Easter in Beijing

An English student teaching in Beijing writes home via email (I shall not identify him further as I do not have permission to reproduce and have only read his interesting email correspondence via a relative):

"I hope you are all enjoying a relaxing bank holiday weekend and are feeling appropriately ill from eating an unhealthily large number of Easter eggs. I am very jealous. I have spent the last few nights dreaming of a Cadbury's Buttons Egg. Obviously, they do have chocolate here but it doesn't taste the same especially as it isn't egg shaped and hugely over priced. Saying that my 4 year old Chinese niece did surprise me at this evening's class by coming to visit at the start to give me a chocolate bar in front of my 50 students. Very sweet.

Yesterday I went to an Easter Day service at the Beijing International Christian Fellowship (BICF). There are no churches here, apart from a few Catholic ones, so the group meets in a theatre. I say group, it's more like a population. The theatre complex has various auditoriums, the largest holding over 3000 people, and there are different services in different places.

Chinese law doesn't allow Chinese citizens to practice religion with foreigners so you are told to take your passport. However, when I rocked up to the door of the theatre at 9.30 a.m. on Sunday, I wondered whether they really needed to check my passport to confirm that I wasn't Chinese. Or perhaps I'm at last beginning to blend in with the locals? I think not.

I had the option of a bilingual service or a service all in English so obviously I chose to utilize my superior linguist skills and attend the former. The service was in the main auditorium which was absolutely packed full of people from every corner of the globe, except ironically for China of course.

It was an amazing experience. We started by singing some songs in English with Chinese subtitles. Then the bilingual element kicked in and we sang some songs in Chinese with English subtitles. Not so easy. Luckily they also displayed the Pinyin Chinese so I happily, if a little tentatively, sang along. Apart from the band there was a choir that performed a few songs and a very interesting dance by two ballet dancers who looked suspiciously Chinese, which I thought was not allowed. Having said that, at one stage about 20 Chinese people, who are Christians, were paraded on stage before being escorted off far away from us evil foreigners who may corrupt their minds.

The service was led by some American bloke. I was interested in what he was saying and enjoyed his talk. However his whinny American accent did quickly begin to grate on my sensitive British ears. I debated offering him some elocution lessons but later thought better of it.

Happy Easter!"