The Church in China

To many Americans, China may seem like an atheist country that is completely devoid of religion. True, things do tend to work a little differently around here -- laws concerning religion are much more limiting and strict, and education does tend to lean a little more toward atheism than American education -- but China does claim to have religious freedom, just like the US. What differs between the two countries is what you can do with that religious freedom.

In China, I have found, the thing the government worries about is the influence religion can have on people. For example, there are two things specifically prohibited for Latter-day Saints in China: proselyting to Chinese nationals and attending the same meetings as Chinese nationals. I believe that this is because government officials hope that their citizens' loyalty to the Communist Party and to China aren't swayed by religion. In a communist society like China, this kind of loyalty to the system is required for things to function properly -- so who can blame them? The situation now is already much better than it was around the Communist and Cultural Revolutions. As of right now, China recognizes the "Big Five" religions officially, those being Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism, and Protestantism, and other religions are free to practice as they wish as long as they follow the rules. The Church tries very hard to do things by the book and impress the Chinese with our integrity, so hopefully some day soon, the LDS Church can be officially recognized, too!

For now, the Church here in China works almost the same as it does in other countries. At the beginning of each of our meetings, the member of the bishopric conducting the meeting reads the "Statement Regarding Expatriate Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in China," which basically states the twelfth Article of Faith and links it to the laws of China, and then reminds us that we cannot proselyte or have joint meetings with Chinese nationals, even if they are members of the Church*. After they finish reading the statement, the meetings go on completely normally.

As for the ward here, it's great! We meet in a nice hotel for our meetings, and we have probably 50 people in attendance, on average. The demographic of the ward is definitely very unique. There are lots of students in the ward because of Nanjing University's connection with BYU, but there are also a few families and older people here for work and teaching. Most of the ward members are American, but there are others, too: families from South Africa and Germany, and students from Zimbabwe, Brazil, Russia, and Latin America.

I recently received a calling to be the primary pianist, and, I have to say, I'm stoked. Not only do I get to play fun piano songs every week, I also get to listen in on primary, which is always a treat. The kids in the primary here are all very bright, so it's a great time. There are two South African kids in the primary, and they have awesome accents. There's also a little German boy that doesn't speak any English or Chinese, so we're not sure what to do with him. The all-star of the primary is a little four-year-old boy named Dominic. He is very active in just about every sense of the word. He volunteers to do everything, and usually does it whether or not the teacher calls on him. He also talks more than all the other kids combined. Today, we started learning the primary theme for the year, "As a Child of God." Dominic insisted that he knew the song, so he stood up at the front of the class to teach everyone how to sing it. I started playing, and he said, "That's not the song I know, I though we were singing 'I Am a Child of God!'" He still didn't sit down.

Another interesting thing about China is that it feels a lot like the mission in many ways. First of all, we have our meetings in a hotel in China, which is pretty comparable to meeting in a four-story house in Taiwan. Next off, every Church meeting is like a mission reunion. There are quite a few missionaries from the Taichung Mission that I know personally from the mission in the ward, and there are also a few from before and after my time. It's fun to reminisce with them.

The last way I can think of is the service we do here. We are required by the Chinese Flagship program to do at least 10 hours of community service during the school semester, so most students end up volunteering as English teachers. This week was my first week teaching English to the kids at the YMCA/YWCA -- flashbacks of teaching the kids' English class as a missionary in Taiwan flooded into my mind. The little boys are super wild and loud, and the girls are very quiet and mellow. I walked in the door and was immediately confronted by Frank, a 10 year-old Chinese boy with pretty decent English. Our conversation went like this:

Frank: "What's your name?"

Me: "I'm Mark."

Frank: "Hello Mr. Mark. Nice to meet you. I am Frank. Do you want to see our class rules?"

He showed me a list of three rules that he had written in his notebook. According to one of my Flagship friends that I went with, he had made up these rules last week. Unfortunately, we had to add an amendment to his rules this week: "No fighting."

This week we taught a lesson on fruit, so we played "fruit basket" for about half the time there. Frank kept calling coconuts "QQ-nuts." Oh Frank. There was also a little eight-year-old girl in the class that had an urgent question for the teachers at the beginning of class. She doesn't speak much English yet, so she asked in Chinese, pointing at the other guy from Flagship that came with us, "Why is he so handsome?!" He didn't have a very good answer for her, so she said, "Is it because you're so white?" He didn't really know how to react that, either. Later on, during our game of fruit basket, I saw her making googly eyes at him. It was hilarious.

In short, the Church is alive and well here in China, and even though the members here are few, the spirit of charity and service is still very present here in the Chinese society. I am very privileged to be able to live here among such great people -- they are generally very kind and friendly, and they look out for each other. There is a lot I can learn from them.

-小强

*The Church is growing among Chinese nationals. Even though regular proselyting missionary work is not allowed in the country, direct family members can share the gospel with each other. There are many Chinese nationals that take weekend trips to Hong Kong to officially take the missionary lessons and get baptized, and then go back to their homes in the Mainland. Once they return, they can meet with congregations of Chinese nationals that report to Chinese national church leadership. Interesting how it works, isn't it?

Playing Fruit Basket at YMCA English Class

Our "Chapel"