One phrase that I see from time to time in the writing of Chinese university students is that “God played a joke on [someone].” This would appear to imply that God is some sort of cruel trickster—a notion quite at odds with orthodox Christian belief (or even that of Judaism or Islam). However, I’ve wondered whether in this case the word “God” is simply being used in place of “Fate.” After all, the Chinese word tian (天) can be variously translated as “Heaven” or “God” (or most literally, as “sky”). However translated, this word can be understood as referring to an impersonal force ruling the universe, rather than a personal being. Consequently, it is possible that some students, by analogy, just assume that the English word “God” can be used interchangeably with “Fate,” not realizing the different connotations of the two words.
Another concept I have seen is that of letting “God decide [something].” In the context in which I have seen it, it would appear that this expression means simply the same as letting “Fate” decide something. In other words (again), it may be that an impersonal force is meant here, not a personal being.
Perhaps the most bizarre reference I have seen to God in a Chinese student’s paper appeared in a discussion of suicide (which is a very sensitive subject in Chinese universities it seems—I had a student who committed suicide, but I was never informed of this fact by my department—a student told me). At some point in our class, I had mentioned that suicide traditionally has been considered wrong in Western culture because it is believed that life is given by God and that no one therefore has the right to take his or her own life. For some reason, this issue came up in a student’s paper. After noting that Westerners believe suicide is wrong because life is given by God, the student went on to say that Chinese people believe suicide is wrong because life is given by one’s parents (!). The tone in which this was written seemed to indicate that the student thought this was a somehow more compelling moral argument against suicide. The notion that somehow one’s parents are to be more revered than God struck me as totally bizarre, but I suppose given the many centuries over which “filial piety” (孝-xiao) has been emphasized as virtually the supreme virtue in Chinese culture, this shouldn’t have been so surprising.
Of course, it may be that I am reading too much into what my students write. I suspect that many of my students are atheists, and therefore have done little careful thinking about God. On the other hand, I know that at least some of my students are probably religious believers of some sort, as I have a few students that I understand are Muslims or Buddhists (although it should be pointed out that Buddhism does not necessarily entail belief in God), so it is possible some of them actually do have some notions about theology. Nevertheless, whatever their beliefs, my hope is they will have an opportunity to have a more accurate understanding of who God is and I have made some efforts (within the limits that I face as a teacher in a university in an officially atheistic state) to give them such an opportunity.
Image: Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam" from wikipedia.org