sheng dan jie kuaile

"Did it hurt when they nailed Jesus to the cross?"
That was a question I never expected to have to answer, especially not to a 10 year old in China. I suppose I kind of brought this onto myself by trying to give the students a little bit of an idea about what Christmas was about, beyond Santa Claus, christmas trees and presents. I tried to explain that Christians believe that Jesus was the son of a woman named Mary and God. I tried to balance a line between accuracy to the Christmas story without seeming like a creepy missionary, more portraying my story as a "some people believe this..." sort of tale. One of my TAs, who is actually herself Catholic, tried to help out by mentioning that Jesus was the man who was crucified. That perked up the kids interest much more than mention of a pregnant woman and an angel, and soon the questions began. (If you were curious, after some stammering I said that it probably did, and then hurried away). Unlike Dan's students, a fair number of my students did have some idea that Christmas was connected to a man named Jesus, though none of them really knew who he was. When I asked some students who Jesus's father was, one student piped up, "Santa Claus!"
Many students thought that Christmas was somehow connected with the new year. In an attempt to be more ecumenical, I tried to explain about Hanukkah, only to encounter boredom and confusion. In my class of young teenagers, one kid asked what the story behind Hanukkah was. I started off, "a long time ago, there were people who wanted to get rid of all the Jews.." the same kid immediately jumped up and said, "teacher, I know!! I know who they were, it was the Germans!!!" I said no, this was even before them. Ultimately though, they were kind of nonplussed with the miracle of oil burning for 8 days.
In my class of 15 year olds, I branched out even more and tried to tell them about Kwanzaa. I said, "it's a holiday black people in America celebrate to celebrate African culture." The kids however, were much more interesting in talking about black people, which led to some pretty awkward moments. (Ideas of political correctness and racial appropriateness are very different in China.) One boy asked me, "how are black people different from red people?" I asked for some clarification, and he seemed confused. Finally he said, you know, in their hobbies and interests and stuff. Another student asked me if black people were better in sports, and another asked if black people were uneducated. I do have a student in that class who lived in America for 4 years, and she looked about as embarrassed as me.
Well, I must go now, but I'll try to update soon.