Last Thursday, on my way to visit the (only) Jewish prisoner at Tucheng Detention Center, something caught my eye.
A black BMW crossed into my lane from the right (not too unusual in Taiwan). At second glance the license plate confirmed what I thought I saw – a black Nazi swastika with an eagle hanging over it!
I have been in Taiwan long enough, and know the people well enough to know that symbolism results from an innocent misunderstanding.
Yet, I decided to do something a bit bold – I got behind the car and started honking and flashing my front lights. At the nearest stop I chose the parallel lane and asked the driver to lower his window. (Yes, I know, if we were in Europe I would never dare doing it). It was a friendly looking middle aged guy and all he understood from what I said was “your car! your car!”. Thinking there was a mechanical issue, he pulled over. So did I. As got out of his car he started inspecting, looking for the problem. I approached him and pointed to the swastika saying “this!”.
The following dialogue was between my broken Chinese and his rusty English:
-“this! this!”
-“what about this?”
-“do you know what this is?”
-“no”
-“where did you get this?”
-“I bought it on the internet”
-“this is the symbol of Nazi Germany”
-“ok”
-“they were very bad, they killed a lot of people”
-“ok”
-“it represents Hitler, do you know who was Hitler?”
-“no”
-“Hitler was a really bad guy, he killed millions of innocent people!”
-“ok”
This is when my surprise started to turn into frustration: “you know, it brings you bad luck”
“BAD LUCK?? I am going to remove it now!”
I am not sure if the guy removed it (if you spot the car somewhere let me know) but I did get another chance to experience that it is not WHAT you say, it is HOW you say it.
We need to learn how to talk to people in their own language, saying things the listener could not only hear or understand but, more importantly, relate to.
May we merit to a time when there will be no more hatred but only misunderstandings (or maybe this time in already now?…)
How would you respond? You are welcome to write me back with questions, comments or suggestions.
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Shlomi Tabib
