D27: 开封 → 杏花营农场

June 30, 2022

From Wikipedia's entry on the Kaifeng Jews:

In his 1992 documentary series Legacy, historian Michael Wood traveled to Kaifeng and walked down a small lane which he said is known as the "alley of the sect who teach the Scriptures", that is, the alley of the Jews. He mentioned that there are still Jews in Kaifeng today, but they are reluctant to reveal themselves "in the current political climate".

In terms of what I don't write about who I visited with in Kaifeng, I am choosing to err on the side of caution.

Considering that Xi Jinping's niece is a converted Jew¹ or the current national efforts to do things like promote "intangible cultural heritage", on top of my preexisting opinion that the way many security officials treat religious people in this country is downright stupid, everything I've heard about their behavior towards the Kaifeng Jews is also pants-on-head levels of idiotic.

But then, I often have that feeling about security officials in this country and their apparent determination to use ham-handed tactics to make things less secure.

China mostly doesn't the sort of Christofascists that are slowly doing their best to regress the United States to their vision of the 1950s nor, with the exception of those who have been radicalized by the effects of severe anti-Muslim behavior, are local Muslims much prone to crazy mullah type extremism.

Which is not to say that China doesn't have religious nutjobs or that China's religious nutjobs aren't causing trouble. The Taiping Rebellion² was caused by someone who believed himself the younger brother of Christ. Or, if you want to get more modern, scratching at the surface of the vast majority of anti-Chinese government propaganda will almost immediately produce connections to the Falun fucking Gong.

Not exactly where I would consider getting acupuncture done

It's just that religious kookery of the "sincerely held belief" (of the you shouldn't get vaccinated) stripe mostly doesn't exist but, if it did exist in great numbers, the active measures taken to convince people of all religions³ that they should hide their affiliation ensures that when it does come rushing to the surface like a popped pimple, everyone will be blindsided.

As recently as 1997, the ID cards of the Kaifeng descendants were listed as such. Then, having already been officially categorized members of the Hui⁴ back when it was important that their allotment for meat was beef or lamb instead of pork, the winds of politics shifted from "I personally prefer to alter my ID card to show something normal" to "I am not allowed to have a special identity" and, well, even with all sorts of official nods towards their history being something notable and interesting and positive, those winds still haven't shifted back.

Religious activities site. No minors allowed.

It is while making a leisurely cup of coffee in the room that the police knock on my door for my passport, presumably having not come by the night before on account of my not getting back until late. At the time, I'm so tickled pink by the officer's nervous politeness that I forget to check the rank on his epaulets. "您可不可以" he says. 您!

From finishing up the coffee and packing my stuff, I ride downtown to the old quarter of town where a Catholic church stands cheek by jowl with a mosque just down the street from where the synagogue was. In pre-Covid times, our post lunch walk might have included the grounds of a hospital where one can see the old well that was in front of the building. Instead, it is pointed out to me as something which exists on the other side of a blank wall.

A meal, a Covid swab so I can be compliant for the night's hotel⁵, and a trip by car to an obscure Buddhist pagoda which he's right about being the sort of place I enjoy. Neither today's swab nor the previous one (completed in this province but a different municipality) show up on anything we can make my phone access and the location code won't scan for me on account of a passport number not being a Chinese ID card, but they let me in anyways.

Then, a return to where my bike is stored, and good-byes and another 20 kilometers ride west to the far rural outskirts of Kaifeng where past experience tells me things won't be nearly as hard as if I try to get a room in the city.

For the most part, it isn't hard. The Registration System is a pain in the ass to navigate. I even manage to accidentally log myself out and wipe my data. There's also the usual thoroughly random selection of things marked with a red asterisk for "you must fill this out" that doesn't actually correspond to what must be filled out.

But then, after I'm in the room, the owner of the hotel tells me the police want me to leave. She'd contacted them (as I had told her to) to ensure that they didn't want anything above and beyond an official registration and they'd said "oh no, you don't have the training to take foreigners, she must leave and go to the city".

No matter which city you speak of, it's already over an hour past sunset and I'm 20 kilometers of unlit truck route from there. Because, you see, a bilingual⁶ poster from their police station on acceptable forms of ID for foreign guests, and an official Registration System (with a foreigner option) from their provincial government aren't enough to take foreigners; the hotel must also have training.

"Don't worry, I'll just delete you from the system. It will be as if you were never here. I won't make you leave. It's much too dangerous to ask you to leave."

---

¹ Her mostly secular Jewish husband is one of the type that wanted to make sure his kids would be born Jewish. As is often the case in these cases, she is now substantially more Jewish than he is.

Hainan Jewish Community Hanukkah 2019, she really looks like her uncle, doesn't she?

² An estimated 20 million people died over a 14 year period, numerous cities were completely destroyed, and the cultural landscape of southern China dramatically altered.

³ Even domestic religions like Buddhism and Daoism have issues.

⁴ The second largest Chinese ethnic group, the Hui are basically Han except for being Muslims.

⁵ Considering that the current lack of risk level has them doing mass testing at the 20 swabs per container standard, it's downright ridiculous to be requiring as much testing as they are. Not counting the time spent waiting for them to open for afternoon hours, I spend nearly 40 minutes in line.

⁶ Chinese and Chinglish

Today's ride: 37 km (23 miles)
Total: 1,581 km (982 miles)

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