Editor's note: Second of two stories on Chad Lewis and his continuing work in China.CEDAR HILLS, Utah — Nearly two decades later, he remembers it vividly —
being humbled to tears in the private, late-night hours of a darkened
bedroom.
A fresh-out-of-Utah Mormon missionary in his first weeks of a
two-year assignment in Taiwan, Chad Lewis was simply overwhelmed.
Intimidated by a strange, new Asian land and its culture.
Self-conscious for towering over the shorter Taiwanese people.
Devastated by the prospects of learning to communicate in an extremely
difficult written and spoken language.
And then there was the food — would he ever be able to stomach such different dishes of Chinese cuisine?
"I cried myself to sleep at night because I hated the food — it was all too hard," he recalled.With equal parts of prayer, perseverance, and positive thinking,
Lewis turned a challenge into an opportunity, and an opportunity into a
success. He learned the language, loved the people, and gained
a new appreciation for the Chinese culture.
And the food? He developed such an appetite for the local fare
that he often accepted challenges that if he could eat everything put
on his plate by servers, the meal would be his for no charge.
No problem for Lewis — he came, he consumed, and he conquered. It's just one stage of Lewis'
challenge-turned- opportunity-turned-success life. In football, Lewis
went from Orem High standout to BYU walk-on and later Cougar star tight
end as well as from undrafted NFL free agent to a multiyear All-Pro
with the Philadelphia Eagles. And in his Chinese experiences, he went
from overwhelmed LDS missionary in Taiwan from 1990 to 1992 to a
student and speaker of Mandarin and later to be the National Football
League's ambassador to China.
"To think the NFL would send me back there and to travel with the
commissioner — it's just too good to be true," said Lewis, who first
returned to Taiwan — as well as Singapore and Thailand — in his
inaugural effort on the NFL's behalf in 2002 before making a half-dozen
official trips since to mainland China.
He's not only involved in helping pave the way for professional
football in a country of 1.3 billion people, he also has become
unofficial spokesman for China, to speak of "the great people I've met"
and their friendship and acceptance of him.
His NFL assignments come with considerable personal sacrifice —
the across-the-globe travel is draining, he's away from his family for
extended periods of time, and in some cases, he has less than a week's
notice to pack up and head out.
"But we made a big priority to China in my family," said Lewis,
who resides with his family — his wife, Michele (a former BYU
volleyball standout), and five children — in Cedar Hills.
When he signed on as a vice president of a local steel company a
couple of years ago, one condition agreed upon was he needed to be free
to travel when called upon by the NFL. The company recently was sold to
a larger corporation, and Lewis agreed to a buy-out of his position.
"It's never been about the money," he said. "It was the love for
the game and the opportunity, and we look at China the same way."
Lewis' connections with China could be problematic when working
as the NFL's spokesman on the mainland. His first foray with the
language and culture came from his missionary experiences in Taiwan —
and the government of the People's Republic of China has strained
relationships with Taiwan and does not legally recognize The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Mindful of the sensitivities, Lewis is able to explain his
background to Chinese media, dignitaries and others in appropriate but
limited manner. Rather than find differences, he accentuates
similarities.
Such was obvious when he was helping with the NFL's inaugural
Mandarin TV broadcast of the 2004 Super Bowl as a color analyst.
Another announcer on the broadcast mentioned Lewis' family — large in
comparison to China, where most parents are allowed only one child.
Lewis found a chance not to dwell on a difference but express a thought
common to the family-oriented Chinese culture when he said, "There's no
success that can compensate for failure in the home."
In addition to his work in China with the NFL, Lewis was featured
in a television promotion for Brigham Young University and its
language-studies program. Seen regularly in conjunction with TV
broadcasts of Cougar football and basketball games, the promo shows
Lewis speaking Mandarin — his comments are shown in English subtitles —
as he interacts with people, touts BYU's program, exchanges high-fives
and even sings parts of the Cougar fight song in Mandarin.
While some may think it was filmed in China, the promo was in
fact the result of a single-day shoot in San Francisco's Chinatown.
Taking equipment and crew to Taiwan or mainland China or getting
government approval for the latter would have been too costly and "too
much trouble," said Lewis, adding that he loved the interactions from
the day's filming.
Because of his Chinese experience and language skills, NBC had
expressed some interest in getting Lewis involved with its coverage
next month of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. But that fell through, leaving
Lewis with another challenge to turn into an opportunity as he hopes
someone needs a Mandarin-speaking liaison or representative during the
Games.
As he's shown with last-minute NFL calls, the passport-toting
Lewis is available on a moment's notice, saying "I want to be there."