Black and White Cat

OK, so I lied. There is nothing in the translated report below that says anything about the monk joining the party. You don’t have to be a member, or prospective member, to go to party school. But you cannot comfortably sing “The monk who took the test to go to party school” to tune of “The man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo” - and surely that’s more important than accuracy in a title or headline.

Would it be possible for a monk to join the party? Probably not. Officially, you’re supposed to be an atheist if you become a member. In reality, plenty of people in the party believe in one religion or another and aren’t worried about saying so. They’re just not supposed to practice it. That should rule out monk-members since a non-practicing monk wouldn’t really be a monk anymore.

But what about the Three Represents? The beauty of Jiang Zemin’s infuriatingly vague “Important Thought” is that it can mean whatever you want it to mean. “The Party represents advanced social productive forces” means that capitalists can join the party, though very few people would admit that when it was inserted into the CPC constitution in 2002. So why not monks, nuns, clerics etc.? Perhaps they could join under the second “represent”: “The Party represents the progressive course of China’s advanced culture.”

Last October, the 17th Party Congress added a reference to religion to the revised CPC constitution for the first time:

The Party strives to fully implement its basic principle for its work related to religious affairs, and rallies religious believers in making contributions to economic and social development.

Not a terribly inspiring phrase, though Living Buddha Dainzin Qoizha said at the time “I learned of the amendment on the Internet and was inspired.” So, it seems, was our monk Shi Qingming who wants to “unswervingly implement the party’s ethnic and religious policy, and then guide monks to actively dedicate themselves to constructing a harmonious society.”

So maybe one day in the future we’ll see a report that Shi Qingming has become Yunnan’s first Communist Party monk.

Yesterday and the day before were entrance examination days for part-time students at the Yunnan Provincial Party School. In the No.2 examination room of the Provincial Social Sciences Association district examination center, the examinees discovered that there was actually a monk taking the exam next to them. Many people were curious and puzzled by this.

At 10am yesterday morning at the Provincial Social Sciences Association district examination center, 92 examinees were engrossed in the exam questions. The examination room was absolutely silent. Examinee number 858801020063 was wearing monk’s robes, pen in hand and head bent over the test paper writing his answers.

According to the head of the examination center, Deputy-Professor Yang Ronghua, this monk’s Buddhist name is Shi Qingming (释清明). His original name was Su Liuchuan. He is deputy president of the Jianshui County Buddhist Association in the Honghe Hani-Yi Autonomous Prefecture, and one of the people in charge of the Buddhist management committee at Huanglong Temple. He is from Qilin District in Qujing City. He was born in August 1973 and graduated from senior high school. He came in contact with Buddhism in 1997, shaved his head and became a monk in 2000, entered the Huanglong Temple in 2004 and, in May 2005, became the first deputy-president of the Jianshui County Buddhist Association. Although Shi Qingming is a monk, he is diligent and eager to learn, exercises strict self-discipline and has paid for a poor student from Yunnan to study at a university in Harbin. He has also donated more than 10,000 yuan to an old people’s home, a flood disaster zone and other causes. His application to sit the part-time student enrollment exam for the Party School was approved by the relevant county and prefecture departments. Yang Ronghua said happily: “Judging by his performance in these two days of exams, he has a good basic foundation. He shouldn’t have any trouble getting enrolled.”

In February this year, Shi Qingming saw the Yunnan Provincial Party School’s announcement that it was enrolling new students. In early April, he applied to take the party school’s entrance examination and the enrollment board considered he met the necessary requirements. In mid-April, he received the official letter of acceptance from the Yunnan Provincial Party School Open College to sit the economic management entrance exam. Shi Qingming says the 17th Party Congress laid out a grand blueprint to “establish a socialist harmonious society” and the whole country gave an enthusiastic response. He thinks that by taking the party school’s entrance exam and then systematically learning about the party and economics, he is taking a clear-cut stand to accept the party’s leadership, unswervingly implement the party’s ethnic and religious policy, and then guide monks to actively dedicate themselves to constructing a harmonious society.

Shi Qingming is reportedly the first monk to take the enrollment examination for the Yunnan Provincial Party School adult education correspondence course for nearly 20 years.