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Slow TV, slow food, slow life catch on in world driven by pursuit of speed
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GROWTH in recent decades has been, to a considerable degree, driven by overpowering, often irrational, pursuit of speed (efficiency).
Now we are more efficient in erecting matchbox buildings, in tearing down old buildings, in getting from here to there (tourism), and in getting a meal (fast food).
On an average day, one of the words I use most to my 11-year-old son is “be quick,” for without that reminder, he would have difficulty getting to school in time.
But that also obliquely suggests how this jarring mandate for efficiency is out of sync with natural human rhythms. If you have time to stand and stare, you probably can get an occasional glimpse of our unhurried past by watching how a bird can sing a carefree tune perched atop a tree.
With the establishment exacting more and more efficiency from us, our inward being, attuned to less rigor, becomes frayed, and craves slowdown.
During a recent visit to Japan, that land of workaholics and karoshi (death by overwork), in a cramped hotel room, I was quite impressed by a local TV travel program.
An elderly gentleman was peddling slowly through a suburban area, obviously with a camera trained at him from behind. Then he stopped at a roadside inn for tea. Then he resumed his journey.
Human psyche
He was not visiting any tourist destinations. There were no dramas, no accidents, except off-hand remarks from the man. It was a totally unedited, unprocessed, and uninterrupted record of the trip.
What a contrast to car-chasing, knife-flashing, violence-packed Hollywood movie scenes in which everyone speaks rapidfire, wildly gesticulating, forever shouting in emotionally charged confrontations or exchanges.
From a recent article by Wang Wen’ge (“The meaning of slowness,” December issue of Bolan Qunshu), I learnt about “slow TV,” live “marathon” TV coverage of an ordinary event in its complete length.
Last February, a TV channel (NRK2) in Norway aired a 12-hour live broadcast of a huge bonfire, until it burned out.
This followed the live coverage of the Hurtigruten ship MS Nordnorge during its 134-hour voyage from Bergen to Kirkenes starting on June 16, 2011. Both events were a great success with record ratings.
It’s interesting that modern life becomes so crammed, hurried, and rushed that human beings begin to resort to technical means to vicariously experience life in its uncorrupted state, unadorned, unadulterated, unencumbered, following the pace and rhythms of the human psyche.
The obsession with speed probably arose in response to the orthodoxy of industrial efficiency.
Industrial efficiency
The obsession with efficiency is fairly recent when we think of traditional Chinese opera, with its deliberate, slow movements and long drawl, in which the hero can spend one minute chanting one word.
Although seasoned theatergoers are well acquainted with the plot, each time they watch, connoisseurs can derive fresh satisfaction by appreciating individual renderings of the movements, the arias, librettos, elocution, and postures.
Obviously, in traditional Chinese opera the process is much more important than the denouement, which is, after all, little more than lovers happily married, injustice redressed, evil-doers punished.
The renewed awakening of our biological need for leisured pace finds more positive expression in the rise of such new concepts as slow food, or slow life. It reveals our distrust of the hegemony of industrial efficiency.
If we can arrive at “slow study,” we might even hope to emancipate our kids from the crushing burden of school.
Life is a journey, and we can appreciate the view in a pleasant stroll, on a bike, in a car, in a bullet train, or in an aircraft.
Walking is the only natural way of movement.
The column title comes from the saying “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.”
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