God Is Red

by Liao Yiwu

  Liao: I assume the church must have reviewed her history and political background. The government indirectly controls the recruitment process.

  Ho: I don’t know whether they did or not. I do know that the church was real cautious with new members. I heard that my mom’s boss at school tried to talk her out of it, but she was quite persistent. In the end, the school authorities okayed her request and set some parameters for her: mainly, she was not allowed to talk about Christianity to her students in class. When I was growing up, my mom used to say I was half converted because I was inside her womb when she was baptized.

  Liao: Do you know any members from an underground church?

  Ho: No. When my mom joined the church in 1985, there was no underground church in Chengdu . . . I don’t think it’s a big deal. We only have one God, who leads us all. It doesn’t matter where you worship.

  Liao: Have you heard of Reverend Wu Yaozong?

  Ho: The name sounds familiar. I don’t know to which dynasties he belonged.

  Liao: He was one of the people who founded China’s Three-Self Patriot Movement in the early 1950s. They proposed that the Chinese Christian churches should sever their ties with the Western imperialists and engage in self-governance, self-support, and self-propagation. Many Christians didn’t agree with him. They don’t believe churches should be under the rule of the Chinese government.

  Ho: I agree. I think Wu Yaozong’s idea was so crazy and insane. The Lord Jesus comes from the West. Christianity is predominantly a Western religion. How could you cut yourself off from the West?

  Liao: That’s an interesting point. What prompted you to be baptized?

  Ho: It’s a long story. My mom used to bug me about my schoolwork all the time. She also sent me to study painting. I think she hoped I would be ranked at the top of my class. When I was little, I was too weak to fight her; I accepted everything she sent my way. After I grew up, I no longer obeyed her. During my last year in high school, I refused to take part in the national college examinations. My mom had a fit. She cried and prayed every day, asking God to give her more confidence and power. To tell you the truth, I was suffering from examination phobia. I couldn’t concentrate on my classes. I used to have four classes in the morning. By the time I was in my fourth class, I started to be seized with the urge to scream. I wanted to smash the desks and chairs. So I told my mom about it. She took me to see a doctor, who diagnosed me as suffering from “intermittent anxiety.” Seeing that I wasn’t too far away from being a lunatic, she let me alone and stopped pressuring me. She also encouraged me to play and to surf the Internet. I did a lot of that. I was very into pop stars, especially Chinese rock stars.

  Liao: Tell me, did you date in high school?

  Ho: Dating? You hick! We started dating back in elementary school. I tasted my “forbidden fruits” at the age of fourteen. By the time I was in senior high school, I was a veteran. What choices do we have? The food we eat contains too many hormones; our bodies mature fast.

  Liao: Interesting. Sorry for the digression. What happened later?

  Ho: I didn’t attend college. I couldn’t find a job to support myself either. I just idled at home all day. When the Hunan TV station ran the Chinese Idol show, I didn’t miss a single episode. I loved all the female contestants, especially Li Yuchun. She’s avant-garde and sexy. She’s super cool. Each time she came on, I was always excited, jumping up and down.

  Liao: Li Yuchun? The singer who looks androgynous? I can’t understand a word she sings.

  Ho: You sound like my mom. That’s exactly what she said. But really, it’s pointless to argue over the trivial stuff. Now that I’m a Christian, I have become more serious about life. I feel embarrassed by my wild teenage behavior. You know, when I was in high school, my mother would encourage me to read the Bible. Instead of studying it, I tried giving her a hard time by finding faults in it. And that was pretty easy. For example, in Genesis, we are told that God created Adam and Eve and allowed them to live without worries in Eden and have anything they wanted, but not the fruit that would allow them to know good from evil. Adam and Eve couldn’t resist the temptation put before them by Satan, and they ate the forbidden fruit. This outraged God, and they were driven out of Eden. So, humans started their long history as exiles. After reading that, I believed that God was like the Chinese government, trying to rule humans with a policy to keep them in ignorance. I made my mom really mad.

  Liao: At least you read things with a critical mind.

