To Live

[A film adapted from the short novel "To Live" by Hua, Yu]

I rarely admire the work of the famous/infamous Chinese director Yimou, Zhang.

Assuming that everyone has watched one if not more of his films, which include several aesthetically appeasing films with scripts written by middle schoolers. (Well, I am just disgusted at his "House of Flying Daggers" & "Curse of the Golden Flowers"....sometimes I wonder if he was on crack while filming those two movies). But today I saw his 1994 "To Live" in my Chinese class, and I was then instructed to read the literary masterpiece that gave basis to this film...well, only the Author's Foreword that took up 2 computer screens.

An excerpt from the Author's Foreword:
"There's a very tense relationship between reality and myself, more seriously, I view reality as an enemy. As time moves along, the anger inside of me has come to peace, and I started to realize that the purpose of a true writer is to seek the 'truth', the 'truth' that disregards all moral judgments....the purpose of the writer is to present 'nobility' to the people. The 'nobility' mentioned here is not simply a sense of beauty, but a sense of otherworldliness that does not distinguish between good and evil, that looks upon the world with sympathy...This story "To Live" is about the people's abilities to withstand pain, and then their joy afterwards while looking upon the world. The writing process made me realize that people live for the sole purpose of living, not for any other reasons or things. I feel like I finished a noble piece."

I find it extremely enlightening, for very much so, many of our lives are lived for the sole purpose of living, and it is noble enough to even come to that realization. However, as a Christian, living meant something more. To this day, after 6 years of walking with Christ, I still question the meaning of living for God, but I have never questioned the legitimacy of living for God - simply for the reason that I cannot live for the sole purpose of living, because the source of overcoming pain through living alone is not enough to bring about complete joy, and despite of common beliefs, time alone does not heal.