Peter Kasalovský
How have I become Chinese?
I was born a year and a half after the establishment of the PRC. Until I was six, I had no idea of its history, traditions, and what the term China actually stands for. In that year of 1957, I discovered truly magnetising colour pictures of Chinese nature and the Yellow River, some stamps and smiles of radiant children - pioneers on a large map of the "socialist world" displayed on a notice board. By the end of the year until 1965, when I finished my primary school, there was never anything Chinese on this notice board again. There was nothing in the history and geography textbooks that would find its place in the head of an adolescent. Except that the Chinese have slanted eyes, eat rice, more precisely a handful of rice a day, smoke, play ping-pong, practice martial arts and are allowed to have only one child and that the Japanese imperial army bestially murdered ten million people during World War II.
I discovered the magazine "China" in Russian at home, and it was something like a dream visiting faraway places for free. Perhaps it was a piece of luck when I discovered that there was a person of yellow skin colour, just like the Chinese tobacco, though without slanted eyes, living in our house. He used to go shopping to China and gave me occasionally one or two packs of cigarettes. Rum-flavoured cigarettes were not far from making one addicted to them. While I was smoking, I also had a late 19th-century Chinese ashtray for flicking off the ash. These cigarettes also entered our market. Mr Alexander talked about China as if it were at the outskirts of our city, blew smoke clouds and sometimes, he managed to blow smoke letters. Some time later, it were news beyond all reason informing of the course and implications of the "Cultural Revolution", of leader Mao and his book of Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung which I bought for one-and-half francs, which was then equivalent to a coffee and baguette, in Paris in a stall at the Seine. These were the times of youth rebellion, the times of the Beatles and flower children - the hippies' followers seeking social as well as societal progress, democracy, peace - standing up to feverish arms race, seeking implementation of concepts such as freedom, fraternity and equality into the life of society as a whole. In my eyes, education, being well-informed and cultured manners had suddenly acquired a different value from the available "goods" in the centre of Europe and in our country. Until then, at times when Europe was in ferment and remembered J.F.K as well as contemporary legends such as Martin L. King, Che Guevara or Major Yuri Gagarin and others, China was beyond caring of newspapers, magazines and schools. From time to time, reports explaining Chinese history but above all, what makes a Chinese Chinese popped up. Hard work, modesty, pride as well as perseverance and the will to be the best at home, in the city, in the country but there was no mention of Chinese ambitions in the world.
American and British films showed "China towns" in world metropoles. In the 1970s, even in Budapest. Until the end of the last but one decade of the last century, it was only possible to meet a Chinese in Bratislava when a delegation of artists arrived or on the occasion of the world-renowned Biennial of Illustrations. China was more distant than the Moon, and China was for people without significant property, insufficiently solvent or people without a significant social status mainly about Hong Kong, Kung Fu, Tibet, and Taiwan in the images and reports in Western media. The Chinese as such were in a kind of fog that would burn off by coincidence according to politicians and their media. After many years, an American of Slovak descent who visited China with US President R. Nixon in 1972 told me with his eyes lit up that for the president and also for him personally, the greatest surprise in their lives was definitely the variety of incredible forms of hospitality, modesty and manifestations of respect. Such respect which did not exist anywhere in the world at that time, let alone to the US President.
After the Czecho-Slovak Federation entered into a new regime model, disparaging news about China appeared increasingly more often in media and speeches by politicians. In this tumult, the ordinary turning of coats, clouding of mind and blackening of the whole period of strange socialism in our country, I listened to the story of my colleague, later a subordinate commentator, however, above all my friend Jaroslav Brabec. He spoke about the life of ordinary citizens, the lasting transformation of the country and the noticeable improvement of living conditions, Chinese monuments, the reform commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in the mid-1980s. Some of those memories were published in the first issue of the AS monthly /Current World/ which survived only one season. When my friend spoke, I had the feeling that it was a fairy tale or wishful thinking. We asked the Chinese Embassy in Prague to receive us. We talked to chargé d´affaires Mrs TANG Zhanqing for over two hours. This was the place where friendship and basis for cooperation with the HN as well as with the association of personalities I founded in 1993, were established during the devastation of China in the "new society" and which have lasted until now. The Chinese Embassy with the first Ambassador of the PRC to the Slovak Republic, TANG Zhanqing, was the first one among the eighteen diplomatic missions to show their support to this effort by their participation and information, manifestations of responsiveness and friendship.
So, it happened that in June 1994, I received an invitation to visit China for several weeks from a member of the State Council, minister - Chairman of the Reform Commission Li Tien Jing. It were amazing three weeks when I had the opportunity to understand who the Chinese were and what the PRC was and is going to be. The reason was also the fact that he studied nuclear physics in Prague in the 1950s. The fourth man of the PRC and until today, one of the most congenial Chinese politicians - reformers, the creators of a real miracle for the benefit of the largest strata of the population - gave me a 120-minute reception joined by thirty ministers and other creators of New China in the premises of Chinese Parliament. In my notes, I found his following ideas: "Being old friends, we follow the developments in Slovakia with great attention and interest. We would like to see economic growth in your country, its stability and happiness of your people. There is a broad room for cooperation. We can complement each other economically. There are traditional friendly ties. There are no historical disputes between us. Therefore, I believe that it is not only possible but also necessary to strengthen cooperation between China and your part of the world. In our opinion, all countries, large or small, have the right to specific geographical conditions and they all must respect each other, participate in equal international cooperation. They have the right to choose their political system and/or lifestyle. We are against interfering into the internal affairs of other countries. All countries in the world must live in peace. Economic relations must be based on equality and mutual benefit."
