Yue Luping: Today is 9-11, I would like to know your feeling.

Christiane Kouig: 9-11, I’ve a very bad experience. Apart from America I had an explosion in my apartment. And the whole flat was black, completely black, from everywhere, I couldn’t live there any more. I had to go out. That was my story of 9-11. It’s Ok.

Christiane Kouig:Yes.

Lennie Iee: And go something back, and I was really really happy in a way. Of course after a while I realized awful it was. Then I was very unhappy realized this was not a very nice feeling. But at the same time I had this dichotomy between the feeling that maybe something will change for the better now. maybe the dictatorship of America throughout the whole world will begin to slowly change. That was my feeling.

Yue Luping: What’s your feeling of 9-11?

Aria Shin-Ichi: I’m sorry I’m not good at English to express my feelings, but 9-11 is a big thing, and after 9-11, the danger was increase for the world situation.

Christiane Kouig: Because of 9-11, It shows very well what America is feeling and Bush is saying, and that country is feeling.

Yue Luping: Now in this festival, my work is “Journey To The West” of three platforms. One is “ Touring in the Western World”. Like present, China is copying everything from Western culture. I say it’s unfinished copy. Like you have toured around the city and seen all the Western signs like Mac and KFC. And our political structure also originated from Marxism and the economic system is……

Lennie Iee: copying capitalism.

Yue Luping: Everything is copying Western culture including AIDS. Now China has a lot of AIDS cases not really through sex intercourse. So I would like to comment on this unfinished copy, I think it’s a problem of modernization.

Christiane Kouig: I think I told you a bit about this copy thing in Europe. We copy America. I think in this world you cannot stay, you have to change in a way but not in this way. Everything is changing in a political way like what happened in Eastern Europe and east Germany. It is too quick, people cannot find their own way. Then have to copy, they have to take from others. The thing of change is in a way you have to, but not so quick that people cannot adapt their feelings in their own culture. Everything seem so eager in the world everywhere. So that’s not good.

Yue Luping: How do you feel about the subject of Unfinished copy?

Aria Shin-Ichi: Well. In Japan, about 100 years ago, we Japanese government studies German system & America, but after World War Two, we studied much much much much much much America. Today, the Japanese government is like a little pet dog of American politicians. And I think, I don’t know Chinese system, after 1949 there were many difficulties. Your young people don’t like revolution. I’m 43 years old. We thought that China is the Star of hope, because the Japanese young guys didn’t like Japanese government, and we like too much Mao Zedong and Zhou enlai, but later we discovered that the cultural revolution was a mistake. Later in the 70’s we found out, but at first we didn’t know what’s going on inside China.

Lennie Iee: Copying is nothing new. like back in Ancient Roman period, everybody was copying Rome because Rome was the military power and because it was a military power it became an economic power, but sucking everything from the provinces. And

The provinces were Africa & Greece. Everything that was good eventually ended up in Rome like everything bad as well. And they took on Judaism and attended into Christianity and they took on Christianity added Pagan , Mysteries, etc etc, and they Romanized the Britain and they Romanized every country in Europe. Now we have a similar situation of America being the chief military power. It’s nothing new. There was Britain as the major power, you know that everybody followed Britain and all they had to do was to go to India or Singapore you can see this jokes that Britain left behind. Singapore is mad about cleanness, if you throw a garb on the ground, you have to pay 500$, that’s only because the British thought that throwing garbage was a bad habit. Malaysians are fascinated by history simply because the British were fascinated by history. And the Indian were fascinated by Bureaucracy because the British were fascinated by Bureaucracy. Now China, Germany, every one is coming this way under the American Empire, and the American Empire is not that simple, it’s a corporate empire, and the corporations are devolving themselves from America and putting themselves to various other countries. South America etc etc, and now government is actually becoming the little dog of the corporations, and corporations are the big dog, and they are ditatorship for their share holders who are small, and the American government is perhaps the largest government from the strongest corporate power, which lead their military power which is leading the rest of the world. It’s not surprising everybody is pissed off with them, everybody’s economy is gonna go downhill in the Mid East. Looking at for example Iraq. Iraq was quick prosperous 30 years ago. Now it’s extremely poor. You look at Iran, the __ was worth 200 times what it’s worth now and the Sha__ of Iran. The moment America gets pissed off with you they make sure your economy goes downhill. But China is one country they’re having difficulty with because China is self-sufficient, they cannot stopping China growing but boy, they’d like to.

