Although to the best of my knowledge none of this year’s Ricci class has any actual ancestors buried in China, we did visit something of an honorary ancestor: Matteo Ricci. Over the last year we’ve traced his life, voyaging from Rome to Beijing, seeking fame, fortune and adventure (or at least successful research projects). Thus, it was fitting that we should pay our respects at his grave in Beijing over the Tomb Sweeping Day (清明节, Qingming Jie) weekend.
This was no ordinary Saturday morning stroll. We took photos. We swept the tomb. We took (slightly) staged photos sweeping the tomb. Since communicating with the ancestors is key, some of the Riccis decided to send Matteo tweets. The debate rages on as to what his actual twitter handle is. Perhaps it will be another few centuries before he receives them.
Hiba Sheikh: Matteo. We have traveled the world together safely. Time to see if we survive our Ricci papers.
Roohi Singh: 2 countries & 200 days later; still following age-old footsteps, trying to make sense of vastly different worlds.@MatteoRicci it’s been wild.
Luis Vargas: Was really excited to meet the one and only @Matteoricci today. However, I got there 400 years late. Womp. Womp. Womp….
Angelo Canta: @matteoriccisj Grazie! XieXie! Hoping to make u proud! #legacy
Frieda Rule: @Matteo Tomb sweep= paper that won’t make Ian Johnson weep?
While I for one am still holding out for a Mushu-like guide to spring after this visit, with or without an Eddie Murphy-voiced dragon, the experience was still quite powerful. His tomb, nestled amongst a selection of other Jesuits on a plot surrounded by a university, was a place of a certain peace and fusion. The tombstone, in both Church Latin and traditional Chinese characters (thanks, Professor Johnson, for deciphering those!), in some way encapsulated what this whole journey has been—seeking to learn about two cultures both different from our own and radically different from one another. They somehow intersect nonetheless. The trick is simply to find out how.
It may have been the burst of sunshine or the underlying euphoria of beginning a three-day weekend, but with a little over a month left in the Middle Kingdom, the last eight months (plus the months of preparation beforehand) began to merge. Rome’s hills and wine and lyrical language somehow didn’t seem quite so far away from Beijing’s dry air and (at least my) struggles with chopsticks and ever-elusive tones. At the same time, though, the world felt incredibly vast and just ours for the exploring. In this sort of moment it would have been hard to pick between Italian or Chinese food, so we finished up with a seemingly neutral third party: Russian.
By Freida Rule, Loyola University Chicago, Spring 2016 Student
Over this past weekend, some of our students enrolled at Minzu University of China took their annual Spring Outing – this year, to Gubei Water Town. Situated about a 2-hour drive northeast of Beijing, the April weather made it absolutely perfect to explore for a spring outing. It surrounds various canals and offshoots of Yuanyang lake.
If you ever want to get a taste of Old Beijing, by far one of the best ways is to visit the hutongs. They’ve conceptually been around all the way since the 1200s, and in their most modern forms exist as protected alleyways and streets surrounded by old traditional houses and neighborhoods in the heart of Beijing and are recognized in China to be an important part of cultural heritage in the city.