12.24.08
Merry Jewish Christmas!
Once again Christmas is here, and for all you fellow Jews out there, that means Chinese food and a movie. See, while America’s majority Christian population celebrates the Christmas season, Jews (as well as other non-Christian groups) are left with the most boring day of the year. No work, no school, no shopping, no access to public facilities. Even restaurants are closed! That is, except for the Chinese ones! This makes for another example of the historical cooperation between two of the most culinarily oriented cultures the world has ever seen…the Jewish-Chinese Christmas.
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| All I want for Christmas is 孜然牛肉 and 红烧茄子 |
Going back to when I was just a little boychick, I have fond memories of celebrating Christmas with crab rangoon, sesame chicken, and good ol’ General Tso. Yup, nothing tops American Chinese food on the day when most other Americans are home with their relatives, exchanging gifts, and enjoying the spirit of the season. After Chinese food, the Jewish tradition is to visit a local movie theater, one of the few establishments other than Chinese restaurants which remain open on the 25th. At the theater (and at the restaurant) it’s not uncommon to bump into other Jews from the community. We ask each other where we ate Chinese food, complain about the weather, and wish each other a Merry Christmas. It’s all in the spirit of the season.
So to those who do celebrate Christmas, may you have a joyous holiday season and a 圣诞节快乐, and to all those who don’t, enjoy your Chinese food and your movie. You are part of a tradition which is sure to last for years to come.
And in the meantime, why not check out my own personal favorite Christmas-related website. It’s called How To Order Chinese Food Dot Com. Enjoy your holiday season…whatever that may be. I’ll be in Chinatown, celebrating the season with some 孜然牛肉 and 红烧茄子 .
jon byrne
said,
December 25, 2008 at 4:13 am
Ben ,
good to hear from you again its been a bit quiet on the blogging front these past weeks . I would just like to wish you and yours’ all the best for the season that is upon us now and have a good new year .
chriswaugh_bj
said,
December 25, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Ben, I’m a little confused: My passport says I’m from New Zealand. Although my middle name is of Hebrew origin, my first name derives from Greek and my surname is clearly Scottish. My mother’s maiden name is Irish. If you see me and my mother together, you will see how obvious it is that I half my DNA came directly from her. And my hair and skin just scream “Celt!” And yet I find myself, like you, eating Chinese food every Christmas. Like I said, confused….
Alan
said,
December 29, 2008 at 10:21 am
Ha! You have made a nice connection between Chinese and Jewish on Christmas Day. Chinese prides themselves in hard work. Most Chinese restaurants in the U.S. only close for Thanksgiving Day because that’s the day that few people eat out. On another note, a Singaporean Chinese wrote a book documenting his belief that ancient Chinese worshipped the same monolithic God as the Jewish. His book, Faith of our Fathers (先贤之信), has some interesting documents on some ancient Chinese traditions observed by Chinese emperors and their similaries to some traditions described in the Old Testament. The relationship between some Chinese characters and the events in the Old Testament is so intriguing. I would love to get your take on this book since you have knowledge of both Jewish and Chinese history.
Here is a blog I found on this book.
http://yantouch.wordpress.com/2007/09/02/faith-of-our-fathers/
I personally had never thought there was any connection between Chinese and Jewish history until I watched the movie Fiddler on the Roof. Many wife tales in the movie observed by the Jewish family are so Chinese. e.g., Do not praise a baby in front of him/her. Otherwise, s/he will become bad. I felt we could replace the Jewish family in the movie with a Chinese family and Russia with China of the same time period without changing script or story and the movie would still make sense.
Benjamin Ross
said,
December 29, 2008 at 1:26 pm
@Alan
Thanks for the book recommendation. There has actually been quite a bit of historical connection between the Jews and the Chinese, as there have been established Jewish communities in at least three different Chinese cities, Harbin, Kaifeng, and Shanghai. I was actually preparing a big piece on Judaic sites in China, but got pretty deflated when my camera was stolen this past summer and I lost all of my pics of the synagogues and Jewish cemetery in Harbin. Of the three cities, Harbin seems to have the most to see for seekers of Jewish-Chinese history, with 2 synagogues (one has been converted into a museum of Harbin Judaica, the other is a mosque). The old Jewish-Russian Orthodox cemetery outside of town is probably the most surreal place I have ever visited in China. Definitely worth a trip if you’re interested in the historical connection between Jews and Chinese. Shanghai and Kaifeng are interesting too, but not as much to see as Harbin.
chriswaugh_bj
said,
December 29, 2008 at 7:29 pm
But aren’t the Shanghai and Harbin Jewish communities a much more modern phenomenon, dating to the late 19th century treaty port era and bolstered by Jews fleeing anti-semitism in Russia and the Nazis? Harbin may have more to see, but Kaifeng strikes me as being far more fascinating. The Kaifeng Jewish community was “discovered” by Matteo Ricci on his travels in China way back in the Ming dynasty. He came across a community that was to all appearances Chinese, but whose religious practices were astonishingly familiar. He investigated, then realised they were Jews. It’s a pity the community has all but disappeared, but their descendants are still there.
Actually, the film 《鸡犬不宁》/”One Foot off the Ground”, although it is set in a fictional northern Henan town in modern times, makes more than a few references to the Kaifeng Jews.
Benjamin Ross
said,
December 30, 2008 at 3:54 am
@chriswaugh_bj
As you mentioned, the Shanghai and Harbin Jewish communities are both pretty modern, dating mainly from the 20th century. (the Harbin community may have dated back to the tail end of the 19th, but I’d need to check on that). The Kaifeng Jewish community is much older, and very interestingly consists of bona fide Chinese Jews, as opposed to Harbin which was mainly Russian, and Shanghai which was Eastern European. Back in 2005, I went to Kaifeng for this very reason, to seek out what I could learn about this ancient Chinese Jewish community. Aside from being an incredibly fascinating city in and of itself, there really isn’t a whole lot to see Judaicly in Kaifeng. I was able to locate the area which was the former Jewish neighborhood of Kaifeng, and even was able to find and meet several old Jewish women (thanks to the mezzuzahs on the doors). However, the Kaifeng Jewish community is at the very tail end of assimilation, and aside from a few artifacts in their houses, the Jewish ladies I met seemed very much like any other old Han Chinese ladies. (Granted, I’m sure I was not the first gringo to knock on their doors and say “Hey, I’m Jewish too!”)
There is a Jewish museum in Kaifeng, but it is a complete and total shakedown. The museum has 4 floors, with the top floor housing the “exotic Judaic artifacts.” To visit the first 3 floors of the museum costs 10 RMB, but to go up to the fourth floor costs an extra 50. Now, this wouldn’t be an exorbitant fee to pay if it weren’t for the fact that the 4th floor was about the size of my bedroom and contained only 4 or 5 exhibits, many of which were simply drawings and maps of the former Jewish quarters.
In Kaifeng, you can also visit the old synagogue, which is the now the boiler room of a hospital. You would never know it was a synagogue if nobody told you, and it’s worth checking out if you’re there, but not nearly as interesting as the 2 synagogues in Harbin.
So yeah, historically speaking, of the 3 Chinese Jewish communities, Kaifeng is probably the most interesting. There just isn’t much to see there anymore. Or at least if there was, I didn’t find it. For those interested in Chinese/Jewish history, Harbin has much more to see. Shanghai has a decent Jewish museum (housed in the old synagogue) as well, but the exhibits aren’t nearly as informative as the ones in Harbin. Plus Harbin has the old cemetery of which I have never, ever seen anything like in China before. If only that damn thief in Dalian had had the courtesy to give me back my memory card after stealing my camera…