Yue Luping: You know 1,000 years ago, China copied India religion, Buddhism, Have you ever been to a Buddhist temple? My second platform is Tour in Western Heaven. 1.000 years ago the famous Tang Monk XuanZang went to India to seek true scriptures, looking for truth. Several years ago American journalist Richard Bernstein retraced the Tang Monk’s trip then he wrote a book “Ultimate Journey”. He compared XuanZang to Marco Polo. Just like Columbus discovered America, Marco Polo & Columbus both carried a practical purpose behind while the Tang Monk only was seeking a spiritual enlightenment. But this copy of India has long stopped. And ever since the Opium War, China gradually began to copy the Western World. Now there’re still quite some remains of the Western Heaven but I would like to say it’s a heaven on fire. So after the Opium War we had to change the content of our copy of the Western World, now we have to copy Western World instead of copying India, our western neighbor. So now I would like to hear your comment on this subject, as you have own religion for a long time.

Lennie Iee: My family is originally from Israel they’re Jewish, they came across Europe and they were kicked to Spain then they went to France and they went along to the east to Russia and they came back from Russia to Britain Poland Britain Germany Britain. For me, I really see myself as an outsider of the UK. So I look at Britain as I’m looking in a hall of mirrors. I find it’s an ugly place. I think there’re thing I like about in the East which I think are deep rooted in my society which I can’t really say why I like them. And there’re things I think, of course, that I’ve taken from the West. But one thing I think is that a lot of people in the West think China is brutal but when I come here I don’t find that this country seems going to invade other countries, taking over other countries, it doesn’t seem to have a military desire to occupy other countries. Maybe that’s just my opinion. But it doesn’t seem to have that energy about it, while America, I feel that there’s a strong desire for war, you know in the Middle East, whether it’s in Israel, Palestine or Jordan, I Don’t get that in China. I feel that China wants to control it’s people and bring its people to an order, perhaps they don’t want. But it’s a matter of internal control not external invasion, and that interests me. Is that true? And obviously, China wants to be stronger than the West now because they’ve been down by the West, for self respect.

Yue Luping: Yeah, over 100 years ago, we wanted western technology to defend against Western powers.

Lennie Iee: I understand that. And also a lot of Western culture is based on Christian converting perspective. You know I’m Jewish and Jewish don’t try to convert people, but Christianity does try to convert. It tries to make them believe in their religion. That’s why the Romans were so keen to adopt Christianity, it fit Romans well with their imperialistic military take over of countries. No wonder they like it so much. This converting thing leads America & Britain & many other countries into war. For a very little reason other than the desire to convert other people to their perspective, whether that perspective is Christianity or capitalist, it doesn’t seem to make much difference to them. What do you think of what I said?

Yue Luping: Ok, now I would like to have Anna’s opinion.

Christiane Kouig: That’s always the problem.

Yue Luping: How much do you know about the Buddhist situation in China?

Christiane Kouig: I don’t know much about that. But Buddhism seems to be the only religion acceptable to me, because it’s more of philosophy than religion. But I don’t know much about how it’s practiced in China & how it affects people’s life.

Yue Luping: Do you have a religion?

Christiane Kouig: I was a Catholic but I went out of church because I don’t like it dominate the would the way Christianity used to years ago. But I really don’t know much about Buddhism.

Lennie Iee: Now there is a journey of Buddhism going to the West from East.