Speaking on Chinese culture, K. Burski says he is particularly interested in Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism.
"I once bought a book named Dictionary of Foreign Words in Chinese. I thought there were not so many in Chinese. But I found 15,000 foreign words in the book. And most of them are Buddhist words and seldom used, maybe only in temples, like 'E-mi-tuo-fo'. I also have bought a book in English named Chinese Religions Seen Through Proverbs, from which I started to learn about Chinese religions. For example, what the Chinese said in modern language - 'Listen to what he says and observe what he does' comes from the Analects of Confucius. There are certainly some influences from other religions. There used to be lots of Islamic restaurants in Beijing because most Beijingers like Islamic food though they are not Muslims. As to now, in my opinion the Karaoke is also part of Chinese culture."
Besides his study in religion, Burski says he likes Chinese traditional arts very much, especially the Xiangsheng (comic dialogue) performed by Hou Baolin and Guo Qiru. In late 1950s, Burski deliberately went to Xiangsheng stands out of the Qianmen to enjoy their performances in order to take the edification of traditional Chinese cultures. Burski is also fond of Peking Opera since he was a student in 1950s. At that time he even bought some books on Peking Opera such as General Knowledge on Peking Opera, Opera and the Stage Layout, and Stories in Peking Opera. There are about 2,500 plays in the Stories in Peking Opera and each of them with a brief introduction of the story. Every time Burski goes for Peking Opera, he will go through the book and check out what the play is talking about and when did the story happen, how is it connected with other plays. Recently he has been to the former Hu-guang Meeting Center and enjoyed the play Fairies Scattering Flowers performed by the Beijing Peking Opera Troupe.
He likes Beijing. He likes its surrounding mountains, its places of interests and historical heritages, and its river - the Yongding River. He is also fond of the canal near Diaoyutai, where he swam when he was a student in Beijing. But he noticed that Beijing is losing its historical appeal.
Burski said he feels at home with Chinese, he is used to the food and other things. For example, the breakfast. When he visits some places with his staff, there is no problem for him with the Chinese breakfast, such as the conjee. While other staff are not.
(Bilingual World March 28, 2002)
