Sustainable Consumption (Material Culture) has always been a part of my Foochow upbringing.
Take for example my mother and grandmother's patching of our clothes. There is a Chinese expression which goes something like, one patching will allow you to wear for more three years, and the second patching again another three years. So the third patching will give you further three years. And together you can wear your clothe for 9 more years!
Having said that, we Foochow kids were never embarrassed to wear patched clothes.
One of my sisters is a great seamstress and she can create beautiful embroidery and patch work on clothes which are a little torn or a little worn out. We love her designs.
Another Foochow friend Jocelyn Ling creates beautiful items from scraps of materials, or scrappies. Here is an example of her work - an ironing board patchwork cover. Her work gives me hope for the future generation.
We Foochows had a frugal life in the past. Even though today we see so much of the instant and throw away life style, we are happy to note that many people are beginning to be conscious of their environment and have started to practice 3 R's or reduce, reuse, and recycle. It is indeed very similar to our Foochow's Triple Patching philosophy.
Internationally there is even the Oslo Definition on Sustainable Consumption, "the use of services and related products which respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life while minimizing the use of natural resources and toxic materials as well as emissions of waste and pollutants over the life cycle of the service or product so as not to jeopardize the needs of future generations."
No comments:
Post a Comment