The unique strength of the culture of "play" in America

One may warn and lament the possible downfall of America, and the rise of China or some other nations.

It is true that China has a culture of thriftiness and education and single-minded potential of an upcoming superpower.

There is nothing I would personally wish more than to see my fellow countrymen in China enjoy better standards of living, and be proud of a strong and prosperous nation.

But reality sinks in, and I must be frank over the real possibilities.

And the truth is, there is one unique strength of American culture which the Chinese people have not truly learned.

Because it is a strength that often has been said to be a weakness in American Culture.

A statistics commonly quoted, is that Americans, some 280 million people, are attributed to 40% of all world wide resource consumption.

This, many of us have said, is a waste, a sign of American decadence, weakness, and future downfall.

That is true to a degree.

We have seen the down side of this mass consumption in America, poor people spending more than they can earn, on "credit". The American debt system overburdens the entire society.

However, there is a serious upside to this life of "luxury", and it is in the way Americans "play".

The closest analogy I can draw to this talent, is how a lion cub learns to hunt by "playing", with food, and siblings.

Cats, in their nature, instinctively like to "play" to hone their hunting skills. Even household cats play sometimes by pretending a ball or a feather is a prey.

By equal token, I have surmised, that the success of American culture in the 20th century is actually largely due to its nature of "play" and "leisure".

Americans are not a very serious people, by comparison to say, the Germans or the Chinese. Americans spend enormous amount of energy and wealth and resources on leisure activities.

And yet, this is the very thing that spurred many inventors and technologies, in both civilian and military applications.

Afterall, even the early German program of rocketry was manned by people like von Braun, who started as a member in a rocketry club. "Playing" becomes serious business over time.

I am also reminded by the Chinese history of the Han Wu Emperor, who ascended the throne when he was very young. He was prevented from making serious decisions by his Grandmother. So the figurehead young emperor prepared for his career by organizing "hunting expeditions" with his personal body guards. He trained 800 of his body guards to be future generals, by pretending herds of deer as enemy calvary troops, and making his "hunting expeditions" into grand scale battle scenarios. In such exercises, in "playing", he managed to hone his skills and the skills of his men in battle.

Yet in nations, governments alone cannot make the people learn to "play". The people learn to "play" by themselves.

And in "playing", the people hone their diverse skills in all fields.

The American ingenuity, comes from their constant "playing" with everything they can get their hands on, from cars, boats, to computers and cosmetics.

Afterall, the Personal computer industry came from a bunch of computer geeks who "played" around with spare parts in their own homes. And from that, arose Apple, IBM.

We Chinese, lack a tradition of "playing", but we can still learn.

Sometimes, we Chinese look down upon our own young, who spend too much time playing.

But this is a wrong attitude.

The young should "play", as long as they still work and study. Let them work hard and play hard.

Let us not be so serious as to only think about work and family.

"Playing" is good for the creativity of our society and our people, which will hone our skills for the future, give us new ways of looking at things.