On Smoking

4,512 characters2007.09.17

I almost forgot that when we were drinking that day, there was another astonishing discovery: Uncle Ye had actually started smoking~~

Though “astonishing” may not be quite the right word, because in my subconscious I had long since accepted the image of ZW as a smoker—he’s a Shanghai uncle, after all~. Especially those men who mingle in official circles: how could they not smoke? Come to think of it, my dad doesn’t touch either cigarettes or alcohol, so naturally he never made it into official circles either……

Smoking is first of all an image project. Call it maturity, bearing, style, coolness, or whatever you like: with a cigarette in your mouth, a furrowed brow, and a slow exhale…… there is a certain mood here that cannot be expressed without smoking. As for women smoking, the image is even more different. Whether one smokes or not, much like one’s choice of clothing or hairstyle, is a way of displaying one’s personality. I remember my grandmother last time shaking her head over and over, sighing, saying she really couldn’t make sense of young people today, couldn’t make sense of them at all; it turned out she had seen a girl smoking. This proves that, compared with clothing and adornment, smoking is even more effective at flaunting one’s individuality. But personally, I do not approve of that image—notably the somewhat decadent and depraved temperament in it—so I could not possibly smoke either. (Of course, as a pluralist, whenever I say I “do not approve,” I am always speaking only of myself.)

Smoking is, secondly, of course, a kind of etiquette. Like alcohol, cigarettes are undoubtedly one of the most important components of modern social manners. Liquor is always something to be drunk first at banquets, but what about in ordinary dealings? How do you make polite conversation with your superiors? Lighting a cigarette, offering a cigarette, giving a cigarette…… there is no need to say much about their importance in social settings. My dad, though he has never smoked, always kept cigarettes on hand. No matter how effective the anti-smoking movement may be, chewing gum can never replace cigarettes in social etiquette.

Smoking is, of course, also a lifestyle and an attitude toward life. Some people may only drink in social situations, but very few people smoke only in social situations. Unless one quits extremely early, smoking for the most part is always addictive. Whether psychologically or physically, one will inevitably develop a dependence on it, or at least form a habit. In the end, smoking becomes an inseparable part of their lives. As a lifestyle, smoking of course also has its own particular intentionality, and thus to some extent changes a person’s attitude toward life. How exactly it changes them varies from person to person; I, being a non-smoker, can understand it even less clearly. Incidentally, it is worth pointing out: perhaps many people believe that one’s attitude toward life always determines one’s habits, but in fact it is often the other way around. Also, the reasons a person gives for defending their smoking habit are often different from the reasons they originally chose to smoke.

Everybody knows that smoking is bad for your health. Because of this, when I was little I had many tantrums with my grandfather, insisting that he quit smoking no matter what; in the end he had no choice but to sneak cigarettes behind my back and still never managed to quit. Now I know that although quitting smoking is much easier than quitting drugs, the harm caused by smoking is not so terrible that one would have to; so being able to steel oneself and successfully quit is still extremely rare. Therefore, anyone preparing to smoke should have a full understanding of this point: once you are addicted, in most cases you cannot quit.

But then again, the harm from smoking really cannot be said to be that great. Although my grandfather did indeed die because of smoking, he still lived to be seventy-six, which is roughly the lifespan of Einstein. Everyone must die sooner or later; a few more years or a few fewer years—frankly, it’s all much the same. The key issue is smoking’s impact on quality of life, because smoking does indeed weaken the body and makes it more likely that one will suffer for years from various troubles such as lung disease, stomach disease, and so on. On the other hand, smoking, as part of a smoker’s life, is itself also an element of quality of life; so how exactly to weigh it all depends on the individual. One attitude toward life that those who refuse to quit can at least display here is that they are rather easygoing about things like living three more years or five fewer years~

I happened to think of this and casually wrote a few paragraphs. It seems my style has recovered a little bit, hasn’t it?

Wishing Uncle Ye good health!

September 17, 2007