It were three weeks of talks with economic leaders, especially financiers and bankers, mayors of towns, teachers, and countless number as if ordinary but essentially exceptional people. Several thousands of kilometres by domestic airlines, trains and limousine with an escort. Inside, I felt that I was very lucky to have this once-in-a-lifetime experience and to get again enthusiastic about an idea that I had almost dismissed after four years of the new regime in Czecho-Slovakia and the Slovak Republic. It is possible to work for society and to maintain one's honour and character, although I heard a number of incredible stories about "exceptions" during my "Chinese travel". In 1994, I realised that China was transforming into a magical world that would magnetise future generations. I had this on my mind when I saw Li Tien Jing's idea of changes for the next two decades. Cooperation agreements with the Chinese Economic Daily were not taken up for language problems as well as for the lack of on-line contact, and for several years our relations with the Chinese Embassy were the same as with diplomatic missions of the US, Russia, France, the Czech Republic and others. Nothing abnormal.
Few people were able to return to places where they were truly reborn and tasted new zest and will for life, activities and dynamism. One of the world's economic leaders responded to my complaint that I had no tip for a foreign personality who could be awarded the Golden Biatec. That was in January 2013. Rongxiang Xu, a ground-breaker in the emerging science of body and tissue regeneration, a prominent personality in MEBO International, exchanged with me over 160 e-mails in eight months. They were about his science and its results, about society, about the American president and his family to which he as a doctor had access, about his relation to the homeland and ongoing reforms, about co-workers, about everyday life, war and peace. He accepted my proposal for a tele-bridge Bratislava - Los Angeles and thus, made it possible for the whole world to follow the communication. After a rather long hesitation, I accepted an invitation to China. The return after nearly 20 years meant, above all, that 90% of the plans that the once-popular Chinese reformer Li Tien Jing spoke about have become a reality and the life of most Chinese has acquired a dimension that Europeans and people in other continents could only dream of. No overheating of economy predicted by my friends from Down Jones, on the contrary, continuous GDP growth and a change of lifestyle, though, with a slight tendency towards consumption.
On Thursday, 5 December, a meeting with thirty-two prominent Chinese personalities from political, economic, health care and media circles took place in the Parliament building. The results and other options for regenerating damaged body organs were discussed in the presence of MEBO leading officials. I addressed the attendees during a gala dinner and thanked them for my warm welcome as well as for the translation of the presentation of our Club into Chinese. After a month of experiencing New China, the exchange of mail communication with Rongxiang Xu continued. I gained not only Chinese "flavour", a friend but also a four-year younger brother. In April 2014, he wrote to me:
"Dear brother Peter, I have received your email and known the correlative situation. I agree with your arrangement of the graduation ceremony in middle October 2014. The international security situation has changed a lot. I have been paying attention to the change brought to the EU and the whole world by Ukraine's political crisis. I know about my country's plan of defence and development, responding to the current international situation. I worry about the adverse influence of Ukraine situation on surrounding countries. Last time, I received a notice from you by which I knew you had proposed the special topic of "Peace" based on your prompt and sensitive political intuition, this is very important, and it is the great action of a responsible international organisation. I highly revere the IEF Club under your leadership, and I'm also proud of being a member of the Club. Meanwhile, I'm thinking of what I can do for the Club for now. I even have an idea that in case there were political anarchy in Slovakia (we don't hope so, of course), I would like to invite you and your wife to come to China and lead your Club without interruption. Throughout the history of human civilisation, political and social turbulence has never stopped, which is the biggest obstruction of the development of human civilisation. The Ukraine crisis of this time is not under the control of Ukraine itself, but the game between great powers, which is a recurrence of the history. We cannot predict future evolution; we can only analyse it according to the rule of history. The development of our career should also adjust with the change of current international situation, keeping promoting the establishment of the scientific UN and meanwhile starting the international economic development of user-end applied scientific technology. Wish a great success for the Club's 100th annual assembly and the presentation of the Prime Minister of Montenegro. I'm looking forward to your good news and always be supporting the Club's action for world peace."
A year later, at the time of our debates on the founding of the International Peace Committee, I received the sad news of Rongxiang Xu tragical passing away in Los Angelos during a gala lunch... so I founded the International Peace Committee also on his behalf and allocated him a permanent place - a chair in its 33-member group. This Committee has also set up its "2015 Peace Prize from Slovakia" which was awarded to the citizens of the People's Republic of China for the year 2017 at the presence of close collaborators of the Chinese Prime Minister. We agreed on a text in the certificate which stated that it is a recognition of a significant contribution to peace in the region and the world and of the unique Silk Road project of international cooperation. It also pleased my heart that we maintained a friendship with and respect for China for twenty-three years despite China's adversaries and arch enemies. And this friendship also continues today, and when communicating with my Chinese friends, I see the Road in respect for China as well as its people - the citizens. I have realized that the friendship has enriched me with a new identity: I have become a Chinese.