reflections on a chinese-christian lecture

Last Saturday, I went to a lecture at my Mom's church at her invitation. The topic was about the meaning of life, or what does it mean to win and lose in life, or something like that. The lecture was in Chinese, so excuse my translation. My Mom got me to go by telling that it was something about finding one's purpose in life, which is an interesting enough topic for me. That and there would be a free dinner, and I am still Chinese enough to brighten at the prospect of a free meal.

The speaker was a Chinese pastor from Taiwan who now lives in the US but travels extensively around China and Russia to minister to the Chinese who live in Russia. I was quite interested in his stories about the Chinese who go to Russia to do business or to study, but whose lives are still quite difficult as they deal with a foreign culture, lack of papers, and fear of the police due to shady business dealings. He said they all have their reasons as to why they didn't just turn around and go home – but he stopped short of saying what those reasons were, which rather frustrated me. I suppose the reasons didn't matter much to the topic of his lecture.

Anyway, the gist of the lecture was that there are many Chinese who are driven by the prospect of material wealth to go to another country (such as Russia or the US) and leave their spouse or their kids behind. They make their money and return home, only to find that their spouse is living with someone else or their kids don't recognize them. They gained material wealth, but lost their family. He also talked about his own experience, having studied to be an engineer (and whose classmates rose to high positions in Taiwan) but became a pastor instead. He "lost" the opportunity to be financially successful, but gained happiness/satisfaction and other intangible things.

Overall, I thought it was a good lecture for the Young-souled Chinese culture. I have felt, resented, and finally come to terms with the fact that Chinese culture can often be materialistic to an extreme. I've accepted that my parents may not ever be happy with the fact that I chose a major that satisfied me rather than something that "makes more money", i.e. law/business/medicine, and I'm thankful that they didn't push harder than they did (though I hope to someday surprise them by making boatloads of money in my own business). It was a relief to hear someone say to a group of middle-aged and elderly Chinese that one may not gain by putting material success before family, relationships, and spiritual life. Rather reminds me of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. To be honest, overall it was kind of boring for me except when he relayed a good story. At the risk of sounding arrogant, I felt like a college student sitting in a sixth grade class. It's not bad information, just something I've understood and internalized long ago, so I didn’t have much patience for it.