My back is still hurting, but at least the jet lag has mostly worn off and I don’t feel constantly tired anymore. Too bad all of that energy went mostly to waste today. Class was just as interesting as it had been the first time, except this session was all about the four Chinese schools of religious thought and the Chinese perspective on religion as a whole.
While most of the information wasn’t very new to me, it was interesting to see a Chinese person’s perspective on the matter. The talks about Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism were pretty much as I had expected, with little new insight that I hadn’t already known. But one thing I didn’t know is that some people actually practice Confucianism as a religion, not just a set of principles to guide social interactions. This was very surprising to me due to how dry the entire religion aspect of it sounds. Confucius is recognized as a God because he is a man of perfect merit, therefore making him a God. We were even told that many Chinese parents pray to Confucius in the hopes that their children will be benefitted during their exams, especially the college entrance exam. I found it even more bizarre that most Chinese people worship across religions and pray to many gods. Most Chinese practice a unique mixture of religions that is chosen by the individual. Most shocking of all was when our teacher said that she herself worshipped the Greek god Hades.
Another interesting part of the lecture was on Christianity’s role in Chinese society. Christianity is allowed to be practiced, but the interesting thing is that the Chinese government keeps Chinese Christians away from foreign Christians. I speculate that this is because the Chinese government is afraid of Christianity’s influences; not because of the ideas in the religion itself, but with the western ideology it has become attached to and would no doubt spread from foreign Christians. I found it extremely interesting that this separation is forced, and I would like to know more about the details.
After class we were given a couple hours to relax, and then we hopped back on the bus for our first company visit: Capital Bio. The first thing I noticed when we arrived at Capital Bio’s site, which was a bit far from the center of the city, was how much lighter the air felt. I had become accustomed to the heavy, pollutant thick air of Beijing and felt disgusted knowing that I had become so. Anyway, the building itself was very impressive, as was the biotechnology gems that were held inside. I was especially enticed by the bio-scanners that read test chips. Their design (as well as their appearance) was elegant yet efficient, something I believe all engineering designs should strive to achieve. The fact that large quantities of people could be tested for SARS and various other diseases quickly and easily using Capital Bio products fascinated me. Though I’m sure there are American companies in competition with Capital Bio, I had no idea this sort of technology even existed before I had seen it at Capital Bio.
However, our tour of the company was not very good. The company representative spoke poor English and spent most of the time talking directly to one of our hosts in Chinese. Even when speaking in English he was very soft-spoken and hard to hear and understand. Even with the amazing technology he was presenting, the tour was agonizing and irritating because of the language barrier and the lack of communication.