A prolific blogger on things China, David Wolf from Silicon Hutong, noted last week:
China will reach maturity not when it returns to the hubristic self-adulation of The Qing emperors, but when it learns to walk a middle path in its approach to things foreign, assigning value to ideas, innovations, systems and people based not on their origin, but on their intrinsic merits. The country could once afford to forego this middle path, but today it is at odds with everything China seeks to accomplish in a global economy, polity, and society.
Adam Daniel Mezei, fromAdam Daniel Mezei, butchered, by his own admission, David’s note, to conclude:
China will reach maturity not when it returns to the hubristic self-adulation of the Qing emperors, but rather when it begins to adopt a Western, or “foreign,” approach to time, assigning a near-commodity value to its passage, not squandering it as in days of yore. Like a true Westerner, time should be devoted to only the most deserving of projects and endeavors. China could once afford to forego this extreme path, but today the country is at odds with everything it seeks to accomplish in a global economy, polity, and society.
I would, however, be inclined to disagree and suggest that the West may only reach maturity when it forgoes assigning a near- commodity value to times passage. It seems to me that there is value in the contrived expediency of time only when it comes together with a second value, that of human exchange and mutual respect.
That moment is when an agreement has been made between people to meet at a certain point in time. On the basis of human exchange and in the name of mutual respect, that portioning of time could be seen as even requiring fastidious adherence. Over and above and after that it seems to me we can allow the ambiguous nature of times passage to take hold, allowing the wider processes rather than simply a single human participant or group of actors to dictate. There is no need to drive out defining exchanges, no need to come to categorical conclusions, but to allow, in the true Chinese sense of time, the right moment to take hold of the process for us.
Whenever I ascend a building of more than twenty or so floors in any of the cities of our world and look out, I do wonder how it is we have managed, with all our intelligence and maturity as a human race of people, and over – relative to each of our own lives – a long period of time, to have created what lies before us. The desire above all else to reach conclusions, to make decisions, to be efficient with our time; the treating of time as a commodity; to compete for it and to compete over what is achieved in it, has led us to concretize our planet and to burn a large hole in the natural resources beneath us and of course in the layer of ozone in the Earth’s atmosphere above us.
May be, maturity is found in not feeling the pressure of time, not feeling that we need to make our mark in that time, and that greater parts of the process than us will decide things for us, and to accept that. It is I suppose about being able to allow that process to evolve and recognising it. That there are moments when we are chosen by time. The modern world of commodities and productivity maybe doesn’t like such a model, but the model of the modern world that is laid before us, is also not that easy to like.
That said, there are pieces of the puzzle that certainly are. I have a couple of students I teach on a Sunday afternoon, a girl aged 11 and a boy aged 13, their English is very good. The girl last week asked if she could sing a song to me, always a glad recipient of such a request I agreed. She continued to excellently re-jig a famous pop tune. I then asked the boy, half in jest, if he wanted to sing, expecting, as would be the case back at home, an instant decline, however this being China, where natural expression trumps pretension every time, he nodded that he would like to. He proceeded to sing a pop love song that my elegant and quite beautiful Chinese assistant herself knew. Before I knew it, this 13 year old boy and this 25 year old women were passionately, harmoniously and unselfconsciously singing together a cheesy western love song. Time just stood still as smiles spread across everyone’s faces.
I know nothing on this topic of time, just my own random thoughts 随感… here are a couple of related references that I have just stumbled across, that may or may not be of some interest or value:
‘The Chinese View of Time -A Passage to Eternity’ by Manuel B. DY, Jr.
‘Concepts of Time and the World We Live In’ by Alan Macfarlane
‘Time’ - from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
‘In Search of Time: The Science of a Curious Dimension’ by Dan Falk – Book Review
‘The Tao of Time’ by Diana Hunt – Book Review
西安
Great post, Ricardo.
Reminds me of the most moving art exhibit I have ever seen – Tempus Fuget: Time Flies at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri in 2000. An entire wing of art with “time”-themed pieces from around the world. Amazing. Needless to say, but my ganja-riddled teenage mind was bent real hard from that experience.
Thinking of “time” and “China” together brings to light a flood of memories: getting frustrated on public buses in traffic jams, apartment security guards locking gates at 11PM, and “Sculpting in Time” to name a few. All of these experiences helped me grow immensely as a person.
Thanks Mark,
Life, it does seem, is and will always be a strange mix of the here and now, the past and the old unknown of the future. We will always find those moments of the past doing their best to have a say in the present. I think we will be doing alright if we keep listening to them and if we keep our eyes and minds open, although maybe not quite as much as in those younger days. And if we can get a sense of what the right time is for things, then everything may just work out.
There was actually another note I had originally added at the end of the above article but took it out as it didn’t feel quite right, Tony actually commented, having read the original, that I should may be leave it in. So, I will add it here Mark, as it feels a bit more appropriate now:
…With the very sad news this week that my girlfriend’s (Ling’s) grandmother passed away it was of course another moment to reflect on the nature of time. The striking aspect for me, over and above the tragic sense of loss felt by Ling, bound up in just how much her grandmother had meant to her, was how her grandmother’s life continued in her. There was a moment as I reflected on what I knew of her grandmother and then when looking into Ling herself, that this fact seemed so clear. There was almost a sense of there being no distinction between the passing of a life and the continuation of it in another. Maybe Ling cannot as yet see it as such, but it seemed quite obvious to me and will hopefully be the source of strength for her later.
As the old saying goes Mark…
Peace.