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| xkcd comic showing 3 people (some of whom have beards and turbans) laughing about "Nine silvers for a ham? That's too much!" and "Too much? There's a monk out back with a ladder!" Image caption says, "There's no reason to think that people throughout history didn't have just as many inside jokes and catchphrases as any modern group of high-schoolers." Image source. |
So the other day my husband showed me a video on bilibili. (Bilibili is a Chinese video site that's similar to YouTube.) It was a promotional video from BYD (a Chinese electric car company) showing their new car which is able to "dance" by lifting up and down on its wheels somehow. (Here's the link, but I don't know if bilibili will load outside of China. Here's a YouTube link for the same video; alas, the YouTube version does not have a bunch of hilarious comments in Chinese scrolling across it.)
Anyway, at the part where the car bounced up and down, people left comments on the video saying, "爸爸的爸爸叫爷爷" and my husband explained to me why this is hilarious. I didn't notice the comments at first, and I didn't get the joke until he explained it, but okay, let me tell you guys, this is just objectively hilarious.
So let me explain the joke:
There's a Chinese song for children about family-related vocabulary. See, in Chinese, the number of words for specific different types of relatives is just ridiculous. I've met Chinese people who can't even keep track of them all. Maternal grandmother (外婆) is a different word than paternal grandmother (奶奶). Your uncle who is your mom's older brother is a different word than your uncle who is your mom's younger brother, which is a different word than your uncle who is your dad's older brother, which is a different word than your uncle who is your dad's younger brother, which is a different word than an uncle who is a spouse of your parent's sibling (bunch of different words for that). And so on.
Anyway, there's a children's song about all this. (Here's a YouTube link to the song.) The lyrics are like, "What is dad's dad called? Dad's dad is called yeye. What is dad's mom called? Dad's mom is called nainai." And so on. Yeah, a song for Chinese kids to learn the family relationships.
Also, outside of convenience stores, it's common to see little rides for kids. You put a coin in, the kid sits in the little car, and the car goes up and down for few minutes. 3-year-olds love it. And apparently it's very common that these little kid rides play children's music, for example, the Chinese family relationships song.
So, putting it all together, when Chinese internet users saw this video of this cutting-edge-technology electric car which can lift itself up and down, they thought of the little kiddie rides that you see outside little stores, the cars that go up and down while playing children's music. And these internet commenters referenced those little kid rides by quoting a line from one of the songs that's commonly played- "爸爸的爸爸叫爷爷。" ("Dad's dad is called yeye.")
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| Spiderman kiddie ride. Image source. |
I am like, so entertained by this. Seriously, this is so funny. (Though I do realize that the more I explain a joke and claim that it's funny, the less likely you are to think it's funny... that's just how jokes are...)
Anyway, the reason I am blogging about this is, God understands this joke. Yes, there are several layers to it, and you have to know some background about Chinese language and culture- but that's no problem for God. They know everything, right?
What I want to say is, the world is full of things I don't know. The world is full of people being creative and hilarious, and the majority of that I'll never get to experience because it's in a different language and requires some cultural background knowledge I just don't have. But God is everywhere and knows everything. God knows all the intricacies of every culture, every language, every inside joke. And all of that, all of that complexity and diversity and creativity, the joy and the humor, that is the image of God.
I believe people are made in the image of God. But, what do I mean by "people"? I mean all the diversity, all the people in the whole world, every language, every culture, every demographic, every minority group. That's the image of God. And no person can understand all that- and so no person can really know God. You can know parts of God; that's all.
(This applies to religions too. I'm a Christian, but I don't believe that everyone is "supposed" to be Christian. I think it's good that many religions exist, and that some people are not religious at all. People having the freedom to explore those topics on their own terms and find something meaningful to them is an inherently good thing. I do NOT think it would be good if everyone was forced to believe the "correct" beliefs.)
And yeah, this is the reason I moved to China. When I was in the US, everyone spoke English. The church where I grew up was all white people. It gave me the illusion that I understood everything- that I understood God. My first trip to China gave me an overwhelming drive to free myself from that illusion. I felt that the only thing that made logical sense was to dedicate my life to learning a new language and new culture.
I think there's value in putting yourself in situations where there's a language barrier and you don't know what's going on. The awkwardness and discomfort of not understanding what someone said- that's what it's like to try to know God.
But also, I'm not sure how to talk about this, because I don't want to come across like "everyone should do the same thing I did." There are plenty of reasons not to leave your own country. That's valid. And me being able to move to China- well, that's privilege. Having a US passport means I can go to lots of countries. Being a native English speaker means I can get teaching jobs which I am not really qualified for- which is what I did. (The good news is, I am no longer a teacher; now I'm a software engineer in China.) I really had no idea that not everyone can do that. Depending on what country you're from, it may be impossible to get a visa. As an American I always had this idea that I can just go to whatever country I choose to go to, and I had no idea that many people in this world can't do that.
(Having the time and the resources to learn a new language is also privilege. And I didn't have any student loan debt...)
And when I'm talking about putting yourself in situations where you don't understand the language, and you feel uncomfortable because people are different from you and sometimes you don't know how to act, I mean it in a "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable" way. If you're already a minority, then you're already in those kinds of situations, and I'm not saying you have to do it even more, or anything like that. I'm talking to white American Christians who go to churches where everyone is white and everything's in English. Doesn't something seem wrong about that, if you worship a God who knows every language and is incarnated in every culture?
No one can really know God, because look at how vast and diverse and complicated the image of God is. There's so much out there. The human capacity for creativity, for happiness, for sharing your life with others, for thinking of a goofy joke and posting it on the internet- it plays out in so many diverse and beautiful ways all over the world. All throughout history. That's the image of God.
Every tribe, every tongue, every nation.
So when I hear Chinese jokes, and I understand them enough to form an opinion like "this is objectively hilarious" or "this is a lame pun", I think of how vast and how deep and how intricate God's knowledge is. God understands all the jokes in every language.
I first learned about God from a bible written in English, and Sunday school teachers who were all white, and that was a misrepresentation because it only shows one small part of who God is. The image of God is all the people in the whole world. The Holy Spirit is tongues of fire that came down and enabled the apostles to proclaim Christ's resurrection in every language.
No one can truly know God, but when you learn to appreciate something outside of your own culture and your own comfort zone, you get one step closer.
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Related:
Culture, Objectivity, God, and the Real Reason I Moved to China
My Racist Personal Relationship with God
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