  Ho: Glad you think that way. Anyhow, I idled around the house for two years and constantly got into fights with my mom. Since I passed the college age, going to school was no longer an option. Watching Chinese Idol couldn’t be counted as a profession. So I told her I would go look for a job. But it was hard. I didn’t have any talents or skills. Besides, I had stayed home for too long. My limbs had become weak. Even a little bit of physical labor made my heart beat fast and muscles ache. Then my dad got me a job through a friend. I was supposed to work as a company security guard. The first day on the job, I carried my MP4 player. One day my boss tried to talk to me, but I couldn’t hear him because I had the headset on. I just kept walking, enjoying Li Yuchun’s songs. When my boss caught up with me, he grabbed me by the shoulder and howled in his thunderous voice: “Get out of here. You’re fired.”

  My parents got really sick of me. They were too tired to even scold me. My mom and dad met to figure out what to do about me. My dad kept shaking his head, saying, “I don’t know when he will grow up. Let’s put a hold on finding him any jobs. Let him stay home until he’s twenty-five. Maybe by then he will be mature enough to handle a job.” My mom had to agree. She consoled herself by saying, “There are so many young people staying home nowadays. At least, he’s not alone.”

  Liao: How could you take it?

  Ho: I couldn’t have cared less. I was in no hurry. I didn’t have a girlfriend to pester me. My mom cooked for me and bought me clothes. I got pocket money each month. It wasn’t bad. But one day, I became bored at home. I opened up the Bible and flipped the pages and stopped at a passage in the book of Jeremiah: “‘If you will return, O Israel, return to me,’ declares the LORD. ‘If you put your detestable idols out of my sight and no longer go astray, and if in a truthful, just and righteous way you swear, as surely as the LORD lives, then the nations will be blessed by him and in him they will glory.’”

  I was totally, like, thunderstruck. My mind blanked out for a few minutes. My God, I thought about all those detestable pop idols that I had worshipped—Li Yuchun and Jay Chou. They ran past my mind like floating clouds. The Lord knew me well. He understood my generation well. We had been plunged into a bottomless pit of pop icon worshipping. I couldn’t get myself out, and my life had almost been ruined. God finally revealed himself to me. His words were stern. I had to remove all the idols out of his sight, and I swore to be good.

  When my mother came home that night, I told her that I wanted to be a Christian and I wanted to be baptized. She looked bewildered and didn’t know what to say.

  Liao: That was quite a sudden change.

  Ho: If you really believe in God, you should be baptized. If you don’t, suit yourself. That was what I thought at that time. I’m a prototype of the posteighties generation. For years, I followed all sorts of pop icons and knew how to sing all their songs. When a new one came along, I discarded the old ones. I spent my whole life chasing idols like a dog chasing a ball. But then I learned to sing hymns and I never get tired of them. The hymns touch me on a deeper level. They change me. We used to have very free discussions at the church. When I confessed to my Christian brothers and sisters about my problems and my doubts about life, no one laughed at me or thought I was stupid. When I told them I didn’t have a job, they all helped me. I got several interviews with different companies. During each interview, I would say: “I’m a Christian; I’m young and inexperienced, but I’m hardworking and dedicated. If you don’t want to offer the job to me, offer me an
internship or I can volunteer. If you decide that I’m really good, hire me or pay me later.”

  Liao: Did you get a job?

  Ho: Yep. I do web maintenance for a company right now.

  Liao: Have you attended services at someone’s house?

  Ho: A couple of times. I know some Christians who even gather and worship inside office buildings. But it doesn’t feel right. Worshipping inside a church makes me feel good. I guess my generation just likes beautiful things.

  Liao: You guys pay attention to superficial stuff, the packaging, not the content.

  Ho: What’s wrong with that? Since ancient times, humans have always been attracted to beautiful things. We first wrapped ourselves with animal skin. Then we began to wear clothes. It’s all about packaging ourselves and looking nice. When we face the Lord, we need to look clean and decent. When the Lord is in heaven, he also keeps the palace clean and neat so he can be in the mood to hear prayers from his followers. If we pick any random place and make it a church in the name of the Lord, then what’s the point of building churches? I’ve seen pictures of beautiful churches in all parts of the world. There must be a purpose in building them, don’t you think?

