Reflections on the China Trip

You may have noticed that I did not submit an article for the April issue of HeartBeat. I was in China on a business trip for the company I work for. We have a factory in the city of Hangzhou, and I went over to spend some time with them and do some training in my particular area of production planning.

My first reflection is, if you ever have to take a 14 hour flight I have one word for you, “upgrade, upgrade, upgrade!” I flew from Dallas to Chicago and then caught the non-stop flight to Shanghai. I sat in the “sardine” section. I watched every movie available, every episode of Friends and The Closer, and finally had to occupy my time with episodes of Sponge Bob! I could not get comfortable enough to sleep. I remember taking note of the tenth hour in flight and thinking, “we've still got 4 more hours to go!” I thought I was going to come unglued, but I survived and finally made it to Shanghai. From the time I left my front porch in Texas to the time I checked in to my hotel in Shanghai, with layovers and everything, was a total of 24 hours of traveling.

The thing that kept jumping out at me while I was there was how China is a country of contrasts. What I mean is that everywhere I went I saw opposite ends of the spectrum seemingly thrown together with no discretion. In areas that were more affluent, I saw extreme poverty mixed right in. Youth existed right next to elders. Looking at buildings, you could see the influence of the East and also the influence of the West.

One example that really stood out to me was how the “old” was colliding with the “new”. The photo collage above shows a pagoda near the hotel I stayed in. I had the privilege of visiting this site, which is hundreds of years old and depicts traditional Chinese architecture. There are also photos that show the development that is going on in downtown Shanghai. There are skyscrapers of glass and concrete going up everywhere! As a matter of fact, one of the buildings in the photo will be the world's tallest building once it is completed. China has some of the oldest links to ancient civilization, literally thousands of years, yet they are racing to keep up with modern technology and current trends.

The other thing that made an impression on me was the mixing of traditional culture with contemporary culture. In one of the photos above is a Buddhist temple in Shanghai. I actually witnessed an annual ceremony being performed while I was there. The crowd that gathered there seemed very reverent and sincere in their adherence to their religion. The market place literally has thousands of people out selling and/or buying everything you can think of. The market is like an outdoor mall with shops lining both sides. It was so crowded, you could hardly walk through! China is seen today as a land of great opportunity, because there are 1.2 billion people there, and they are eager to buy new things. That is why so many European and American countries are establishing operations over there.

As I thought about this colliding of the old with the new, the traditional with the contemporary, and the spiritual with the material, it made me think of our own culture and ask myself, “what are we giving up in the name of progress?” Do we neglect our historical treasures because we are so enamored with having something newer, bigger, and shinier? What about our Christian traditions and values? Do we sacrifice our devotion and commitment to Christ on the altar of big business, commerce, and materialism? I think we need to be very careful as our own culture goes through change. Ours may not be changing so dramatically so quickly, but it is changing nevertheless.

As I looked at some of those ancient structures in China I realized that they needed to be preserved. There was a beauty there and a connection with the past. The same is true of the religious ceremony I witnessed. Though I am not a Buddhist, the lesson is the same for us; namely, in the midst of a culture fascinated with more, newer, bigger, and better, there is a voice from the past that we need to listen to very closely. We cannot let that voice be drowned out in all the noise of modern society! It calls us to our Creator, to the values that should guide us, to our Savior who stands ready to forgive us, and to our mission that we must never lose sight of.