The Future Is in Our Hands

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Living under a sky spiked with concrete tower blocks, threatened with pesticidetainted food crammed with artificial flavorings and antibiotics as we breathe air fouled by car exhaust and industrial pollution, can we truly appreciate the wonders of modern civilization? Doesn’t it make us wonder where it will all end? Recovery of the Heart: Dialogues with People Working towards a Sustainable Beijing by American writer Stephanie B. Tansey, published by New World Press, sounds a warning but also gives us courage and hope that we can, little by little, change the world.

The book is an oral record of local efforts towards sustainable urban development and environmental protection. Tansey’s dialogues with nine everyday people tell their extraordinary stories, thoughts and actions. A long-term foreign resident of China, the author proffers a unique angle from which to reconsider contemporary Chinese society. She underlines the critical need for proactive care of our planet by working towards sustainability in urban areas and an improved living environment.

The nine interviewees include Jim Spear and Betsy Damon, Americans who regard Beijing as their second homes, Yang Ke, an official at the Ministry of Environmental Protection publicity department, Professor He Huili, NGO director Fan Minjian, retired teacher Wang Zhiqin, everyday citizens Zhang Zhimin and Yang Jing, and college students Yan Xiaohui, Huang Zhiyou and Yuan Qinghua. All nine love Beijing and the earth on which it stands. Their common goal is to achieve a long-term sustainable balance between man and the universe. Committed to environmental protection, all advocate a proactive return to nature.

By expressing the endeavors and enthusiasm of this small cross-section of Beijing’s citizens the author shows that making the capital sustainable depends upon the interwoven relationship between Chinese wisdom/ values and this goal. Creating an eco-friendly civilization clearly depends on the everyday people that these nine represent. The conversations are in effect exchanges that reflect Chinese and Western thought on the relationship between humans and nature. They illustrate that, whether held in private or public, such dialogues can engender solidarity, nurture hopes deep in people’s hearts and achieve the building of a sustainable Beijing.

Zhang Zhimin is without doubt the most impressive interviewee. A dozen or more years ago, she gave up her job in international trade to work as a farmer in a Beijing suburb. She bought 150 mu (10 hectares) of land and developed it into China’s first organic farm, according to the principle of “organic, ecological and eco-friendly agriculture.”Zhang has since lived a solitary farming life far removed from the city hustle and bustle. At the time she made this move, none of her friends understood her decision. They were baffled at her willingness to endure the hardship it entailed. To Zhang, cooperating with nature is an art. She has set herself a punishing work schedule calling for iron self-discipline with the aim of pioneering organic agriculture as a new farming alternative. She loves the land and wants to live a simple but abundant life by virtue of what she can grow on it. Zhang regards Nature as her mentor.

But skepticism is constant. People have come to the farm specifically to quiz her, asking,“So you don’t use pesticides, or fertilizers. But unless you solve the problems of air pollution and contaminated groundwater, how can you guarantee your products are really organic? ”

Zhang cultivated a large number of plants that filter toxic substances, but gave no thought to air pollution. She spent around RMB 6,000 on detecting groundwater, but could do nothing to control its quality. She nonetheless appreciates such questions.“If more people were to con- sider and raise such points and to respect and cooperate with nature through a self-disciplined lifestyle we would have fewer worries and live a more peaceful life,” Zhang said.

The hard years Zhang has put into making her farm work show on her face. Laboring in the vast open field has left her alarmingly thin and weak, but no one could doubt her iron resolve. She has spent all her savings and abandoned a warm, comfortable home in the lone struggle to run this alternative type farm. She sets out to be a provider of organic food and to disseminate the organic farming mode, no matter what the obstacles.

Recovery of the Heart: Dialogues with People Working towards a Sustainable Beijing has received a warm response both at home and abroad. “Recovery of the Heart inspires by showing us what is possible when people are dedicated to a dialogue with each other and with the Earth. Stephanie expands and deepens our sense of what it means for people and places to live in ecological partnership,” is the comment of Glenna Gerard, a specialist in interpersonalcommunications and co-author of Dialogue: Rediscover the Transforming Power of Conversation. As she observes, “It is often small groups of committed people who lead the way for our world.”

Since the reform and openingup policy came into force three decades ago, China has undergone great changes and is working towards a moderately prosperous society. As we near this goal we should constantly monitor ourselves and question whether or not our mode of life is sustainable. “Reading this book will instill the desire to turn to nature for wisdom and a future worth living for,” said Zhao Peng of the Nature Conservancy China Program. This is the sentiment the book expresses C let your heart return to nature.