By Wang Hao (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-02-01 07:24

We are on a fast train - so fast that we are oblivious to the view outside the window.

So how fast is it?

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

That is, an American has to live four years to feel the changes a Chinese experiences in a year.

That's fast.

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

Yes, it is time to stop and think about the price we pay for this breathless life and what we are losing along the way.

To keep up with the fast pace of life, we eat fast food, which has robbed us of the pleasure of enjoying healthy, clean and tasty food; we read fast stories that fabricate sensational stuff about celebrities; we attend fast love (speed dating) parties in the hope of finding an ideal mate from among the dozens to whom you are only allowed to speak to for a few minutes; and we fast-track our children, forcing junior high textbooks on primary school kids.

Above all, what we have lost is the experience of life we should enjoy on the way to a better life.

Yuan Xiaojuan, a magazine journalist who died of cancer at the age of 35, wrote in her blog 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 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 also 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 gone beyond food itself - it has turned into a slow-life campaign that advocates taking time to slow down and enjoy life.

But a slow life is certainly easier said than done in today's China. Like a truck careening downhill, we are involuntarily plunged into a pursuit of quick gains.

So how can we really slow down?

A slow life does not translate into laziness or inefficiency. It is a positive attitude about a new way of life - eating slowly and savoring the food, reading slowly and absorbing the book. Leading a slow life is the capacity to live and work with focus, ease, and a good sense of direction without missing your goal.

If work tempo is 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 tell them how much you enjoyed the dishes they cooked.

Then put aside your kids' homework to take them skiing and share in their fun.

Last but not least, try to have a sound 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.

E-mail: wanghao@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 02/01/2008 page8)