Yuzhi Xi

Understanding of Sustainability from different perspective was one of the major goals that I want to achieve from this honour program. Here's a reflective essay on my personal opinion on the idea of sustainability.

 

Leave Blank for Good

For sustainability, the recently rapid popularized term, thousands people could have thousands different interpretations under different perspective. As a China born Chinese grow up in a traditional Chinese family till the age of 19 and then came to be educated in an American Liberal Art College for four years, my understanding of sustainability has been shaped by conventional grandparents, energetic American classmates, readings for classes, observations from daily life et al. My ideas on sustainability have always being and are still altering over time. Currently, I am embracing the idea of sustainability is the art of leaving space and reserve blank intentionally. This could not be a novel idea but rather a personal understanding of sustainability.

 

For me, the idea of sustainability has been introduced and discussed profoundly not until college. Thus my first knowledge about sustainability is the westernized so called standard environmental definition from environmental science classes. In those classes, sustainability is defined as utilize the resources and services from nature in a way that there are plenty left for the following generation to pursue at least an equivalent quality of like as we have nowadays. In other words, being sustainable means to reserve resources for later intentionally. The idea is a sense of reservation and restraint. Since originally from a relatively reserved culture, I did not understand the necessity of emphasize it again and again. Reserve and restraint is valued as highest virtue back home. But it turned out that being reserved is not a good choice to live a life in the US. Overexpressions and extremes are pursued here. During class, students should not reserve their questions to the end and instead they should stop the lecture and ask right away, which is a way to show precipitation in class. People are talking about big ideas all the time. Even the automobiles and the shopping cart in Walmart is much bigger then those back home. Overall, America gives me the feel of thinking big, and doing big is the way to live the life and to be success. This thinking big and then act big norm gives people an illusion that as long as they push for extremes they will achieve their goal and there will be no limit, which cause series of environmental and resources crisis nowadays since there is actually limitation, the limitation of nature. For me after four years of living here, taking all those sustainability courses, and discussing the idea with different of people, it is actually necessary to address the idea of reserve in this country.

 

While, does modern-Chinese culture really equal to the idea of sustainability? The answer is no. As briefly mentioned above, Chinese consider reserve and restraint as virtue. Summarized in an old Chinese saying: leaving space when deal with persons, substance and life in general. This is the idea of being reserved and never fully act on any thing including: using up resources, expressing emotions, keeping relationships among people and even having a meal (never eat till you are hundred percent full, stop at eighty and leave space and time to digest and appreciate the food). Thus this Chinese old saying is actually talking about the same idea with emphasize on leaving space in general rather than leaving space for future. However this old Chinese old saying does answer one question about the idea of sustainability of how much should we leave untouched. Depend on different subject the space or blank left undone and untouched should be enough for adjustment, for further development, for rethinking, for balancing, and for more possibility. Since human being always has better ideas later, thus part of resources (in a broad view, including natural resources, social connections, and economic resources) should be reserved and restrained for future ideas and generations.