Different Cultures, Same Kindness

I was born and raised in a very small town in the north of China near Beijing. I came from a very traditional Chinese family: one lonely child with two busy parents. Under the traditional Chinese culture background, foreign cultures were very strange to me. I kept the belief Buddhism, which was my spiritual support and companion. At that time, I barely contacted with any foreign cultures.

With time went by, I started to put my attention on the schoolwork. With the accumulation of my knowledge, I began to contact different foreign cultures and have some opinions of people from different cultures. For example, when I learned English in the school, my teacher told me that Americans called each other directly by name, and they didn’t hold a family concept as strong as Chinese. However, the traditional Chinese culture taught me that we should respect the elder and calling them by name was very impolite. Also, the family value was one of the most important core values in China. Chinese parents would try their best to raise their children and gave them all they had. And Chinese youngsters would support their parents after they were financially independent. Moreover, from the influence of pop culture, I learned from movies, songs, or TV shows that Americans were very open about sex. They pursued their individuality and tried to behave the way they wanted. So my concept about an American was selfishness, causality, and impoliteness. However, this concept didn’t last very long.

Our family kept a routine. Every first and fifteenth day of the month in the lunar calendar, my parents would take me to the Wutai temple and pray for good luck. With the popularity of the globalization, I met more and more foreigners when I prayed in Wu Tai Temple. Since I still held a kind of prejudice towards westerners and was not very confidence about my English, I didn’t speak to them first. But there was a time when a foreign young man came to me when I was walking with my parents in the temple. He got lost and asked me if I spoke English and knew the way to the place of donation. Even though my opinion about westerners was not very good, my belief of Buddhism taught me to help other people whenever we could. So I told him the direction with as many details as I could depict. After seeing his confused expression, I decided to take him there just out of my kindness. The Chinese traditional value also taught me to help others, and you would gain the happiness. On our way to the place of donation, that young man was very active in communicating with me. When he saw my difficulty in understanding his idea, he would explain again and sometimes with his poor Chinese. I was nervous at first and not confident with my English. But after seeing he bravely talked with me in Chinese and sometimes made a joke with his Chinese. I started to relax and responded more. He told me that he believed Christianity, not Buddhism. He heard praying in this temple and your wish would come true. So he came here to pray for his father who was sick in the hospital. When he saw a young mother was blaming her capricious daughter, he came to that crying child and handed her a candy. When I saw him trying to make that child happy, my prejudices about Westerners suddenly disappear. Though we might come from different cultures, with different modes of thinking, or different values, we shared the same human kindness. Compared with me, his young man was more active, talkative, and direct. But we both chose to help a stranger when there was a need, just like I helped him, and he helped that little girl. Just as what Buddhism taught me, people were born to be equal, and we should love other people as much as we love ourselves. Also, never give up a chance to other others, for the little kindness you accumulated would turn into the good luck in your future. At that time, I felt the door of my heart opened.

After that, I met more and more foreigners, contacting with them proved my conclusions again and again. I started to learn from people from difficult cultures and made a lot of friends. They were nothing difficult from me inside, no matter how much we looked different outside. Now, in my vacation, I will come to the Wu Tai Temple as a free guide for those foreigners.