Yao's Beliefs

Just curious if any of our Chinese friends happen to know Yao's spiritual preferences. I know that Buddhism and Taoism are primary religions in China but Christianity seems to be growing.

As someone who studies Buddhism and Taoism and is fascinated by Asian culture, I would be interested to know if Yao is religious and, if so, what he practices.

Thanks in advance.

 

Actually, they wouldn't. They are in meditation and things like that don't affect that practice. Also, they are doing this in front of the Chinese consulate as a means of protest because the Chinese government has persecuted, imprisoned and even executed Falun Gong practitioners in China.

Have some respect.

 

JWD: I'm going to assume you don't really understand the difference, but Asian people are NOT "Oriental". In fact, that is considered a derogatory term to anyone who is Asian. As one person told me, "Rugs are oriental. People are Asian."

There is also a very large contingent of practicing Asian religions including Taoist, Buddhist and Falun Gong. He should have no problem finding a source of practice for any belief he has. We are an extremely diverse city.

 

Understand that it isn't true of everyone but it is becoming more common and some people get offended. I say this because I actually did this about 8 years ago and was corrected by an employee I was managing and she was NOT happy about it.

The operative practice here is to ask before assuming. I'm not saying you are wrong because I did the same thing and thought nothing of it and certainly did not mean to be offensive. My experience just helped me to learn to be respectful and non-judgemental of how other people feel about the labels I use.

Here is a summary from IAmDiversity.com...

<i>Words' Worth: Orienting Myself to Being an Asian

Rugs are Oriental; I am Asian.

Language is always evolving, and in these politically-correct times, we need to be more sensitive and aware of the terms we use to describe each others' culture and heritage.

I grew up in a time when "Oriental" was commonly used. But last year, the topic of the word "Oriental" came up in an e-mail discussion group I belong to, and I became aware of the changing language. When someone uses the term "Oriental" these days, I try to gently correct them.

Here's one of most helpful the explanations from the "Ties-Talk" Japanese American discussion list, tracing the word back to the collapse of the Roman Empire: "Although some people view 'Occidental' as the opposite of 'Oriental,' meaning the white Europeans, the term originally meant the eastern European or western Asia... What was left of the Roman empire was split into two, the Occidental Empire and the Oriental Empire. This is how I believe the terms got started. 'Orient' is a Latin term for 'east' and 'occident' is a term for 'west.'"

<b>The accepted rule is that "Oriental" is a word for inanimate objects from Asia, but not for people. If you're describing people from Asia, use the word "Asian" -- or better yet, take the time to discern beyond the racial distinctions and find out what country or heritage people are from. Asia is an awful big place, and there are many discrete cultures and traditions from Chinese and Japanese to Korean, East Indian, Tibetan, Vietnamese, Thai.... and within each country, different cultures thrive in different regions. There's a natural inclination to simplify the world and file people under broad categories. But few people would without a thought lump Italians and Swedes or French and English together culturally and ethnically, just because they all happen to be Europeans. For some reason, it seems easier to assume that all Asians think alike and act alike just because they look alike (of course, we don't all look alike either, but that's another column).

No one calls Eastern Europeans "Occidentals," and "Oriental" today is considered by Asians to be a derogatory term because it reflects centuries of a western-centric view of the world, which assumed that civilization and knowledge flowed from Europe to the rest of the world. The cultures of Asia, of course, in particular China, are much older and was refined long before Europeans wandered to other continents. </b>

In addition, the word "Oriental" is confusing because the word is used to describe the "Middle East" as well as the "Far East" (two more words used to indicate geographic locale relative to Europe). Hence, rugs from Persian are today still called "Oriental rugs." At the same time, a Vietnamese shop owner might put a sign reading "Oriental groceries" above his door. That bring me to another point -- that these evolving terms for ethnic groups in the United States sometimes are evolving even within the ethnic groups themselves, not just with Americans at large. Many Asians, especially older Asians, still use "Oriental" to describe themselves. Partly, that's because for years that's what they were called by society at large, and on legal and official forms. In fact, my memory of US government forms when I was a child is that they gave me the choice of checking off my race as "Mongoloid" -- as if all Asians had roots in Mongolia. My childhood memories may be fuzzy, but I'm sure glad that term didn't stick around...

I began thinking about "Oriental" after I recently had lunch with a black woman and a white woman. Our conversation was all about the many ways our diverse ethnicity and beliefs are addressed in contemporary American society. We spoke about inter-racial relationships and race in the workplace. We spoke about how even though we consider ourselves liberal people, we have all chosen the incorrect terms for some groups because preferred words change -- sometimes changing back to earlier terms.

I once spoke to an organization of "Native American" college students, and was gently informed that "Indian" is the preferred word.

My friend Julie said she experiences a similar sense of embarrassment -- and liberal guilt -- over the words "Hispanic" and "Latino" (not to mention "Chicano"). Some people prefer one term over the others, and although there are specific meanings for each (Hispanic relates to Spanish roots; Latino to Central and South Americans and Chicano to people of Mexican heritage), the difference might be a matter of generations. Jean, the other lunch companion, said she is of the generation that prefers "black" to "African-American." She came of age in the 1970s, when "black pride" made black culture a mainstream force in America, after taking the baton from the Civil Rights marches of the '60s, when "Negro," a word that sounds stilted and uncomfortable today, was the accepted and polite term.

Given the variety of terms and the current penchant for political correctness, we agreed that the rule is to simply be sensitive to all terms for all groups, and not be embarrassed to ask when we meet someone, so we can address each other with the words we feel most comfortable with. </i>