Encounter in the future

[Republic of Colombia] Arroyave Martinez Daniel, Dalian Maritime University

Future refers to “the time from now on, the later time relevant to the present moment. It could be a moment or a period of time.” This is one of the future’s definitions online. Nevertheless, to me, future is not merely a concept of time, but also a trend of development and force of hope.

I am a Colombian student studying in China. Due to the difference of time zones, China is 13 hours ahead of Colombia, thus friends of my hometown call the Chinese “people living in the future.” It might be one of human natures that people tend to be curious about the future and dream to be able to travel to the future. For me, studying in China is to travel to the future. To realize this dream of my childhood, I came to study at the Dalian Maritime University in the beautiful Chinese coastal city Dalian. The moment I encountered with China, a question rose from my mind that although the city is as prosperous as my hometown, it only took China three to four decades to achieve this, which inspired me to explore the reasons behind it. After living in China for some time, I have come to two important conclusions.

Firstly, the Chinese people have a blueprint for their future, and always carefully analyze and plan everything in advance. For example, a Chinese article about China’s Lunar Exploration Project reads, “Officials from the State Commission of Science and Technology for National Defense Industry announced that China’s Lunar Exploration Project has gotten into the implementation phase, and within the next three years, a Chinese satellite will start orbiting the moon; within the next six years, a Chinese lunar rover will make a soft landing on the moon; and by 2020, a robot developed by Chinese will bring lunar soil samples back to Earth.” Being said in 2005. But in 2020, Chang’e-5 did fly to the moon and start to collect lunar soil samples. Many netizens praised China for “its precise implementation of each step as planned.” Undoubtedly the scientists’ hard work is the key factor of success, meanwhile, in my opinion, the Chinese’s planning is the driving force of success, since without planning, there would be no timetable to follow.

Secondly, Chinese are hopeful about their future life. They believe that although they would experience setbacks, the trend of continuous improvement would remain unchanged. Take the rampant coronavirus pandemic as an example, the Chinese were exposed to it earlier than we were in Colombia and there was no effective medicine at that time, but the Chinese firmly believed that the future would be all right and that an effective medicine would be found sooner or later to beat the epidemic. Following the government’s instruction, things are turning better now. Without hope for the future, how can we win the anti-epidemic war?

For me, the time I have lived in China is very short and there are still many things I have not been exposed to, so I don’t have any particularly deep feelings about it. But I believe that the Chinese people attach great importance to their future, because in their eyes, the future is a bright and hopeful place where they are yearning for, where I would like to encounter China again as well.