Reflections on a Long and Blessed Life No 57: China-So Close and So Far Away

 Living in Hong Kong in the 1950’s-and 60’s was a wonderful and blessed experience. One of the elements that made it so fascinating was how living in Hong Kong was affected by what was happening in Mainland China. Geographically Hone Kong is a dot of a small peninsula and a bunch of small islands just off the southern coast of China. It was a   British Crown Colony ever since the end of the Opium War.

Life in Hong Kong was very different from life just 35 miles north. We had modern conveniences. We could worship as we pleased. We could exchange USA dollars. We had security. We had freedom of speech-including speaking English which was forbidden to be spoken in some parts of China. In these ways, we were we were far away from China-but always affected.

When Mao’s Communism took over China private land ownership was abolished. Landowners were executed and their property became state-owned. This became real to me as one of my 9^th grade pupils tearful explained how she was forced by the Communists to sit and watch as they arrested her grandfather, bound arms with ropes, made him kneel before them and then fatally shot him.

Many of my friends and teachers in our schools had been a part of General Chiang Kai-Shek and the Nationalists Kuomintang. They did whatever it took to get to Hong Kong and thus save their lives. Of course, many of them brought nothing with them-and certainly not always their papers so when thy wanted to become registered teachers in our schools they could not prove they had graduated from college.

When Mao instituted his tragic Great Leap Forward in the mid-50’s he forced people out of their homes, out of their families and into communes where they lived a very regimented unbearable life. The goal of China producing as much steel as the USSR by melting down all iron pots, pan, fences, etc. was disastrous. The fields were ignored. Crops failed. At least 25 million people died of starvation. This became very real to us. Our friends kept receiving pleas from their relatives left behind in China: “Please send us food of any kind. We are all starving.” When our female amah (servant) went back briefly for Chinese New Year’s she loaded up all the food she could carry on the ends of the poles across her shoulders. She saved some family members from certain death and I am sure she had to bribe some guards who themselves were starving-to be allowed to get some of the food to her family.

China was building its alliance with Russia and wanted to imitate all things Russian. When I was teaching a college course in General Psychology the only texts available were Chinese translations from Russian behaviorism.

The terrible Great Leap Forward was followed be the equally bad Cultural Revolution. This was the time to destroy all the old culture, art, institutions, buildings etc. etc. Students took over schools, teachers were sent to live on pig farms. Intellectuals were imprisoned, tortured and killed. Any idea from the West was considered blasphemy, especially if it had roots in the arch-enemy of China, the USA. Riots even broke out again in Hong Kong. One immediate and far-reaching effect was that the newest school we were just beginning to operate changed its name from The American School to The Hong Kong International School.

One added burden that many of my friends and colleagues had to bear was that they did not know what had happened to family members they had left behind when they fled China. One dear friend had heard but could not prove that his wife had been killed and so he struggled as to whether or not he could marry a “new spouse” in Hong Kong. I

At our Missionary Conference, we had many discussions about whether or not our pastors could officiate at weddings where there was doubt as to whether or not the man was about to have more than one wife.

Sometimes I would drive out to the New Territories and look out across the border past the armed guards toward the small village called Shanzhen, never dreaming that after Ziao Ping decided to move China in the direction of free enterprise that spot would become home to millions living in modern China. But in that day that village just a mile away could just as well have been on the other side of a far away. ocean.

Reflections on a Long and Blessed Life No. 56: Hong Kong Water Crisis

“Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.” When in high school I memorised those words from “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, I never imagined that one day they would apply to me. Yet they did, in Hong Kong, especially in 1963-64. Hong Kong is surrounded by the South China Sea. But its very small land mass has no river and deeper wells are extremely difficult to dig because of a tough very thick layer of bedrock. So when the British Colony was over-run by refugees from China and its population suddenly soared into the millions there simply was not enough water even for drinking purposes.

So Hong Kong had to negotiate with the Chinese central government to get access to water from across the border. To the credit of that government they went out of their way to make water available to the people of Hong Kong. But still there was not nearly enough to meet the demand.

Severe water restrictions were put into place. The authorities simply cut off all water supplies to homes, schools, restaurants etc. At its worst we would get water only every fourth day and then for only four hours. This placed an incredible burden on many, especially the hundreds of thousands who had no running water in their small tenement rooms or next to their hillside huts. So they would line up for hours at the few available public water faucets. Already early in the morning on days when there would be some water one could see long lines of people of all ages. Each one had two five gallon buckets. They would be attached to poles, which stretched across the back of persons, often even a young teen-ager or child.

