Asians studying Hebrew

Westerners studying Chinese and Chinese studying English makes sense. An Israeli fascinated with Chinese language and culture shouldn't sound all that strange, right? But how about a Asian interested in Hebrew and Judaism? Wouldn't you find that to be special? Well, I've come to know and hear-about a few of those.

On my first week in Taiwan I've made a very untypical expedition to go and try to find  the local Israeli community. No where better to start looking for that than the Israeli not-really-but-almost-embassy in Taiwan who were very nice to direct me to the local Jewish community. Making contact with the local Rabbi I've decided that despite my issues with religious faith I'll go the local Jewish temple and see the lively local Jewish community. Oddly, I found out that the local steady Hebrew speaking community consisted of two – one Rabbi and one Taiwanese. To my complete surprise the Christian Taiwanese girl spoke fluent Hebrew, studying the language and Jewish culture on her own because of her Christian belief, and she's been attending the very small temple for a few years.

A Taiwanese friend of mine (ex1/ex2) has been very interested in the works of one Mark Chagall – "a Jewish painter who was born in Belarus, then part of the Russian Empire. Among the celebrated painters of the 20th century, he is associated with the modern movements after impressionism" (Wikipedia). Although we haven't been in close touch recently, I've heard that her interest with Chagall's work has led her to an interest in his Jewish background and even towards the Hebrew Language, which is believed to have a strong influence on his work.

While in Israel I've had some interesting encounters with other Asian nationalities who have come to Israel to study more about Judaism. One "Messianic Judaism" Korean girl I met by coincidence in Jerusalem's downtown was fascinated with the Jewish people and have been staying in Israel for ages, speaking Israeli level Hebrew with no accent. There were also reports on a growing Christian Korean community in Jerusalem.

Reason I'm mentioning those is because of this next audio ABC broadcast emailed to me this morning by ABC's Jonathan about Chinese people who are studying Judaism in China with Professor Youde Fu who's the "Head of the Department of Religion in Shandong University, China".:

Across China, centres of Jewish studies have been established by Chinese who are eager to learn about the culture that blends modernity with tradition, and produced eminent thinkers like Einstein, Freud and Marx. Professor Youde Fu is the Director of the Centre for Judaic and Inter-Faith Studies at Shandong University in China and he explains why he is fascinated by Jews.

(Listen now ; Download Audio)

So, I guess it's nice to find out that while I'm intrigued about (okay, okay, obsessed with) Chinese/Taiwanese culture, there are some Chinese/Taiwanese who take interest in my background culture.