Don’t kill the sacred cow!

During my junior college days, I went for a Youth Expedition Trip (YEP) to Yunnan, China. The objective of this YEP was to help secondary school students from a rural area with their mastery of English language. To achieve this, we also assisted in setting up a library with English books.

In preparation for the trip, I attended some training sessions with seasoned YEP leaders. One of the most memorable lessons I learnt was the story of “Killing the sacred cow”. Some well meaning Singaporeans had embarked on a YEP to one of India’s villages. Hindus, as we all should know, revere cows. Unfortunately, the participants of this YEP will bring the actual reason to their graves, they were all chased out of the village violently within days of arrival. The villagers had accused them of insulting the cows. The leader who told us bright-eyed youths this story warned us to be always sensitive to the customs of other cultures and to focus on our objective. Our main purpose is to both teach the children and also to learn from them, and not to judge their culture or put them down.

To be honest, I am critical of some policies of the communist government of China. After arriving at the rural areas of China and witnessing the propaganda first-hand, I was even more convinced that I was right about my misgivings. During my entire trip, I suppressed the urge to shout, “As if!” to the cadres I came across (which would have made things worse). My tolerance, in retrospect, rewarded me greatly.

If I had stayed in the narrow, biased and bitter frame of mind, I would not have been inspired by the happiness and positive work attitude of the children. Despite having limited resources, the efforts of their teachers to help every single child were also worthy of praise. In every culture and country, children are indeed the hope for the future. Also, I admire China’s rich culture and history. I would love to explore other provinces in the future.

In inter-cultural communication, tolerance and open-mindedness are of great importance. Politeness and etiquette are universal values that should be upheld, whether you are in the modern city of New York or in the slums of India. It just takes a little more empathy and a little less arrogance (since we were born privileged) to see the good in people. Unless we are confident that we can put our opinions across tactfully, we should avoid the touchy topics such as politics and religion.

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