I'd like to see you try and stop me

The alignment of calendars has led to a flurry of Chinese-related events this week. On Monday evening, I attended the Victorian Chinese Community celebration of China's National Day in West Footscray. There were about five hundred people present and, in my role as ACFS president along with several community leaders and public figures, I gave a short speech that emphasised not only Australia's connection with China, but a future built on the critical matters of renewable energy and green manufacturing (Australia will benefit enormously from "green steel" manufacturing), and noting especially how far China has progressed in the fields of solar and wind power, electric vehicles, and reforestration. Pitching to the audience with an agenda, I made the popular comment that if China succeeds in these fields, then the smart people will say in fifty years' time that China saved the world.

The following day was a similar function for the same reason, hosted by the Consulate at the Langham Ballroom in Southbank. This particular event tends to feature more political figures delivering speeches (the Consul-General, for obvious reasons, spoke at both functions). This time, I was interviewed by China Central Television on my personal views of China and international relations with the upcoming Xi Jinping - Donald Trump meeting in Washington. I suggested that a strong comparison could be made between the current US regime's use of war and China's use of trade, and between China's relative stability in international relations and the inconsistency of the US. Both events, it must be said and true to form, were superbly catered and with exceptional entertainment from various musicians and dancers.

On a much smaller scale, tonight the ACFS is hosting a movie night, the family-friendly "Little Tiger Banban" (2001). China's first 3D CGI animated feature film, a tale of the environment, loyalty, and commitment. It coincides with the evening of the harvest moon festival, the second-most important celebration in the Chinese calendar (Neil Young would approve). I am particularly fond of the mythologies of Chang'e associated with the day, and the re-union and remembrance aspect; "no matter how far apart we are, we are still under the same moon". I also made another (better) attempt to make mooncakes this year, using my Halloween moulds for a bit of cultural fusion. Finally, tomorrow night, the Fujian Association has invited me to their Harvest Moon festival event.

As is the contemporary respectful fashion, happy Ganesh Chaturthi for those who celebrate, which, in a way, includes me. For the sake of clarity, I do not literally believe in an elephant-headed humanoid diety any more than any other Gods, except Nature itself and I don't even grant that personification within our ken. Outside of naturalistic pantheism, I consider the Gods to be metaphors, mythical personifications of concepts both abstract and concrete, and the rituals surrounding them to serve both the sociological purpose of community identity and for dramaturgical aesthetics. Heretical? Certainly, and when have I ever been otherwise? At least this way I personally avoid the Scylla of irrationalible magical thinking and Charybdis of grey vulgar atheism.

All that said, there is a lot of charm in Sri Ganesha, the Pratham Pujya of Hinduism and the recipient of devotion in Jainism and even Buddhism. He is the God of Beginnings, and of Obstacles (both removing them and putting them in place). His big head represents his wisdom and intellect, his belly a cosmological holding, and his broken tusk represents a break in intellectual thought and, sometimes, even a weapon. With rodent appeal, Ganesha has a rat, which is both his vehicle and helps him find hidden places (or knowledge), and must be reined in due to its propensity to steal things. I've seen modern suggestions that the multiple arms represent the ability to multitask. There are, of course, many variations on the story of Ganesha that could fill volumes, but these comments at least capture some core, common characteristics.

Apart from this recognition, an important aspect of festivals is food, and for Ganesh Chaturthi, I made an attempt at Uadiche Modak (soft rice flour dumpling with a centre of coconut, dessicated and shredded, and jaggery). Delicious, but with one small and critical failing on my part - I tried to mix coconut flour with the rice flour for extra taste and, well, they don't play well together. Degrees of failure are the price of innovation. Anyway, I have my own Ganesh shrine at home which receives more attention that anything else; an impressive mutri (statue) is inherited from Rick, who was rather fond of Hinduism, two rats with offerings and a guardian from Nitul, who knows all this better than I ever will, a puzzle box from Anton, a Balinese dolphin from my last visit, and two guardian bookends from my first visit some twenty-four years ago.