The Chinese were incredible in making do. For example: we, of course, had strict school rules about the students needing to wear clean school uniforms. And some of the poor had only one set. So they needed to wash their uniform in the evening, let it dry over night and wear it again the next day. Yet, even though my schools had thousands of student s and our rules were pretty strict not one single time did I as principal have to send a student home because his/her school uniform was too dirty or spotty.

Our family was very privileged. We lived in a situation where we had a small concert reservoir on our roof. On water days we could collect a little extra water there. And we used it very sparingly. For example we would let some water come into our bathtub during that available 4-hour period every fourth day. We would dip it into small basins to wash the 7 of us and then carefully take it from the tub to flush our toilets, which, of course had been unflushed for way too long. On “water days” Jane would fill the washing machine with a hose connected to the roof reservoirs, catching the used water in buckets and pouring it back into the washing machine for the next load.

Even though the authorities claimed the water was safe to drink no one believed that and everybody boiled all their drinking water. We would never consider brushing our teeth with water from the faucet. It had to be boiled. For years after we left Hong Kong I still had difficulty allowing myself to use water directly from the faucet to brush my teeth.

One of the persons who was most amazing in managing water was our “tea woman” at Concordia Lutheran School. We were a large school with a staff of some 50 persons-and she always had hot tea available for us, delivered to the teachers’ (and my) desk twice a day! I still don’t know how she managed that.

There were some things one never saw during this time of water shortage. I never once saw a green lawn. Water at a restaurant table was more expensive than beer. There were NO public water drinking fountains, not even at our schools. I cannot recall that water in a small plastic bottle was ever available for purchase. Yet we survived. More water and channels to move it were made available from the mainland. Hong Kong itself did dig some wells and even tried to dam up some water during the heavy rainy season. Now when I go to Hong Kong I feel free to take a shower, I can putt on green grass at the Hong Kong Golf Club, I can flush the toilet after every use! But I just stick to my old ways and have a San Miguel beer in place of water when I have dinner

Reflections on a Long and Blessed Life No. 55: Studying the Chinese Language

 One of the biggest challenges I faced after feeling called to serve among the Chinese in Hong Kong was the challenge of learning the Chinese language-and specifically the Cantonese dialect of that language. Chinese is spoken by some 1.2 billion people around the world. In its written from it does not have an alphabet but uses “characters”-each character being only one syllable. In its spoken form, it is tonal which means that the single character has a different meaning depending upon which tone is used. Cantonese has nine tones ranging from high to middle to low. Thus, the word “sic” can mean know or eat or color or thorn etc. depending upon which tone is used in its pronunciation.

There is good news and bad news about my efforts to learn the language. The good news is that I had wonderful teachers. The second good news is that the Chinese were very forgiving of my very poor Chinese language skills. For example, it was only many years after I did it that a teacher told me that in one of my early attempts to use Cantonese at a faculty meeting I had opened the meeting by calling the attendees “old rats” when I had meant to call them “honorable scholars” I had used the wrong tones. The bad news is simply that in spite of my good efforts I spoke Cantonese very poorly. My wife Jane did much better. She has a good ear for music and so her tomes were right on.

My problem was especially bad when I tried to speak Cantonese over the phone. The person on the other end of the line heard my mixed-up tones, assumed I was a native Mandarin speaker trying to speak Cantonese so would switch to Mandarin which left me more in the dark than ever.

Because the never--ceasing efforts of my teachers and the forbearance of my colleagues I finally was able to read the basic information on report cards, carry on a simple conversation, and memorised The Lord’s Prayer, The Apostles Creed, and the Ten Commandments.

Jane and I studied Chinese at HK University, but much more important was the tutoring from Mr. Hung Chiu Sing. He was a wonderful scholar, a devout Christian and a very patient teacher. The name “Hung” is the Chinese version of what in English was translated “Con” as in Confucius. He was a direct descendant of Master Confucius. Thus, he taught us not only the language but also the customs, the special analects and, most importantly, proper Chinese manners. He was wonderful. And unbelievably patient.

