Thoughts from the Chinese Ward, Part 3

A few more thoughts before we put this to rest...

(1) Until it's demonstrated, it's sometimes hard to remember the difference using your native language can make versus a second, learned one (like English).   Most Chinese ward members speak good enough English to get by in daily life--and converse with people from the stake who come in on occasion.  Yet, (as I often do in Church, or when the two of us have Chinese friends over for an activity) listening to natives talk 'natively' for any length of time shows how much more revealing the conversations are.  Most of them could, in fact, repeat exactly the same conversation (in terms of raw meaning) in English if they had to, but you'd be missing most of the personality and the depth of the conversation.  I can understand what they're saying--but (as a non-native) my responses would still have a uneducated 'simplicity' to them.  It's restricting, rather than revealing.  Even being married to a native and using the language every day, there is still a chasm in language ability that perhaps will never be crossed.

That in a sense is why hearing the gospel taught in your own language is so important, and why having the opportunity to associate with people who speak the same language is an invaluable tool for those just getting their feet on the ground.  (Most Chinese are 1st/2nd generation converts--very few long gospel histories--so getting thrust into a Church environment using a 'foreign' language is an invitation to get left behind...)

I wonder if sometimes we hear foreigners use simple--often broken--English and don't subconsciously (a little bit, at least) assume their thoughts and ideas inside are just as simple.  Just listening to those same people talk about even casual things in their native language will show very quickly  just how deep and complex everyone's thoughts and feelings are at heart...

(2) Everyone 'knows' church members from a foreign country are the same as American ones--although, again, sometimes it takes direct experience to realize it.  Specifically...how ethnic wards share the same faults as all the other ones.  You have members who don't get along.  You have members frequently and consistently talking about other members behind their backs.  You have the same difficulty in encouraging the general membership to do their home/visiting teaching, or fulfill their callings. You have members who complain about things the bishopric, or the EQ president, or the RS president does.  (Well...not the CURRENT Relief Society president, of course.  I'm speaking historically... :)

There are still those who (perhaps subconsciously) assume all 'Chinese' (or 'Asians') are the same--they all get along with each other, all have the same opinions on things, etc.  (Of course, this is never true in any all-white ward, but sometimes race and/or ethnicity is all you see...)  In reality, though, the Chinese ward has larger divisions than most local wards--containing members from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China.  All three of these areas--while 'ethnically' Chinese--have remarkably different cultural, economic, and religious backgrounds, and these differences frequently manifest themselves in the constant contact of ward activity.

Even though many Americans consider 'Asians' to be an indistinguishable, homogenous group, it's ironic that, among many Chinese families even today, the absolute fastest way to get yourself disowned from your family is to marry someone Japanese.  (See WWII history for an explanation...)

(3)  The Baroness and I have made a particular observation about me a number of times throughout our stay in the Chinese ward, which is interesting on a number of levels.  Being an 'outsider' (ethnically), I will never--no matter how long we stay in the Chinese ward--be called to be in the bishopric, nor probably even the EQ president, or executive secretary.

The reason should be obvious--the entire purpose for the ward existing is to train native Chinese leaders, not people like me.  Whether I would or would not make a good bishop (a whole other issue) is not the point--I just don't happen to be in the select group of people from which Chinese ward bishops are called.  This doesn't mean I'm not welcome in the Chinese ward, nor that I can't contribute--only that my method of serving as a non-Chinese person is different.

The irony here is this is exactly how many women feel about being in the Church in general--not 'unwelcome', but not having certain callings or opportunities in the Church 'open' to them.   Many of them say I (being a man) couldn't possibly understand how they feel.  Well...in a way, I do--because currently I happen to be in a similar situation.  (Of course, I could always just switch wards...but that's not the point either.)

It's never mattered to me whether I would ever be in the bishopric here (or anywhere else), nor whether I'd ever be deeply involved in the 'inner workings' of the Chinese ward.  I have my own calling and place in the Chinese ward, and I'm happy to help the work progress in any way I can.

I wonder about the tendency of people to automatically label the experiences of some women feeling marginalized in the Church as a 'system flaw' rather than just a conflict between the personality of the indivudual person and the workings of the individual ward they belong to.  My wife has never felt marginalized or excluded due to her gender here in the Chinese ward.  If anything, she's been 'over-included'--with the bishopric often calling on her for advice and/or assistance in things that are only marginally within her stewardship. (A common lament in our house: "They want me to attend another meeting?")

There might be another ward out there, that were she also called to be RS president, she might feel that she was now 'too excluded' by that bishopric, and yet another ward out there where (in "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" style), it was "just right".  If that's true, then doesn't it really come down to a problem of wards trying to find the slippery medium between what the individual members want to do, and what they're asked to do?