Alan Paul's Blog, page 43

Big in China Excerpt: Laoshi Yechen on Fake Monks

I read this WSJ China Real Time with great interest: A fake monk scandal scars one of the country’s sacred mountains. 

It got me thinking and prompted me to post this Big in China excerpt about my Chinese teacher turned monk Yechen. He spoke to me endlessly about “fake monks,” both in Beijing and at Huashan, the holy mountain where he moved and I visited him. I think the Yechen storyline was overlooked. I wish more people had picked up on it.

Excerpt from Big in China Chapter 16, Into the Mystic. Copyright 2011. Alan Paul

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During my second year studying with Yechen, we started visiting some of his favorite places around Beijing together. One day we visited a small Buddhist temple and the White Cloud Temple (Baiyunguan), Beijing’s most revered Taoist site, where a monk friend of his lived and studied. Yechen had already given me a ¬couple of books about Buddhism, which he practiced. But he was lately talking more about Taoism as well, and he was beginning to explain the relationship between these two religions to me.

According to Yechen, Buddhism had been a flexible religion, adopting the characters of the dominant religions everywhere it spread from India. So Tibetan Buddhism was mystical, based on the Bon religion that predated it, and Chinese Buddhism was grounded in Taoism, which was firmly established when Buddhism arrived.

“Taoism is the root and Buddhism is the flower,” he explained. “They are part of the same system.”

He met me at a subway stop and we strolled over to the White Cloud Temple, a large, beautiful complex with a quiet, peaceful feel. He told me that it was spared throughout the Cultural Revolution because many of the communist government’s top leaders secretly prayed here, arriving in the middle of the night. This has gone on for decades, he said, and continues today. The Chinese Taoist Association was headquartered here, which protected the site, but also left it vulnerable to government control and corruption. Because the concept of feng shui stems from Taoism, and remains very important to many secular Chinese, who will pay monks high fees to help them properly design their homes, money flows through Taoist temples.

Monk dorm rooms lined the side of the temple in between shrines. Yechen knocked gently on the door of one room, where his friend answered and ushered us into a tiny space. It was just big enough for two beds and two small desks, with a tiny bit of floor space in between.

The friend, Wang, was wearing the normal Taoist monk outfit, with his long hair tied in a bun atop his head underneath a small brown cap, almost like an old-fashioned nurse’s hat, and a brown robe wrapped around him. He turned on a water kettle and carefully, gently filled a small teapot with leaves. As we waited for the water to boil, I looked around and noticed the beautiful Chinese calligraphy hanging above the desk. Yechen explained that his friend had done all of them. He urged me to speak Chinese, and I did my best to engage in conversation with the quiet Wang.

The tea was delicious, rich and multilayered, and we drank countless tiny cups before rising, saying our thanks, and heading out for a detailed tour of the grounds. Yechen whispered conspiratorially about government plots making a lot of money off the temple—“fake monks” who profiteered on the backs of the true believers. I feared that he might be a little nuts and conspiracy minded until, on the way out, we saw a Taoist monk exit the temple and climb into the driver’s seat of a black Audi. I looked over at Yechen, and he raised his eyebrows. “See?” he whispered. “Many, many fake monks here.”

When Dixie met Woodie

As deailed in Big in China, when my father visited Beijing in July, 2008, he played two gigs with Woodie Alan. I just came across this photo courtesy of Aunt Joan. I don’t have any videos, but you never know what may pop up where.

Dixie Doc with Woodie Alan, Stone Boat, Beijing, 2008.

Larry McCray takes “Soulshine” to church

Bluesman Larry McCray was the first to record Warren Haynes’ anthem “Soulshine.” Larry is an old, dear friend of Warren’s and I have had the pleasure of hanging out with the two of them together. That was backstage at Pine Knob outside Detroit. Warren was playing with Phil and Friends, and we were in the dressing room, and Larry repeatedly called Phil “Mr. Weir.” This was an awesome thing, and Phil never corrected him and he had a very nice chat with Larry, who is as warm and generous and funny as you might imagine from watching him perform.

Even beyond this Warren link, I feel very connected to Larry, who was buddies with my guitar mentor Tim “Tragocaster” Lamb. If you read Big in China, you know how important Trag and jamming with him at the Otisville Hotel in Otisville, MI were to my musical development. Well, Larry lives nearby and also popped up there often. Trag was always trying to get Larry there when I was there but sadly the stars never aligned.

Larry McCray doing “Soulshine,” a great version of a great song.. in tribute to my old buddy Tim “Tragocaster” Lamb:

Gov’t Mule, Fallen Down

Just stumbled across this video and wanted to share and have it on my website. A great version of a great song.

RIP Allen Woody.

I’m getting the band back together and heading to Shanghai and Beijing Lit Fests.

Very excited to announce that I will be headed to Beijing and Shanghai for book talks and Woodie Alan reunion shows.  March 15 in Shanghai, March 17 in Beijing. More details here.

I am appearing at the Shanghai Literary Festival and Capital Literary Festival. The WA shows are also part of the Jue Music Festival.

Thank you to Trevor Hale and Ford for the support in making this happen.

It will be a busy few days… On 3/15 in Shanghai I will be on a panel for a great new Earnshaw Books anthology of Expat Writing about China, followed by a Big in China book talk and Woodie Alan reunion show featuring the great Zhang Yong (张咏) and Lu Wei  (卢炜) as well as old friends and frequent WA guests/subs Tianxiao (王天晓) on sax and Feizai (飞仔) on lead guitar. Both of them also played with Woodie and ZY in Slap (耳光).

