ホロコースト: Holocaust
While reading Maus, one quote really me stop
momentarily – “maybe they’ll need a newer, bigger Holocaust” (Maus II).
Our unit on Maus arrived at a good time, as I can draw many connections to the Holocaust mentioned in the comic – as strange as that sounds. For one, it’s right after the summer I participated in Ride to Freedom, a project that raised awareness about China's persecution of Falun Gong through the form of a cross-country bike journey. For another, it landed right before my annual trip to California, in which thousands of Falun Gong practitioners from around the world flock together to combine their efforts in spreading word about the unjust persecution.
Our unit on Maus arrived at a good time, as I can draw many connections to the Holocaust mentioned in the comic – as strange as that sounds. For one, it’s right after the summer I participated in Ride to Freedom, a project that raised awareness about China's persecution of Falun Gong through the form of a cross-country bike journey. For another, it landed right before my annual trip to California, in which thousands of Falun Gong practitioners from around the world flock together to combine their efforts in spreading word about the unjust persecution.
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| Falun Gong meditation |
This whole summer, while participating in Ride to
Freedom, I’ve said “there is a peaceful meditation practice called Falun Gong
that has been brutally persecuted in China since 1999, and it needs to stop” at
least a couple hundred times, if not more. But since I’ve returned home, I’ve
said that important sentence far too few times. When people ask me what I did
over the summer, I say, “Oh, just a cross-country bike ride” without revealing
even a bit about my motivation behind it. When people ask me why I’m randomly
skipping school to take a short trip to Los Angeles, I say, “Oh, just attending
a conference” without even mentioning Falun Gong and the atrocities committed
against it.
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| The Ride to Freedom team! |
I am a Falun Gong practitioner, but I often wonder why
I try so hard to hide this part of my identity. My friend Kristine has been
basically worshipped since she broke news of participating in Ride to Freedom.
Is it because I feel like my friends and teachers don’t really care? My friend
Flora has been relentless about spreading the word to everyone she meets – her
teachers, her neighbors, even the lady she sat next to on the flight home – and
has been welcomed by them all. Is it because I feel like I will come off as too
pushy? My friend Borong has alerted numerous government officials and potential
sponsors about the sequel ride in 2016, and has gathered much support. Is it
because I feel like my words will be pointless?
I think mostly it’s because I feel like I won’t be
able to express myself clearly and fully. There’s really so much that needs to
be known – the accurate characteristics of the practice, the severity of the
sudden crackdown, the efforts that are being taken to end the persecution – I’m
not sure if I will be able to say all that I need to say without becoming
excessively verbose. I can identify with the Spiegelmans of both generations.
With the elder, the fact that “it would take many books” (Maus I) to tell the
entire scope of the persecution. With the younger, the fear of creating a false
perception equivalent to “the racist caricature of the miserly old Jew” (Maus
I) by not telling enough.
But whatever I have been and am doing, or rather, have
not been and am not doing, about it, I have no doubts as to what I should be
doing. This genocide of Falun Gong practitioners at the hands of the Chinese
Communist Party is akin to the genocide of Jews at the hands of Hitler. It’s a
second Holocaust; I must pull my weight in stopping it.
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| "Maybe they need a newer, bigger Holocaust" (Maus II) |
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How interesting. Linking your life with Maus. Great synthesis and good luck with your practice! Don't stress too much we all love you!
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