Young Chinese meet the Gospel
From Mindong, Hong Kong and Taiwan to Milan’s Chinese community, various voices speak at a meeting sponsored by AsiaNews on the feast day of Saint Francis Xavier, grateful to the communities that have kept and passed on the faith amid many difficulties and new encounters, with questions about meaning in a changing world.
Milan (AsiaNews) – Yesterday evening, the Centro PIME in Milan hosted “Young people and faith in today's Greater China”, an event sponsored by AsiaNews on the feast day of Saint Francis Xavier, the great missionary of the East who died on the island of Shangchuan, at the gates of China, a country he would have liked to have reached.
A wealth of stories illuminated the event, like a “fire burning under the ashes,” enlivened by questions from today's young Chinese, grappling with profound transformations in places that are very different from one other, from the cities of the People's Republic of China and Taiwan to Hong Kong and the communities of the Chinese diaspora.
The event was a moment of friendship shared with Milan’s Chinese Catholic community, inspiring the solemn Eucharistic celebration that preceded the meeting. But it was above all an opportunity to look at this great people – currently in the limelight for so many geopolitical, economic, and cultural reasons – with a different gaze, that of the paths of outreach to its younger generations through the Gospel of Jesus.
As China changes, young people come under intense social and cultural pressures, sparking reactions like the Tangping movement (躺平 "lying down"), whose philosophy is expressed in the rejection of conventional expectations of success and productivity, in favour of a more minimalist lifestyle, above all free from constraints. But it is, above all, in questions of meaning that young Chinese have that faith finds a fruitful place.
This faith has been preserved for years by China’s resilient Catholic communities, amid a thousand and one difficulties, still passed on today in Catholic families to new generations. But today many are asking for new paths to be opened. Maristella Wheng, a young consecrated woman originally from the Diocese of Mindong, testified to this in her address at the meeting in Milan.
“I have participated in many Church activities, such as catechesis, meetings for young people and youth summer camps," she said. “All these experiences have shaped me a lot, but I had never thought of consecrated life for myself. My desire was to live the same life as most people: study, work... But after a year of work, I felt the need to stop. I didn't feel confused about my future, but I needed to find some deeper motivations to live my life better.”
She came to Italy thanks to a Chinese priest, to the Community of Montetauro, near Rimini, volunteering with Chinese immigrant children. "In the Piccola Famiglia dell’Assunta, I found much more than just a Chinese school, I found a community," she said. “I began to deepen my faith in Jesus even more, understanding that He had already known me.”
“And through his words,” she began “to live the daily Eucharist in a new way, through a very simple daily life, made up of prayer and work in a true community of brothers and sisters. Now I know that the Lord wants me to follow him in this way of life from the many signs he has left on my path over the years.”
Asked about what aspect of this experience she would like her Catholic friends in Mindong to heed, she replied without hesitation: “The direct encounter with Scripture that I discovered here," she said. “It's something we lack in China.”
Yirui Eleonora Weng, 30, from Hangzhou, had never had any contact with Christianity until she was 26, until her work as a professional pianist brought her to Milan.
“During a sacred music lesson at the Conservatory, while I was playing the piano and reading the score, I realised that I did not fully understand the text. I felt a particular, almost inexplicable sensation inside me,” she explained.
The invitation of a former Italian colleague to attend Mass was the next step. “It became a special moment for me. Even though I was not a Christian and I did not yet know what they were, those first Masses ignited in me the desire to know more about the faith.”
Then the same former colleague introduced her to Fr Francesco Zhao, the chaplain of the Chinese community in Milan. "I immediately felt welcomed," she noted. “Not only could I express myself in Chinese, but he also understood the difficulties I had in reconciling my culture with my new faith. Thanks to him, I was able to understand deeper aspects of Christianity and to feel that this path could really be part of my life.”
On Easter night 2023, Eleonora received the sacrament of Baptism in Milan cathedral. “At that moment, I realised that I had never been truly alone. God, in one way or another, had always been by my side; the presence I felt next to me in moments of joy and silent support in the most difficult times.”
Adelia Lau, on the other hand, spoke about the faith in difficult times, bringing the voice of many young Catholics in Hong Kong. “I grew up in my parish, with other young people in the choir, playing the organ like many others," she said. “But for many of us, everything changed in July 2020 with the crackdown on demonstrations and the national security law."
Today she lives in Milan like hundreds of thousands of others of her peers and young families who have left the city in recent years, where no discussion is allowed anymore. And where - according to recent data, among the young people who remained, one in four suffers from stress, anxiety, or depression.
For Adelia, “It is a really hard and confusing period for everyone. I think young people need guidance to help them distinguish what is right from what is wrong, to understand the important values. They need faith. The one that allows us to continue every day in a difficult environment and to have hope for a future that is still uncertain.”
This future starts from simple relationships such as those mentioned in Milan by Fr Donato Contuzzi, who served as a priest for about ten years in Taipei in the mission of the Fraternity of St Charles Borromeo in Taiwan, whose story was recently collected in a book, titled "The Cross and the Dragon".
In many ways, this context "has the same face as our secularised cities or the cult of the god of money," said Fr Donato, where the Gospel is precisely passed on through "a different smile on people's faces or the choices of a couple in the face of a child who does not arrive.” Small miracles of faith that leaves its mark even among Chinese today.
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