the Shop and the Chinese

Talking of a shop specialised in Buddhist artefacts, many people tend to assume that it must be run and mainly frequented by the Chinese.  But in this case, nothing is further from the truth. I'm the only Chinese who is working, in fact, has ever worked at this shop, where I've only seen less than 5 Chinese people altogether during my shift over the year.  Given the reasonable size of the Chinese community in this area, I'm a bit baffled by the shop's lack of appeal to  the Chinese.  Maybe, it's because most of the Chinese here tend to be  students (as opposed to residents) and they may find our stock too pricey, or because the religion (Buddhism) has lost in its competition  with other religions, say Christianity,  for Chinese converts (home and abroad?).

I'm not a Buddhist myself and I've been asked by my manager, who is Buddhist, not to engage in any debates on religious issues for fear of causing unnecessary conflicts. It proved to be a very useful advice during the periods of the recent riots in Tibet and the Beijing Olympic Games. With some inherent links between the religious objects we sell and the Dalai Lama, we were bombarded by many requests from the local people  to organize some events (petitions or street protests).  I supposed during the period, our manager was under intense pressure from quite a number of the local shoppers who showed sympathy for the 「suppressed Tibetans」 and loathed the 「heavy-handed approach」 taken by the minders of the Chinese Olympic Torch Relay team. Not least because the shop (along with the meditation room) is always seen as one of the local spiritual and religious hubs .

To her credit, our manager refused to buckle and she insisted that politics are too complicated for us to discern who is wrong and who is right, so  taking a neutral stance is the best strategy to ensure our revenues can continuously provide the practical supports for the children in need.  She』s a German and tends to be level-headed and to handle things in  a matter-of-fact manner. I think that her personality played a part in making the right decision.  

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• [09/30] the Shop and the Chinese
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