The purpose of this paper will be to analyze the world historical process of growing up in China by examining Yan Phou Lee’s biographic adaptation of “When I was a boy in China”.
The author talks about their life from birth to growing up as a boy in China. The thesis statement for the essay will therefore be to examine the process and pattern of growing up as a male child in China from birth, to infancy and then to adulthood (marriage). The essay will look at how male and female children in China are treated and raised by their parents, relatives and the society as well as important periods of celebration in their lives.
The primary source which is Yan Phou Lee’s biography offers an insightful look into the life of male children in China and it also presents various aspects of Chinese culture such as the Chinese calendar and Chinese months which is corroborated by other secondary sources used in the study. Lee’s biography supports the arguments made by the secondary sources with regards to how the Chinese count their months as well as the religious systems that exist in China which include Buddhism, Taoism and Confuciusm.
Lee’s work however presents some controversial issues which might be viewed by many gender activists to be biased against women. He portrays the Chinese culture as one that is punitive to women by not offering them the same gratuities that are given to the male children. The evaluation of the historical process therefore offers the readers a look into the life of a male child growing up in China as well as the differences that exist in the society.
In the first chapter of Lee’s biography, he talks about his birth and the cultural practices of the Chinese people when a child is born. Lee indicates that the Chinese calendar is different from that of the English calendar, an indication of the difference that exists between the Chinese and English cultures. According to Lee (7), the Chinese year is different from the English year because the months of the year are determined by the revolution of the moon around the earth.
This is corroborated by Parise (215) who notes that time in China during the period of 1800 was usually determined by the number of accessions that the country had in terms of Emperors. Time was also determined by the number of cycles which were usually sixty years each and the cycle in which Lee was born was 1861 during the reign of Emperor Tung-che.
Parise (215) also highlights the difference that exists between a Chinese calendar and English calendar where the months are referred as Regular Moon, Second Moon, Third Moon, Fourth Moon and so on instead of January, February, March and April. Every third year was termed as a leap year and it had an extra month so that it could make the lunar year to be equal to a solar year.
The Chinese culture places a lot of importance on the birth of male children as demonstrated by how the various members of Lee’s family celebrated when he was born. He alludes to the fact that the Chinese culture views men to be more important than women because Chinese men are more desirable since they are able to maintain the family’s honor once they decide to get married.
This is not possible for a girl as they lose the family’s honor when they are married off to another family. Male children according to Lee were therefore seen to be more important especially amongst the elderly relatives of the family. When it came to the naming of children, parents picked names from the Chinese dictionary which encompassed the meaning of luck or fortune. Choosing names was an important activity for many Chinese parents as they believed that names had the power of warding off evil spirits (Lee 8).
Fortune tellers were usually called upon by the parents of the child to predict their future as soon as they were born. Rich parents who had male newborns invested large sums of money to consult deities who had the power to ward off any malignant influences from the child’s future. The money was mostly used to buy gifts for the God of Longevity in return for the child’s protection and also provide guidance in periods or situations of difficulty or chaos.
The rich parents also consulted blind fortune tellers who were paid to intercede for the child with a particular Chinese god or idol. Because of the large amounts of money rich parents were willing to spend for the future of their children, fortune-tellers, astrologers, priests and the lessees of temples made a lot of money when they participated in these mysterious activities. Poor families were also not left behind as parents from poor backgrounds sacrificed their wealth so that the male child could have a positive future (Lee 10).
Lee (10) described his day of christening to also be a day of celebration as many relatives and friends attended the ceremony with gifts and valuable trinkets that would be useful in his future life. This was a different case for the girls as their day of christening was usually marked by fewer gifts and less excitement than is usually exhibited in the case of boys.
The presence of roast pig which is the national festive dish in China indicated that male children were more valued than the female children. According to Lee (11) no occasion was complete without the presence of roast pig which meant that all weddings, religious festivals, birthdays and ancestral celebrations incorporated roast pigs in the menu.
After infancy, the male children were groomed to be obedient followers of their parents, grandparents and ancestors as it was required by Chinese culture. Children were not supposed to talk back to their parents even when defending themselves from being wrongfully accused. They were required to take the punishment without any objection as a sign of respect and compliance to Chinese cultures.
According to Lee (17) everyone in China is subject to somebody else which means that all children were subject to their parents and their parents were in turn subject to their own grandparents which demonstrated that subjectivity in Chinese culture was a continuous cycle. The magistrate during that time was seen to be the father of everyone he ruled over while the Emperor was subject to his citizens who in return had to show their subjectivity to their Emperor (Lee 18).
Young Chinese boys usually engaged in various games and past times such as kite-flying where they designed kites that were six to seven feet long from wing to wing. The kites were of various colors and designs and the children flew them so as to catch and retain the wind. There was even a date set aside for kite flying which was the ninth day of the ninth month which usually fell in October according to the Chinese calendar.
This day referred to as Kite Day saw the male children going up the hills in China to have a communion with the heavenly zephyrs after which they get to fly their kites made of rice-paper. The fun part during the whole event was when the male children made the kites fight in the sky which resulted in the display of dragon designed kites of different colors engaging in combat (Lee 38).
Apart from kite flying, other past time games that the children engaged in included kicking the shuttlecock which was a favorite past time game for many teenage boys and gentlemen. The shuttlecock was made up of a bunch of feathers stuck together by small round pieces of leather and then tied together with a piece of string.