Of equal importance were the marvelous interpreters who empowered and assisted me. Without them I would have been a complete failure. My first interpreter was Isaac Ma. He interpreted for me at the classes I taught both for Lutheran teachers and at Hong Kong College. I learned later that if I said something that didn’t make sense to him he just made up his own message. And it worked. Dr. Andrew Chui was invaluable in interpreting for me when I taught at the Bible Institute and Concordia Seminary. He had memorised almost the entire Bible and could always quote scripture absolutely accurately. Rev. Daniel Lee was unbelievable. He was especially helpful in assisting me when I taught (in Chinese) a course in General Psychology at the Lutheran Seminary in Dou Fung Shan. Daniel worked with me hour after hour helping me out because all the Chinese texts in psychology were translations from the Russian, pure behaviorism and thus not suitable for what I

wanted to teach. Those seminary students bore with me, never laughed at me, and while they had, I am sure, plenty of comments out of class, they survived (thanks especially to Daniel). Slowly my own high school students became my interpreters, especially John and James Chu and then also Margaret Wong who was especially helpful in my office.

  

Now years later I dare to try my Cantonese very, very rarely. I can still recite in Cantonese The Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles Creed and sing the common doxology. And an interesting sidelight: Our youngest son John was only a year old when we left HK but he is the one who developed a keen interest in all things Chinese. He now reads and writes Chinese as easily in Chinese English. His wife (a native of Spain) who graduated from Beijing University and their two children regularly speak Mandarin with each other. And I continue to feel a bit ashamed that 1.2 billion people speak some form of Chinese every day-but I am not numbered among them.

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Reflections On A Long And Blessed Life No. 54: Hong Kong By Immersion

When we received the “call” to Hong Kong we had no idea where it was. The atlas soon identified it for us: a speck of land on the southern coast of China. We learned that is was in fact a Royal Colony of Great Britain. It had gained that status as a result of the Opium War in 1841 and a few subsequent treaties. On Christmas Day 1941 it had fallen to the invading Japanese. By 1956 when we went it had  reverted to its British Colony status. It’s a small area of only 427 square miles including a main island (Hong Kong ), a built-up peninsula called Kowloon and a rural area called The New Territories.

At the end of WWII Hong Kong  had a population of 600,000. Then in the late 1940’s as Mao Tse Tung forced China into Communism people fled to Hong Kong at a rate of some 100.000 a month! By the time we arrived its population was 2.5 million. Some of those who fled brought with them considerable financial resources. The vast majority came with nothing but the clothes on their backs. There was no place for hundreds of thousands to live. So they just lived in whatever situation they could create. Multitudes slept on the street. Others thronged the hillsides building their tiny shack homes out of whatever scrap they could find. Flat roofs and stairwells of buildings were filled with sleeping mats.

While our consciousness was overwhelmed by these realities we moved into a 2 bedroom apartment to live with two female missionaries We were  urged to begin studying Cantonese and to teach classes through an interpreter. So within 10 days Jane and I made several trips a week to Hong Kong University traveling by bus, then ferry, then bus again for the 90 minute each way trip and I was teaching a Wednesday night class on Christian Education to teachers in the already existing Lutheran schools.

Two experiences of those first weeks are forever embedded in my memory. As I returned to my apartment around 10:00 pm after teaching my course, I walked past many street sleepers and beggars. However one situation hit me in the face. A father’s searching eyes found mine He held in his arms a boy of about 12. He was starving. It was the first time I had actually seen with my own eyes the extended bloated stomach of a person dyeing of starvation. I reached into my pocket and gave the man a one Hong Kong dollar bill. He looked into my eyes with such overwhelming gratitude that I still feel its piercing impact. All I had done was give him one HK dollar (worth about 15 US pennies!

Two weeks later things got even closer to home. As I left my Wednesday night class I thought there was more turmoil and anxiety than usual on the street but I thought it was just part of my getting used to a new situation. Within a block (by now I was in the middle of the street because the sidewalks were all blocked) a gentleman came running up to me and waved a bag with a bottle in it right in my face. I was surprised to see a drunk on the street because I understood that that was one thing one did not find on the streets of Hong Kong. It was just a minute or more later that I caught on. That was not liquor in that bottle but an inflammable substance and maybe some type of firebomb. Kowloon was in the midst of a full-blown riot. I made it home through the next few blocks. The people in my class were less fortunate as they were unable to leave the building. The classroom in which I had just been teaching had bullets come through the windows. Those who had been in my class did not dare to try to walk home. Especially tragic was the news that the car of the Swiss Consulate General had been attacked in front of where I had been teaching and tragically his wife had been killed.