On Sunday 3/17 in Beijing, I will be on another panel for the Expat book at Capital M at 11 am and at 7 Pm that night, Woodie Alan will be back at our favorite little huton music bar, Jianghu Jiuba, which is owned by Tianxiao. Got it?

This is how I feel:

Watch this video on YouTube.

This is what we’ll be doing:

Watch this video on YouTube.

Chinese pollution and the Beijing Blues

I will be very happy when this Big in China excerpt about living with the horrible, pea-soup pollution seems like old, oudated news. But over the past few days, the pollution readings have reached beyond “really awul” to “just insanely, unbelievably horrible.”

The Atlantic’s James Fallows writes very well and quite thoroughly on the topic here, with links to everything you need to know – including this WSJ China Real Time Report series of horrifying photos.

In the meantime, check out the Big in China excerpt and Woodie Alan’s signature song, “Beijing Blues”: “They say the sun is shining but I don’t see it anywhere.”

The studio version:

The Gender Wage Gap

I came across this info graphic about the ongoing Gender Wage Gap and thought it was worth sharing. Please note that I have not done research to verify the information.

 

Created by: LearnStuff.com

Andy Aledort jamming with Gov’t Mule – and Me

Andy Aledort has been my friend and Guitar World colleague for almost 20 years. As I’ve said many times, he’s also long been one of my favorite guitarists, and that’s not just blowing smoke. He has been playing with Dickey Betts for about a decade now, and I could make a good argument that he is the most influential guitarist of the past 20 years. Working at Guitar World, and other mags before that, he has taught the world how to play. You wouldn’t believe how many people I talk to, including well-known guitarists like Luther Dickinson, who tell me that Andy was their greatest teacher and/or inspiration.

Playing with him is always an honor and a blast. I was sorry that I couldn’t be at the Beacon Theatre last week when he sat in with Gov’t Mule and helped blow the roof off… Clip below, along with me playing “Beijing Blues” with Andy and his great Groove Kings at Big in China book launch party. Looking to have Andy play more shows with Big in China band in 2013.

Andy with Gov’t Mule:

Andy with me:

Chasing Ice: Great imagery telling a crucial story

Chasing Ice looks like a remarkable codumentary and I am really looking forward to seeing it.

Much more information here, including a great interview with photographer  James Balog.

Balog, from that page:

“The science community is really interesting because they have a huge amount of knowledge. You canot believe what the specialists in these various fields know. You go to these science meetings and you sit there in rooms like this and you listen to presentations. They know a thousand times more information about amazing world-changing events than ever gets out into the public awareness. So the challenge is to be able to kind of filter it. To take all of that information, run it through some kind of funnel, and way down at the bottom of that funnel be able to turn it into something that we can make new stories and good pictures out of.

That’s the real problem. And part of that problem is to make the story of what they’re doing simple. And you spend a lot of time to work with them to squeeze down a lot of complexity into something that’s a really clear, straightforward narrative thread that’s still accurate to the intentions that they have. That was the real creative challenge to get all of that right, and this film has been vetted by many many scientists over and over again to tweak the nuances and get everything just right.

Why letters from Big in China readers have meant so much…

Photo by Kathryn Huang

I have continued to receive consistent, sporadic, heartfelt emails from people who read Big in China and were moved enough to find my website and write me a note. They mean a lot to me.

Writing can be a lonely task. You sit in some little room staring at your computer screen, trying to capture some elusive feelings or idea, to tell a story and hope it resonates. It is very gratifying to receive confirmation from out of ether that the process has worked even once. 

Below are three recent examples. One of the things that moved me was how different each readers’ background and situation was. 

Thank you Alicia, Daniel and Vivienne, for reading, for taking the time to write and for allowing me to post your notes.

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I have never written to an author before, but I am listening to you read *Big in China* on audiobook right now (mostly on my way to and from picking up/dropping off my kids from daycare!), and I had to let you know how perfectly timed your book has been for me. My husband and I met while teaching in Honduras, then spent 4 years teaching in Jakarta, Indonesia, which is where our two daughters were born. We have been back in the Chicago suburbs for five years and are ready for another overseas adventure.

My family, however, is really upset and is accusing us of being selfish by taking the kids away from them, etc. etc. I started feeling despondent, and even self-doubting, wondering if maybe it would be a selfish mistake to go overseas again. I started listening to your book 2 weeks after telling my family about our plans, and it has really bolstered my memories of our previous experiences overseas, and reinforced my belief that overseas travel and living IS a valuable experience for kids (ours are 5 and 7).

I recognized so much of our experiences in your tales of China, from the “western soap opera-style” over-the-top housing compounds also located throughout Jakarta, and finding random goodies like PBR in a dusty rural outpost somewhere. So, thank you for writing your book and thank you for eloquently describing the wonder, joy and insanity that is life abroad.

All the best, Alicia Duell

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My wife and I could identify so well with the book. We are just starting our second year in Mexico after moving from Canada. We are not in any tourist, nor resort area. San Luis Potosi is a tough manufacturing town.

So many of your experiences are similar to ours, it brought tears & laughter …..sometimes all at once.

Enjoyed your account immensely!

Thanks for taking the time to write it.

-Daniel Sheppard

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Hi Alan

I borrowed your book from the local library here in Ipswich Australia. I am loving it and intend to tell all my friends who have lived as ex pats in Asia about it. I’m particularly interested in it because I teach English to Chinese meat workers and love to hear the other side of the story. Thanks for sharing it. All the best

-Vivienne Cole