Our Chinese Heritage

An interview with Rev. Wong Fong Yang - The full interview transcript may be found at the following URL:

http://www.esp.org.my/espress/our_chinese_heritage.htm

Note: Views expressed are not neccessarily consistent with views of Full Gospel Church. Reader discretion advised.

Rev. Wong Fong Yang grew up in Bagan Serai, Perak – a small town steeped in Chinese tradition and culture. He has served seventeen years in the Presbyterian Church, thirteen years as Pastor of Gereja Grace, Batu Pahat, and four years as Senior Pastor of City Discipleship Presbyterian Church, in Subang Jaya. Rev. Wong retains much of his Chinese heritage especially the ones on celebrating festivals. In this interview, he explains why he believes Chinese Christians should not discard many aspects of their culture. He also suggests ways in which some of these festivals can be redeemed and celebrated.

NKW: Please share with us your background.

WFY: Like any Chinese with a Taoist-Confucian-Buddhist background, I grew up celebrating the various Chinese festivals including Chinese New Year, Mooncake Festival and Dumpling Festival.
I have many vivid memories of the celebrations. During Chinese New Year, we children would look forward to receiving angpow and we were forbidden to sweep the house on the first day. We also celebrated Chingay. It was always a thrill to watch the sixty-feet long dragon climb great heights in order to collect the angpow. I remember asking my aunts for the meaning of some of these practices. They often said, “It’s something your ancestors passed on.” So I was happy to go along with the festivals even though I didn’t always understand their significance. It seemed to me that these were the things that made up the Chinese culture and that defined the Chinese identity. Later on when I started going to school, I learnt more about the festivals from books.

NKW: How does becoming a Christian affect taking part in these festivals? Do you experience any tensions?

WFY: I became a Christian while at university. But I realized that though I had become a Christian, I did not cease to be a Chinese. So I began to ask some questions: Which elements within my culture can I retain? Which ones should I reject? And which ones should I try to transform? It took me years to work through the issues. It was only after I went to Bible College that I came up with some answers. I came to the conclusion that in any culture, there would be some elements that are evil and demonic which I must reject. For example, the Hungry Ghost Festival encourages and promotes fear. As a Christian, I must reject that. But I can use the opportunity to explain we don’t need to fear. The dragon and phoenix are also demonic representations in the Bible so we exclude these elements from our decorations and clothings.

The Lunar New year is the most important Chinese festival. It is called Chun Kie (or Spring Festival) in China. There are many legends associated with the celebration. According to one popular legend, a village in China was terrorized by a ferocious nian (monster or beast). Every year during Chinese New Year Eve, the monster would appear to destroy property and devour people. One day, the villagers came up with a bright idea on how to get rid of the monster. They made a ‘lion’ that pranced around, and beat their pots and pans to frighten the monster away. Indeed frightened, the monster rertreated to the mountains never to be seen again. It is believed that that’s how we got our lion dance and firecrackers.

Essentially, the lion dance is about good overcoming evil – a theme that is not theologically incongruent with our Christian beliefs. The dance itself incorporates many skills and movements that require strength, coordination and agility. I think the lion dance can be redeemed and the Christian community should organize a Christian lion dance troupe. But make sure you are really good otherwise you will be laughed at.

Now ordinarily prior to the performance of the dance, the troupe would bow to the gods. In the case of the Christian troupe, members of the troupe should pray together. The pastor can accompany the troupe as they visit homes to perform the dance, and take the lead to pray for protection from evil for the house owners. In this way, can transform the lion dance in our culture.

NKW: What about other aspects of Chinese New Year celebration?
WFY: I have no problems with wearing new clothes, and with the practice of giving and receiving angpow. In Malaysia and Singapore, we also have yee-sang (A spcial dish made of raw fish and other condiments). In Cantonese, the words yee-sang literally means “live fish” which sounds like, “Abundance, prosperous and life.” It reflects the aspiration of our Chinese ancestors who migrated from China where there was widespread famine and poverty. I don’t think we should reject his practice since it is not demonic, and it is okay to want blessing. But after sharing in the meal, we should take the opportunity to explain our worldview - that we Christians do not depend on ‘lo’ (act of stirring the dish) for blessings but rather on God. Christians must always be proactive to share their faith. I find that many non-Christians are open to us praying for them to receive blessings.

We don’t always have to look at foreign models. Within our cultures, we already have many elements we can connect with. To be a Chinese Christian, we don’t have to throw off all our different cultural expressions and put on a ‘western garment’ instead.

Interviewed by: Dr. Ng Kam Weng, Research Director at Kairos Research Centre