Another Postcard from Tomorrow Square

Recently I was delighted to hear James Fallows speak on “China’s Emergence” at a local symposium on opportunities for commerce in China. He gave a very tight and helpful summary of recent trends and was just as dapper, even, and insightful in person as he comes across in print and blog. His talk outlined aspects of China he found surprising during his recent three-year stay and a few policy implications of those surprises, and he ended with an entreaty to the college students in the audience. To those students, who will soon emerge into “real” world careers, he said this (this should be considered a paraphrase from the notes I took):

Increasingly Americans are studying Chinese and that is absolutely a good thing. I wish I had learned it earlier and I have always been thankful for the Mandarin abilities that I have. But more than learning Chinese, if you are a college student today, looking ahead to a career as a leader in global business, more important than speaking Chinese is the need to have Americans spend enough time in China, with Chinese, and in China-influenced spheres that they feel comfortable with a world in which China plays a major part. Feeling frightened, holding uninformed fears of China’s rise, will only distort and limit our future. Make China a comfortable part of your mental map, of your world, so you don’t feel threatened by it but are interested in it. The more comfortable we can become with China as it emerges, the better we will all be.

I wanted to hug him. This is my ardent hope for my own congregation. Fallows put it perfectly.

This sentiment and priority, which resonates so fundamentally with me, might be an unusual one for a church. On its face, I suppose it isn’t particularly spiritual or even ecclesial. Why do I care whether my congregation members, not just in their actions or their vacations or their relationships, but deep down in their own mental landscape, recognize a land called China and the people who call it their home? Becoming “comfortable with a world in which China plays a major part” is not only prudent, it’s also reflective of the type of cosmopolitanism I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. Is cosmopolitanism a Biblical posture, and what are its salient features? What would be the implications of Christian cosmopolitanism for discipleship and the church? I may use this space to write more about that soon.