Let's try life in the slow lane

Huang Shuo

An economist, after surveying the annual growth of per capita income in various countries, said that one year in China is equivalent to about four in the United States, and one year in Britain is equivalent to about 3.1 months in China.

That is, an American has to live four years to experience the kind of changes a Chinese person sees in a year.

That's fast.

I was racking my brains to pick a topic for this column when a colleague stopped me in the corridor: "You should write about slowing down our lives," she said. She looked exhausted from constantly battling to meet deadlines.

Yes, it is time to stop and think about the price we pay for our breathless lifestyle and reflect on what we are losing along the way.

To keep up with the fast pace of life, we eat fast food, which robs us of the pleasure of enjoying healthy, clean and tasty food; we read fast stories full of sensational celebrity gossip; we go to fast love (speed dating) parties in the hope of finding an ideal mate from among the dozens we are only allowed to speak to for a few minutes; and we fast-track our children, forcing primary school kids to read junior high textbooks.

Above all, we have lost the experience of life. In our struggle for a better future, we have sacrificed the present.

Yuan Xiaojuan, a magazine journalist who died of cancer at the age of 35, wrote in her blog just days before her death: "We live in such a rush that we forget about our inner feelings and what life is all about."

In this mad rush, we ignore all the seemingly insignificant, but precious, details. No sooner do we understand one idea than we are bombarded with a new one. The fast life deprives us of not only the experience of life, but of life itself.

Some have tried to slow down. Italian food and wine journalist Carlo Petrini founded the Slow Food movement in 1986, with the aim of counteracting fast food with green, traditional and environmentally sustainable cuisines. The movement has since gone beyond food to become a slow-life campaign that advocates taking the time to enjoy life.

But a slow life is easier said than done in today's China. Like a truck careening downhill, we are locked in to the pursuit of quick gains.

So how can we realistically slow down?

A slow life does not mean laziness or inefficiency. Rather, it is a new and positive approach to life – eating slowly and savoring the food, reading slowly and absorbing the book. Leading a slow life means having the capacity to live and work with focus, ease, and a sense of direction, while still achieving your goals.

If work tempo is too hard to change, let us begin with food during the Spring Festival holidays. Instead of booking a New Year's Eve banquet in a restaurant, go home and help your parents make steamed buns and sausages just like we did as kids. And don't forget tell them how much you enjoyed the food they cooked.

Then tell your kids to put aside their homework and take them out to play and have fun.

Last but not least, try to get a good night's sleep and wake up naturally.

To paraphrase the poet:

For what is this life, if so full of care

We have no time to sit and stare out of the window.

It's time for us to take slowing down seriously and become more aware of how to live, how to work, and how to treat ourselves.