. However, an interesting thing I noticed this time I went to Sanmen was I saw there were lots of Chinese temples in almost every town I passed by-I did not see one single church during my trip. Maybe Sanmen town is still on the southeast coast where its economical development is faster than those in inner parts of China. So I kind of feel that the more developed a place is, the more willing people are to conserve their own culture. Japan is the perfect example on this. My grandma is a Christian, and she converted my grandpa. Every time we went back to see her, she tried her best to convert me as well. My father believes in traditional Chinese Folk Religion, and he does not allow me to listen to my grandma’s words on the Christian thing. As for me, I think it’s the our rights to believe in whatever we want to believe as long as it’s not threatening the safety of others and the nation. Yet Christian is just a bit too far for me, and it’s very different from traditional Chinese culture. I am scared that one day when everybody believes in Jesus, Chinese culture will vanish on this planet. Or maybe Christian can be localized as Buddhism was thousands of years ago. But this will be such a long process that I won’t be able to see it’s happening in my life. Although most Chinese claim that they are antitheists, yet deep down they all believe in Chinese Folk Religion which is a combination of Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism. It’s like the genetic mark in our skins, and it’s how we were raised up.