Source: Wall Street Journal
Wenzhounese Christians gather in at New York’s Good Fortune restaurant Sunday night for the community’s first large-scale Christmas banquet. (Courtesy of Faith Bible Church)
In China, people know the eastern city of Wenzhou as a center of entrepreneurship built on a foundation of lighters and zippers. They know it as a place where the dialect sounds so different from standard Mandarin that many Chinese consider it another language.
It is also known for its churches. Sometimes called China’s Jerusalem, Wenzhou is home to an unusually large number of churches visible on the skyline as well as on city streets. China is home to tens of millions of Christians, according to varying estimates, though Beijing maintains tight authority over their churches.
Earlier this year, many Christians in Wenzhou clashed with the police over forced demolition of church premises and for refusing to take down crosses on their churches. Officials cite violations to zoning regulations, but the locals believe that the authorities had specifically targeted churches and Christian symbols.
Local media reported Wednesday night that Wenzhou education authorities had ordered local schools not to celebrate Christmas (in Chinese).
The turn against Christianity has spurred concerns among the many Wenzhounese who have moved abroad over the years via their business ties as well as part of China’s diaspora. One such community is in Flushing, a New York City neighborhood with a sizable Chinese population. Earlier this year a number of local churches gathered to pray for the churches in Wenzhou, after hearing about the difficulties they faced over the removal of crosses.
The church leaders then noted Flushing’s Wenzhounese Christians, despite all they had in common, had never tried to come together in one place.
“We had several meetings with the leaders of the different churches and prayed together. And then we thought of having a combined Christmas outreach,” said John Yeung, a pastor at Faith Bible Church in nearby Corona.
He said such a gathering in Wenzhou would be difficult to pull off. There, such big Christmas celebrations are allowed only on church premises unless parishioners wanted to keep it a secret.
Performers sing during the Wenzhounese Christmas banquet. The banner in the background reads, “Jesus, our Hope. Wenzhou Good Tidings Christmas Banquet.” (Courtesy of Faith Bible Church)
Performers sing during the Wenzhounese Christmas banquet. The banner in the background reads, “Jesus, our Hope. Wenzhou Good Tidings Christmas Banquet.” (Courtesy of Faith Bible Church)
Flushing’s first Wenzhou Christmas banquet was held on Sunday night at the Good Fortune restaurant. Over Wenzhou favorites like duck’s tongue, fried lobster and fried crab, a mostly Wenzhou crowd of about 800 people watch dance performances, listen to Christmas carols and heard how a Chinese pastor who used to be a chain-smoking, fight-loving gangster turned over a new leaf.
There were Christmas carols in Chinese, and a performance with dancers wearing red cheongsams holding green umbrellas brought back some vibes of Christmas. Baby blue and baby pink balloons were scattered across the restaurant; decorations could have also been used at a wedding party. Parents could be heard speaking in the Wenzhou dialect or Wenzhou-accented Mandarin, and their children talking among themselves in American English.
An elderly man also performed a monologue in the Wenzhou dialect with wooden block clappers and bits of humor, though at one point though he had to fight down a hacking cough.
Off the menu: spirits of the liquid kind. “If you know of someone bringing in a bottle, please do not open it,” one pastor said in the Wenzhou dialect before the first dish was served.
Also off the menu: politics. None of the speakers at the banquet mentioned the fate of churches back home. The closest the event came to current affairs came from Mr. Yeung.
“Some of you were smuggled [into the U.S.] and things have been hard,” he told the group, as he paced a red-carpeted stage. “But you have a chance for a better life.”
–Esther Fung. Follow her on Twitter @estherfung
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