The riot was a battle between forces loyal to Chiang Kai Shek and those opposed to him. We listened to the news as the fighting continued, not daring to go to bed. The next morning we heard more commotion below our apartment and we sneaked to the window for a look, The police had rounded up hundreds of rioters and were marching them down the street below us. They were taking this mass of people to jail which was right at the end of our block. In this last block they suddenly forced he people to run. This was an intentional and successful effort to have the arrested person lose their wooden clogs so they could not be used as weapons. Ironically within minutes those clogs were all gone as residents hastily slipped out of their apartments and secured those shoes for themselves.

Businesses, schools and public transportation were all closed down for a couple days and then calm was restored. We did not see such turmoil again at any time during the next ten years. For that I am grateful. Immersion does not be need to be repeated.

Reflections on a Long and Blessed Life No 53: Good-by California, Hello The Orient

Of course, million have left America and gone to live overseas: the military, business people, the diplomatic corps, missionaries... Yet for each person or family doing this it is a unique experience. Since most missionaries from the Lutheran Church sent abroad were fresh out of the seminary we had a very meager weight allowance for shipment of personal goods: 600 pounds if I remember correctly. So we had to get rid of lots of stuff including, of course, our car, almost all furniture, boxes of memories, etc. But it was important to us that 4-year-old David’s toys make the trip.

The Mission Board travel department was very slow and inefficient in arranging for our travel and the folks in Hong Kong were ever more anxious for our arrival; After all, I was an educator and school terms were opening and teacher-training classed needed to be taught.

So we got it done. Sold or gave away lots of stuff. Made a visit to our folks in Texas knowing that we would not see any of them for at least 5 years and aware that some would not be seen again on this earth. But it got done. We were to go by plane rather than ship. The farewell parties were held, the commissioning service was well done, the good-by hugs were exchanged and we were on the Pan Am prop plane with first stop, Hawaii and change of plane. Then it got interesting. A plane engine failed. Emergency landing at Wake Island turned out to be a long stopover. The airline was helpful even putting us on a bus and giving is a tour of the island while the repairs were made. Then off to the next stop: Tokyo. Again: engine failure. One engine was completely stopped. We made it to Tokyo, slept a few hours in a hotel and then towere quickly loaded on a flight to Hong Kong.

Landing at Hong Kong in those days (as many pilots still attest to this day) was always a challenge. Had to avoid getting into the prohibited air space of China, stay above the high rises along the landing path and come to a quick stop before the end of the taxiway which ended right at the Hong Kong ocean front. Another interesting aspect of the landing: the single taxiway actually crossed a public highway. When a plane came in for landing a gate game across the car highway and the planes zoomed down the runway right in front of the line of stopped cars.

When we landed we had quite a reception. We got off the plane and walked across the tarmac to the reception area. We still have the picture of little David all excitedly carrying his suitcase, me in coat and tie and Jane all decked our in formal dress, hose and hat. A reception committee of both missionaries and Chinese brothers and sisters were there plus a special greeter as well. By great co-incidence for the first time in its history the President (Chief Bishop) of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod was making his first trip abroad. It was The Rev. Dr. John W. Behnken standing in line to greet us.

We went from that flight of many, many hours directly to a dinner for President Behnken and a welcome for us. This was an entirely new dining experience for us all .Traditional Chinese food and service with no knives or forks, only chop sticks. It was great. And the after-meal activity was very disturbing. As we exited the not so formal restaurant on Nathan Road we were inundated with people: emaciated old people, young mothers with babies, crippled persons, all begging for food, money, anything. We had to push through them to get to our parked car jamming our way not only through the crowd of people on the sidewalk but also the never-before seen rickshaws, push carts, bicycles, taxis and busses,

Two of the women missionaries took us to their home where we stayed until we found our own apartment. Their apartment was on Tung Choi Street which was just 20 feet south of Boundary Street in Kowloon. Boundary Street marked the official boundary between Kowloon and the New Territories. It marked which land was to automatically revert to China in 1997. We were the only non-Chinese residents in the area.

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There was no time to waste. Within seven days of our arrival we were enrolled in Cantonese language classes at Hong Kong University and had a private language teacher assigned to us, I was teaching a course (through an interpreter) on Christian Education. Jane played the organ for a worship service which was all in Chinese and she had to rely on head shakes to know when to play the hymns or the liturgy. David had to follow the rule: Never leave the apartment and stay off the furniture inside! We were in a new land!