I might have mentioned before… Wang JianShuo is my favorite Chinese blogger. He is truely unique in that he writes a blog for westerners, but he’s a native himself. Wang also heads up kijiji.com (eBay’s classifieds effort) and have worked in Miscrosoft for many years before. Wang is in his late 20s and lives with his wife and (very) young son in Shanghai.
Among many of his fabulous posts, here’s a couple of quotes from his latest post about “Grace and Beauty“:
“I may be too quick or too generalized to say that people in China are afraid of beautiful things. This is obviously wrong. Look at the beautiful furnitures, calligraphy, gardens, silk, and millions of great things we created in the past. China is so beautiful (although it takes time for us to re-discover it).
However, nowadays, people still didn’t recover from the lack of (material) resources in the 20th century. People hate luxury things (there are national wide propagandas against being luxurious). The famous saying for socks and cloths are: “New for three years; old for three years; patched and fixed, they last for another three years”. It seems to wear the same socks for 9 years is the virtue of Chinese people. So people face the moral conflict between being grace and beautiful, and saving money.”
And, in ending:
“I believe when people in China end the centuries of hunger, and war, we get back to the original track to pursue happiness, grace, beauty, and all kinds of great things, just as our ancestor did in the last few thousands years.”
Grace and beauty is not as superficial as it sounds. It does not mean huge mansions and plastic surgeries. Rather, it implies slowing down to breathe in the air and embrace humanity. It reminds us that there is more to life than working 24/7. Whether you agree or not, Wang’s posts are always thought provoking and insightful.
