Frontiers, Nations, and Religion: My Childhood Religious Experience

When did I become interested in religion? Maybe I saw @ unable to write my own story about reading the Bible and going to church. Maybe I lived in Kunming and experienced the demolition of the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Walking one night, I accidentally walked in a narrow corner of the downtown area. Seeing an unremarkable mosque, in such a state of decay that it was almost dying.

Or maybe I remember when I was a child, waiting for my mother to come home from get off work at the gatekeeper's place, she told me stories, and when we parted, she brought me a Bible with pink margins, which I have seen before. The most beautiful book.

When I brought it home happily, my mother still wanted me to return it, saying that I couldn't just ask for other people's things. But I remember the panic on her face at the time, not because I "took something from a stranger," but because I couldn't tell if it was good intentions or something else.

In my impression, adults are full of fear of religion. Before we know religion, we first know "cult", which feels like a bad thing that cannot be approached. What my mother didn't say back then, I heard the pastor say it in a bitter voice at the church today: People don't want to approach, in their own words, they are afraid of being "brainwashed".

I grew up in an area populated by the Yi and Hani peoples, but in fact, my friends include Hui, Miao, and even Chuanqing people—I remember him as a thin and small male classmate who wrote his information in the statistics In the book, he was also ridiculed by the whole class, saying that there is no such nation. His face was flushed and he didn't know how to explain it.

Fortunately, the teacher did not embarrass him, but just proved to us the existence of the Tsengqing people. But it doesn't seem to be able to explain why there are no people who wear youth in the "56 ethnic groups" in the textbook. Or maybe we are too young to understand this at all.

Later, when I grew up, I knew the Mosuo people who also did not have their names in the "56 ethnic groups". It seems that in the book "Yongning Momo", the author once wrote: The reason why Mosuo people can't obtain a single ethnic identity is because the government does not want to see too many single ethnic groups eligible to be elected to the National People's Congress.

From childhood to adulthood, my only experience of religion is not Guanyin and Buddha, or the old gods of Taoist temples, who are going to worship during the festivals, but my Hui classmates who do not eat or drink during fasting, and do not have to take physical education classes. , because to save physical strength. In addition, even when they grew up, they did not realize that some Hmong students have always believed in God. Their hometown is in the mountains, but there are many churches.

In the face of Hui students with clear beliefs, or even all Hui people, adults will also warn you not to approach them or play with them. If you can't do this, the bottom line is that you must never visit their homes. Can't eat their food. Because they will force you to drink lime water to cleanse your stomach and make you just like them.

Looking back now, the Hui students in the class must have also noticed this inexplicable slander, fear and rejection, so they don’t play with other people very much. Even if they have good friends, everyone is tacit and will not invite each other. Go to your own home to play. So even though I knew my Hui classmates were going to fast, celebrate Eid al-Fitr and pray, I still didn't know anything about their religion.

Until the National Day in 2017, my friends and I went to the Shadian Mosque, which has become a tourist attraction in our eyes. Searching for "Shadian Mosque" today, the only information that can be found in simplified Chinese is: "In July 1975, the Shadian Mosque was destroyed in the "Shadian Incident". In February 1979, the "Shadian Incident" was rehabilitated , was rebuilt in September 1979 by government funding and public donations."

I went to the only church shown on the local map that day, and talked to the pastor, who also mentioned this history and brought it with the word "teaching of blood". I seem to have heard many such versions, or the description of "rebellion", which is sensational. But there is always a vague shadow entrenched in my mind, and I can't see clearly. Later I finally saw the full introduction on Wikipedia:

The Shadian Incident was an armed conflict in Yunnan Province during the Cultural Revolution of the People's Republic of China. The Hui people confronted the government and ended with the PLA's military repression. The massacre took place in seven counties and districts in Yunnan Province from July 29 to August 4, 1975, mainly in Shadian Town, Gejiu City, Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, resulting in the death of about 1,600 civilians ( 866 people from Shadian), including 300 children, nearly 1,000 people were disabled, and more than 4,400 houses were damaged. After the chaos and the reform and opening up, the Shadian incident was rehabilitated by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Yunnan Provincial Party Committee. It was no longer defined as an "armed rebellion", and the local government reviewed the mistakes.

In 1974, the conflict between the Communist Party of China and the local Hui people in Yunnan escalated. Thousands of Hui people went to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan, to protest the closure of mosques during the Cultural Revolution, demanding freedom of belief.

I also thought of my only "religious experience" when I was a child. Those Hui students could insist on fasting at school, and teachers and other students could not interfere. Even if there were some malicious slander, fear, and rejection, they still declared their own Faith may also have something to do with this history, because they once fought hard for their freedom of belief.

And my other classmates who also have faith and are not known, maybe their ancestors have been deprived of the Bible a long time ago, or have been punished in varying degrees, so they were told from childhood to be careful Protecting their beliefs, they cannot be known to outsiders.

In fact, they have also seen at school how Hui students who have been publicly proclaiming their belief in freedom are being ostracized by groups and others.

write on the back

When I came up with the title, I had a hard time. Who am I telling these experiences? It's me.

But who am I, a Yunnanese? But I always feel that something is wrong. Who are the Yunnanese? Can you summarize the people I am talking about?

My classmate of Hui nationality, the ignorant man who wears green, and my own national identity have all been hidden away, leaving only a "Yunnan native", and then shrouded in the larger identity of "Chinese".