Players would serve the shuttlecock to each other while at the same time making sure not to drop it hence the name kicking the shuttlecock. Other games and past times Chinese boys engaged in included penny-tossing and cricket fighting which were mostly done by the older boys and men (Lee 38).
Once the male child reached a school going age, they were either taken to schools that were run by private gentlemen since the government of China provided education to advanced students only. But because the qualification for gaining office employment was education, the government encouraged many parents to take their children to school.
This ordinance saw many schools being established in various corners of China where classes were held in people’s private homes or in the halls of Chinese temples. These temples were usually chosen because of the tablets that were used for deceased ancestors which could serve the purpose of writing desks and tables. Only boys attended these schools because the girls went to schools that were operated by their families.
But the type of education was similar for both girls and boys except that girls were usually schooled until they were twelve years old while the boys went to school until they were sixteen or seventeen years old. After this age they viewed by their parents, grandparents and village elders to be ready for marriage (Lee 55).
When it came to marriage, the male children on acquiring a wife were meant to continue living with their parents. This was not so for the girls as societal cultures and beliefs expected them to live with their husband’s parents. Such an arrangement however usually had its downside because most of the domestic squabbles and infidelity that occurred within the home were usually caused by this.
This custom is however still being practiced as every generation is educated by their ancestors on the domestic arrangements for the male children once they get married.
The success of such arrangements has all been placed on the son and husband of the family where they are required to be strict disciplinarians when it comes to managing the affairs of the home. Chinese culture also depended on the male figure during such arrangements as men were able to prevent domestic brawls which commonly occurred between the mother-in-law and the new bride (Lee 32).
The predominant religion in China is different from the rest of the world which can mostly be attributed to their different calendar. The Chinese calendar is not divided into weeks or months but it is divided into moons which as mentioned earlier are calculated according to cycles.
The Chinese do not believe in Christianity and they therefore do not celebrate Christian holidays such as Easter or Christmas. Their religion was divided into three systems the first of Confucianism which was the religion taught by the great philosopher Confucius. This religion prescribed to the notion that mankind had to perform certain duties such as being obedient to parents, honoring and serving members of the society and living harmoniously with one’s relatives or spouse.
Confucianism never taught its subjects about the existence of God because Confucius himself did not believe in the existence of a higher authority. He instead taught his followers to pursue goodness and everything that was good in the world by viewing. The gods worshipped under Confucianism included the five great mountains, heaven and earth and the spirits that existed in the wind (Lee 64).
The second religious system in China was referred to as Taoism which focused on philosophical teachings and Buddhist doctrines. This religion however degenerated into a sect where the sect leaders prayed on people’s superstitious fears so that they could earn some money. Taoist priests who were the leaders of Taoism were usually called upon by families to intercede for individuals that were possessed by an evil spirit.
The role of the Taoist priest in such a situation was to offer up vows to the gods so that the person could be able to recover. Because of the poor religious standing, Taoist followers worshipped everything imaginable because they believed that every object or living organism had a spiritual counterpart in the next world. The gods that were worshipped under the Taoist religion included gods of war, literature, medicine and worldly possessions (Lee 66).
Buddhism, which is currently the most predominant religion in China, came about during the time of Christ when an embassy sent by the Emperor of the Han dynasty to investigate Jesus’ teachings came across Buddha in India while they were on their way to India. The ambassadors assumed that he was the great sage they were looking for and decided to stay on so that they could listen to his teachings.
Once the great Buddha died, they decided to return to China with his books which contained all the religious teachings of the religion. Buddhism began to pick up as a religion in China where Buddhist priests and nuns lived separate from the rest of the society in monasteries and convents. On joining the monastery, the Buddhist priests were required to shave their heads completely and don a costume that would allow them to be easily identifiable (Ling and Liu 1).
Under the Buddhist religion, Chinese people believed that wealth and happiness were easily acquired from the priests so they offered them money which would be used to buy oil and incense for Buddha. The god in return would meet the wishes and desires of the people who prescribed to the religion.
These three religious systems formed the background of religion in the country where the Chinese society was willing to worship everything and anything rather than nothing. Apart from these religious systems, the Chinese society worshipped gods and goddesses where each idol had a special holiday in the Chinese calendar. For example the Goddess of Mercy had a dozen days in the Chinese calendar that were dedicated to her where the sacred days would see followers converging to celebrate her (Ling and Liu 1).
The religious systems of Taoism and Buddhism were however despised by the educated classes of Chinese society but they always consulted the Taoist and Buddhist priests in cases of sickness or death. This demonstrated that the religious instinct of most Chinese people was strong where they could worship anything in the event they were in need of a higher intervention. The presence of temples instead of churches in most Chinese neighborhoods signified the embodiment of the highest level of architectural skill in the country.
The idols who resided in these temples represented the superiority of idolatry in the country when compared to idol worshipping in India and Egypt. These three systems of religion in China however failed when it came to the religious training of young children. Religious knowledge was usually passed on to young girls and boys through their parents where they were told to worship particular idols with objection or questioning (Lee 71).
Works Cited
Lee, Yan Phou. When I was a boy in China. Boston: Lothrop Publishing Company, 2007
Ling, H., and Liu, J. Buddhism in China. China: China Intercontinental Press, 2005.
Parise, Frank. The book of calendars. New York: Gorgias Press, 2002