Crazy Rich Asians grasped the world’s attention in 2018 for its portrayal of a modern lavish Asian society. With the ever-growing middle class in the region, and no stopping until 2030 as predicted by the OECD, the movie displayed no nonsense at all. The east is rolling to keep up with the west, forming a consumer society.
With the increasing buying power and westernisation, easterners demand more western goods, travel more abroad and adopt what they call an “upgraded” lifestyle. The consumption of products or services is no longer solely for its functional end, yet for their symbolism, for how one would be seen in the society.
In the same year, I, an Asian female traveller, swayed with this wave visiting the western world. I called on an art gallery in England to find a temporary exhibition that explored mindfulness in arts. From that moment on, the word “mindfulness” was echoing recurrently during my one and a half year sojourn in Europe.
In the realm where capitalism was born, there grew a society that is leaving consumerism to find happiness in simplicity. Mindfulness invites people to be aware of any thoughts, feelings and sensations of the present moment, disregarding the past or thinking about the future. This growing society meditates, lives a worriless life, just like what Buddha taught his first followers in the eastern sphere.
While mindfulness is flourishing in Europe, in a sense of self-awareness and being present, it is in the USA people started the hype of living more with less, known as “minimalism”. The practitioners of minimalist lifestyle detach themselves from wealth, power and the value of possessions. Instead they esteem self-consciousness and keep possession only of things that make them truly happy or spark joy.
Some of minimalism’s western world advocates are The Minimalists, they wrote books and recorded podcasts; and Courtney Carver through Project 333, which challenges the over-consuming society to wear only from 33 fashion items in 3 months. A good start to learn this lifestyle is by watching Minimalism: A Documentary about the Important Things.
The world is round and ever-changing. The east is becoming west and the west is becoming east, this is the present tendency I see. Of course the internet and media enflame this exchanges to happen. A Japanese organising consultant, Marie Kondo, shows the westerners how to make life less complicated with her decluttering method, while luxurious western food and fashion brands target Asians as their potential market these days.
I recently watched an award-winning documentary American Factory co-produced by Obama, which depicted how a Chinese company set up a huge glass plant in Ohio. On one side it showed tycoon Cao’s accomplishment in keeping up with the western world globalisation, in this case in the USA, yet on the other side, he also mentioned how he had been happier as a young and poor kid since he was closer to the nature.
I see this phenomenon as human’s capability and bravery of change. Those who came from the full of life third world countries, once they experienced world’s first facilities, they mostly wanted to hang in there as they found a new kind of joy and comfort. On the contrary, those who were raised in abundance and educated to always have goals of power and capital, realised that they were not content all the same. Thus they sought for a peace of mind.
As Victor Hugo once wrote, “Ain’t the world a remarkable place?” Now let me invite you to another question, “Does your life deserve a remarkable journey?”