  Liao: A lot of people refuse to attend services at those beautiful churches because they are controlled by the government’s Religious Affairs Bureau.

  Ho: Does it matter? The holy figure on the cross above the pulpit is my Lord, whether it was above the pulpit at a government church or inside a living room. It’s not President Hu Jintao or Chairman Mao.

  Liao: Well . . .

  Ho: People in your age group are too political. You guys are too interested in politics. It’s different with my generation. Sometimes it bothers me. I attended a house church one time. When we were reading the Bible, a minister or a church elder suddenly stood up. Without getting everyone’s approval, he started to deliver a political statement and then asked everyone to pray for so-and-so who had died for the Lord, and then so-and-so who had been arrested by the government. He also asked us to pray for the sins of the government. He totally changed the mood of the gathering, making it depressing and tragic. Several members started to cry after hearing his political plea. I guess I was too young and didn’t have that much experience. I felt awkward. I thought, Why don’t we let God do God’s work and Caesar do Caesar’s? Why do we always mix the two? The government wants to politicize religion, and some Christians are doing the same thing. These things kill my spiritual appetite.

  Liao: Well, that’s an interesting perspective. Do you know a Christian called Wang Yi? I wonder what his response would be to your argument.

  Ho: I’ve heard of Wang Yi. He lives in Chengdu, right? Isn’t he the head of the Christian fellowship group called Autumn Blessing? He’s a well-known independent intellectual and constitutionalist or something. The Communist Party is keeping a close eye on him, I’m sure. I think his group has been raided by police a couple of times.

  Liao: Yes. There is another writer, Yu Jie. He’s a Christian in Beijing. They are all talented intellectuals and quite brave. They are not afraid of arrest or imprisonment.

  Ho: There are a lot of talented intellectuals within government churches too. Some people choose to be outspoken, and others choose to be low-key. Some want to fight the political fight, and others want to stay away from politics. That’s the reality. I’ve seen Reverend Yuan Zhiming’s documentary film, The Cross: Jesus in China. I think it’s very biased. He focuses too much on history. Chairman Mao and Deng Xiaoping have been dead a long time. Most Chinese don’t care about Communism or revolution anymore. Even the Communist officials don’t care much about Communism—like the saying goes, they sell dog meat under the label of a sheep’s head. Those Communist officials send their children to the West to receive a different type of education. So why do we still waste our time finding fault with this government? It already feels very insecure for its criminal past. It’s better not to provoke the commies.

  Maybe I get too much information in my head. Since my brain has limited gigabytes of memory, I just spit them out without filtering. Sorry, I hope it doesn’t offend old folks like you. I need to delete some unnecessary files in my head, I guess. Luckily, I have Jesus as my guide. I’m all focused. I think if I keep upgrading my mind, I will do just fine.

  Liao: Do you use a proxy server to get onto overseas websites?

  Ho: Of course.

  Liao: Are you aware of Liu Xiaobo and a document that he and others have drafted? It’s called “Charter 08.” It’s like a declaration to promote democracy and human rights, including the right to religious freedom. Many well-known Chinese intellectuals have signed their names to the document.

  Ho: You don’t need a proxy to access and read “Charter 08.” I saw it posted on several domestic websites. The police keep removing it, but more postings pop up. For a while, they couldn’t seem to keep up the pace.

  Liao: Are you in favor of the views outlined in “Charter 08”?

  Ho: For the long term, I’m in favor of it, but I don’t support it in the short term. It won’t go very far because it doesn’t have grassroots support. But I have to say that it was such damn hooligan behavior to arrest Liu Xiaobo before Christmas and then sentence him to eleven years in jail. Sorry, as a Christian, I shouldn’t swear, but I think God will forgive me this time. You know, Liu Xiaobo didn’t swear. He expressed his view in a civilized manner. Even if the government doesn’t agree with him, they shouldn’t lock him up. What are they going to do next? For my generation, Han Han is considered an outspoken writer. He is my hero and a hero for thousands of young people today. He’s written some very sharp political commentaries. Are they going to jail him too? After Liu Xiaobo serves out his sentence, he’ll be sixty. Even if democracy does arrive in China by then, he’ll be too old to do anything. He could join the church, get baptized and ordained, and then become a church minister. In this way, he could preach to others. Otherwise, I don’t see any other way out for him, do you?

