There is nowhere on earth like the Chinese mission of the Kyivan Church, the place where it is perfectly normal to be ‘Eastern Catholic’ because you’re Chinese. I never realized that it was a thing in the Kyivan Church that we were the ‘Chinese mission’ until I moved to Chicago. There, I learned that if you are Chinese and in the Kyivan Church, eyebrows furrow in puzzlement until you reveal that you are from Richmond. Then it all makes sense.... Read more
This is the second post on how my scholarship is about fantasy. It follows a series I wrote on my conversion to liberation theology. The first post is here. As I was planning my honors undergraduate essay in history, I came across a paper in China Quarterly titled ‘Life in the Cities: The Emergence of Hong Kong Man.’ It was written by a sociologist named Hugh Baker, and it had a paragraph that is unforgettable: “Life in the short term” is not,... Read more
When I was five, I had a nightmare. My parents rushed into the room because I was screaming. They asked me what was wrong. I said that something terrible had happened. The Ninja Turtles Donatello and Michelangelo had been beating me in the dojo. Donatello had caned me. Michelangelo had whipped me his nunchucks. I knew what was next. Raphael had sai, and Leonardo had katanas. I should have been shredded by Shredder. But it was the turtles who were beating me. My... Read more
This is the thirteenth entry in a series of posts testifying about my conversion to liberation theology. For previous posts, here are the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth. In the summer of 2015, I moved back to Richmond, British Columbia. My wife was starting a job at a community pharmacy. I was furiously editing the book that became Theological Reflections on the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement. This was a tricky task. On the one hand, some of the interested parties in the production of the... Read more
This is the twelfth entry in a series of posts testifying about my conversion to liberation theology. For previous posts, here are the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh. I have been writing a series about my conversion to liberation theology. This has worried some of my readers. One even took the trouble of sending me the Vatican’s ‘Instruction on Certain Aspects of the “Theology of Liberation.”‘ He shared with me his primary concern with my first post, the one where I simply made the announcement about... Read more
I remember the first time I heard ‘Mary, Did You Know?’ It was at a concert at my Christian school in Fremont. I was in the band. I played the trumpet, which really meant that I played the cornet, and I did it all with a bad embouchure. We’d give these all-out Christmas concerts where all the bands, handbell choirs, and real choirs (I guess?) would take turns working the audience, and it was at one of these that some high... Read more
This is the eleventh in a series of posts testifying about my conversion to liberation theology. For previous posts, here are the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth. In 1972, the journalist Josephine So Yan Pui 蘇恩佩 sat down to write a letter. She had recently moved to Hong Kong from Wheaton College, where she had studied journalism. Her letter turned into a manifesto, the social philosophy of what came to be known as Breakthrough Youth Ministries. Translated into English in her book Death Be Not Proud, it reads: The... Read more
This is the tenth in a series of posts testifying about my conversion to liberation theology. For previous posts, here are the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth. On the face of it, it would seem like I don’t have a right to write about oppression and theologies of liberation. That is what my youth group leader in high school would have said. We were doing a Bible study on suffering, and the youth leader commented that none of us kids really knew the meaning... Read more
This is the ninth in a series of posts testifying about my conversion to liberation theology. For previous posts, here are the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth. When I first moved to Chicago, my worst fears about Eastern Catholicism were realized. I had been warned by friends of mine that ‘Eastern Catholicism’ was not at all the image I had in my imagination at our ‘Chinese mission’ in Richmond – open to Chinese people, aligned with Chinese democratic movements, able to evangelize by claiming that... Read more
This is the eighth in a series of posts testifying about my conversion to liberation theology. For previous posts, here are the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh. By the time I was really wrestling through the possibility that I had converted to liberation theology through Eastern Catholic spiritual direction and liturgy, I was teaching Asian American studies at Northwestern University. The beautiful thing about being a secular academic, though, is that I think of myself as good at compartmentalization. I am actually very bad at it,... Read more
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