Patterns in Life: the China Experience

By Bernard Yegiora

In life there seems to be a reoccurring pattern to every phenomenon. At birth, a baby is fragile and small, but through the evolutionary process that little human being grows up. This pattern is similar to starting a business, from infant stage the business grows into a large business, recruiting more people and making more money.

Defined simply as something intended as a guide for making or understanding something else, the concept of pattern can also be used to understand the growth of a nation like China. Not only a child, or a business grows but a nation also grows. Look at China before Deng Xiaoping’s economic reform, Mao laid the foundation of the modern nation at birth, and Deng guided it through puberty. As China continues to grow in the 21^st century when will she reach adulthood? According to IMF’s latest official forecast, China’s economy will surpass that of America in real terms in 2016, maybe by then it will be a matured nation?

Another pattern in human life is the development of a person. A person eventually grows up and becomes an adult, after reaching that stage he or she does a particular job in society in order to earn an income to survive, and contribute to the development of the society. But in everyone’s life there is a climax or a certain time when that particular person is at the top of his game, or climbs up the ladder of success. This euphoria of success is short lived as time becomes our biggest enemy and we face the challenges of a post climax life.

Rome at one stage reached its climax when it became a great empire, the Mongol Empire during its reign was very powerful, Britain was also a force in the past, America is soon to follow suit but the biggest question of this century is will China become the new big player? Are all the developments we are seeing in China building her up for that climax point in her history? What will the world be like if China reaches her climax? We know for sure thanks to Newton’s third law of motion that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction so how will other nations in the international system react to China’s actions?

Another enlightening analogy is the relationship between the life of a person and a tree. A tree going through the four seasons undergoes various changes. For a time and a season the tree has leaves, but then it dries up and falls down, only to grow back again. This is similar to an extent to the life of a person, sometimes were are really happy because everything is going well, but our emotions change when the situation around us changes. The feeling can be either positive or negative for a time and a season.

To succeed in life one needs to understand those different patterns and come up with their own philosophy of life. The current generation’s pattern of living may not be similar to the next generation because human societies all around the world are evolving at a remarkable rate. The advent of cloning, the internet, nanotechnology, and other significant discoveries of this era to do with technology is changing every society in the world. I wonder what the world will be like 20 years from now.

Look at PNG and the changes that happened after the mobile phone revolution. Even though, the changes happening in our society in terms of technology are slow in comparison to the developed world, we are moving at our own pace which is important. As our economy grows there is bound to be more changes, for example the increase use of internet will make the state become vulnerable to cyber terrorism. This is a new form of crime that we are not fond of, we need to create laws, and train law enforcement agents to counter this threat.

As I observe the growth of my son, the many changes happening in his life is quite interesting. From living in a tropical region in the Pacific to a temperate region in the northern hemisphere, he has under gone a major transformation in order to acclimatize to the harsh northeast climate of China. Apart from putting on weight to insolate him from the winter cold, he has also got used to wearing layers of warm clothing. I guess Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution makes sense in his case, to survive he has evolved.

The changes he went through mirrors a pattern in life that everyone experiences. A person living in the Coastal regions of PNG all his life changes to accommodate the new culture up in the Highlands when he or she travels there. Also he or she obviously acclimatizes to the cool Highlands climate.

In his time in China, he has also seen the rapid pace of development, especially in construction. The city of Changchun is like a dry vegetation at the end of winter, but when spring rains fall trees start to bud and grasses sprout up, meaning new buildings are sprouting everywhere through the city making the concept of rapid development tangible.

He is fascinated by the hugeness of the machineries, and has over time grown so fond of those heavy machineries like the bulldozer, front end wheel loader, dump truck, roller, crane, and excavator. To develop his interest and broaden his knowledge, I have down loaded pictures of those heavy equipments and their names from the internet, which is fast becoming a key source for knowledge.

His curiosity about those heavy equipments due to the on going construction boom demonstrates another pattern in human life, which is the desire to acquire knowledge. All human beings throughout history have endeavoured on a quest to understand and know the changes that are happening all around them. Notorious people like Charles Darwin in his theory of evolution, Isaac Newton in his laws of motion, Thomas Edison in his creation of the incandescent light bulbs, Hans Morgenthau in his understanding of international relations from a realist perspective, all have followed this pattern to create a new body of knowledge to enhance our existence here on earth for a time and a season since we are not immortal.

He has adapted very well to the type of food eaten up in the north east know as Dōngběi cài. Many of the dishes originated from Manchu Cuisine and are a bit different from Sichuan cuisine, Shandong cuisine, Jiangsu Cuisine and Guangdong (Cantonese) cuisine. In the north because of the cold climate they have a lot of soup dishes; he really likes eating rice noodles soup which contains spinach, lettuce, bean sprouts, shitake mushrooms, quail eggs, shredded tou fu sheets, rice noodles, and beef. He also likes eating dumplings and hot pot a soup type of dish containing noodles, both of which are commonly eaten in the north because their staple crop is wheat.

In PNG, people living in the Highlands have a different style of cooking some dishes in comparison to people in the coastal area. Moreover, people in a particular province have their own style of cooking. The way the Bundi’s living on the boarder of Simbu and Madang cook red pandanas or marita in pidgin is different from people in other places. In addition, the type of stuffing and ingredients people in one particular ethnic group use to stuff the intestine of pigs before cooking is different from other ethnic groups.

Regardless of the difference in colour, size and location, one fact that can not be changed is that we are all human beings and our pattern of living is similar. We all have similar needs for food, water, shelter, clothing and love.