Losses come along with material gains

In October, three years since my last visit, I returned from the United States to visit my hometown in China. In a sense I did not return - at least to the hometown I used to know, even just a few years ago. The place seems to have undergone an extreme makeover in those three intervening years.

The economic development that has taken place is simply jaw dropping. Beautiful houses have mushroomed at the foot of hills. Modern conveniences such as refrigerators, air-conditioning, microwaves and solar-powered showers are now the norm for households that used to struggle for subsistence. Roads have been built connecting one village to another. Almost all families own electric bicycles, motorcycles or even cars; walking seems to have become a lost art.

Farming has also become easier. For fields not yet abandoned to weeds -many are - a new farming method is being used to plant rice. We used to first sow the seeds in a seedling plot, then root out the seedlings and replant them in a bigger field where they could grow more evenly until harvested, now the seeds are scattered in the fields.