  Look, he belongs to a higher level, the level of professors. I would be in the category of junior student. If you use the computer as a metaphor, he’s like a Pentium 6 or Pentium 7 while I’m only a Pentium 2. He is way ahead of me and I’m never going to be his match, but if you listen, he and others like him make sense.

  Acknowledgments

  In 2005, Wu Yongsheng, an elder at Fuyintang, the oldest Protestant church in Dali, compiled a book, The History of Christianity in Dali, which listed the names of missionaries who had reached the region from around the world, from the mid-1800s to 1949, in order to preach the Gospel. Since many were known only by their Chinese names, it is not surprising that their English names are misspelled, incomplete, or missing. This book is dedicated to the memories of those who lived and preached in Yunnan.

  Archibald Colquhoun, 1882

  Frederick Arthur Steven, 1882

  Owen Stevenson, 1882

  George Andrew, 1882

  John Smith, 1885

  F. Theodore Foucar, 1886

  Harriett Smith, 1890

  John Anderson, 1892

  E. M. D. Anderson, 1892

  Marie Box, 1895

  A. M. Simpson, 1895

  Sybil M.E. Reid, 1896

  John Kuhn, 1900

  L. Graham, 1900

  S. M. E. Nicholls, 1900

  Arthur G. Nicholls, 1900

  William Wallace Simpson, 1900

  A. H. Sanders, 1901

  No recorded English name, 1901

  Richard Williams, 1902

  Hector Mclean, 1902

  William James Embery, 1902

  Hector Mclean, 1903

  Dr. W. T. Clark, 1903

  Ethel A. Potter, 1907

  George E. Metcalf, 1907

  E. E. Naylor, 1907

  Ms. Hector, 1907

  Kratzer, 1911

  Mr. and Mrs. Edgar, 1912

  A. J. Clement, 1912

  J. D. Cunningham, 1912

  Miss Dukesher, 1902

 
; Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Hanna, 1912

  J. O. Fraser, 1919

  Allyn Cooke, 1919

  No recorded English name, 1919

  Mr. and Mrs. F. S. Hatton, 1926

  D. S. Hatton, 1926

  John Kuhn, 1930

  Dr. Stuart Harverson, 1933

  Mr. and Mrs. William A. Allen, 1931

  Australian, no recorded English name, 1934

  Norwegian, no recorded English name, 1934

  Ted Holmes, 1934

  Mr. and Mrs. A. W. Snow, 1940

  Mr. and Mrs. Harold Taylor, 1940

  Jessie McDonald, 1941

  Frances E. Powell, 1941

  M. E. Soltau, 1941

  Doris M. L. Madden, 1941

  Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Joyce, 1946

  No recorded English name, 1948

  Dr. Myrtle J. Hinkhouse

  Dr. John K. Toop

  Dr. William. J. Toop

  D. W. Burrows

  L. Hamer

  Emma Blott

  Dr. Watson

  Australian, no recorded English name

  Norwegian, no recorded English name

  This book would not have been possible without the assistance of Dr. Sun, who during a two-year period accompanied Liao on trips to the villages in Yunnan and introduced him to the Christian communities there. My thanks also goes to those brave and tenacious Chinese Christians who bared their hearts to Liao Yiwu and whose extraordinary life stories inspired him to write this book.

  I am also grateful to Yu Jie, a Christian and a well-known independent literary critic, for his support. Pastor John Zhang, at the San Mateo–based Bay Area Reformed Evangelical Church, has been actively involved in the Christian movement in China. His organization, Humanitarian China, has raised funds for Li Linshan, the “Cancer Patient” featured in the book, and also arranged for Dr. Sun to stay in the United States after the government banned his missions in Yunnan.