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The measure of happiness: 6 people in 1 room
By Wang Yong |
October 12, 2010, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
FORTY-FOUR years ago, I was born into a room big enough to shelter three generations of my family: my grandma, my parents, my sister, my brother, and me - six people.
How big is it? I never knew until one week ago when I revisited it during the National Holiday. I measured it with small steps and found it to be less than five steps wide and 10 steps long. It's just about 50 square meters.
The room is now part of a restored residential compound whose master was a senior government official of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). In the 1960s, the compound was parceled out to dozens of ordinary families, including mine.
Our room was the study of the old master who read the classics that carried Chinese core values. Our room was part of a two-story building that collected nearly 250,000 volumes of classics and other books - it was one of China's four largest private libraries in late Qing Dynasty.
For more than 10 years, my family of six lived in that "big" room, which filled my boyhood with joy. We had no desks, so my brother and I used the rough wood bottoms of inverted used crates. And we were both good students.
What would you say about a family of six living in such a small room today? Most probably, you would say the space is far too small and since China has made so much progress, it should be bulldozed and replaced with something better.
This mentality has profaned the words "progress" and "better." In today's political vocabulary worldwide, "progress" has been narrowly defined to mean greater material comforts - bigger houses, fancier furniture and sexier men and women.
Even many of us born in the 1960s and earlier seem to have forgotten the very source of our happiness: love and sacrifice. We were happy because we loved our family and were loved in return, so we were ready to share a tiny room.
When mutual love and sacrifice disappear, discontent arises. It's not uncommon today for parents and kids to take each other to court in their struggle to slice up family property. A bigger room does not necessarily mean progress - if you believe progress also means greater spiritual comfort.
In today's lead article, Jeffrey D. Sachs warns: "The lesson from America is that economic growth is no guarantee of well-being or political stability." And yet many Chinese - officials in particular - remain obsessed with economic growth as the sole, and distorted, definition of "progress." Sachs continues: "America today presents the paradox of a rich country falling apart because of the collapse of its core values."
What are the core values in America and beyond? Sachs implies that equality is one of them. Without equality, a society is divided and unstable, however rich it is. Equality requires love and sacrifice, while inequality doesn't. As in America, China today is caught up in consumerism that ultimately caters to the material comforts of a few, not of many.
The idea of housing six people in one room - a happy norm not so long ago - has become something to be ashamed of today.
How big is it? I never knew until one week ago when I revisited it during the National Holiday. I measured it with small steps and found it to be less than five steps wide and 10 steps long. It's just about 50 square meters.
The room is now part of a restored residential compound whose master was a senior government official of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). In the 1960s, the compound was parceled out to dozens of ordinary families, including mine.
Our room was the study of the old master who read the classics that carried Chinese core values. Our room was part of a two-story building that collected nearly 250,000 volumes of classics and other books - it was one of China's four largest private libraries in late Qing Dynasty.
For more than 10 years, my family of six lived in that "big" room, which filled my boyhood with joy. We had no desks, so my brother and I used the rough wood bottoms of inverted used crates. And we were both good students.
What would you say about a family of six living in such a small room today? Most probably, you would say the space is far too small and since China has made so much progress, it should be bulldozed and replaced with something better.
This mentality has profaned the words "progress" and "better." In today's political vocabulary worldwide, "progress" has been narrowly defined to mean greater material comforts - bigger houses, fancier furniture and sexier men and women.
Even many of us born in the 1960s and earlier seem to have forgotten the very source of our happiness: love and sacrifice. We were happy because we loved our family and were loved in return, so we were ready to share a tiny room.
When mutual love and sacrifice disappear, discontent arises. It's not uncommon today for parents and kids to take each other to court in their struggle to slice up family property. A bigger room does not necessarily mean progress - if you believe progress also means greater spiritual comfort.
In today's lead article, Jeffrey D. Sachs warns: "The lesson from America is that economic growth is no guarantee of well-being or political stability." And yet many Chinese - officials in particular - remain obsessed with economic growth as the sole, and distorted, definition of "progress." Sachs continues: "America today presents the paradox of a rich country falling apart because of the collapse of its core values."
What are the core values in America and beyond? Sachs implies that equality is one of them. Without equality, a society is divided and unstable, however rich it is. Equality requires love and sacrifice, while inequality doesn't. As in America, China today is caught up in consumerism that ultimately caters to the material comforts of a few, not of many.
The idea of housing six people in one room - a happy norm not so long ago - has become something to be ashamed of today.
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