Silence is golden in an age of sensory overload

As I enter my 15th year living in Shanghai amidst the daily cacophony of noise, I have become ever more aware of the importance of calmness and natural sounds in our daily lives. The BBC recently put out an article and podcast called “Noise: The invisible killer” , where it is stated that Across Europe , noise is linked to 12,000 early deaths a year with millions of cases of severely disturbed sleep and regular noise that impacts mental health. (This is based on a study by the European Environmental Agency called "Noise in Europe - 2020").

I live in Shanghai which I'm sure is on a different level to European cities. My neighborhood is certainly not the noisiest part of the city. However, at all times of the day and night there is a background noise of some kind, be it the distant hum of cars, 24/7 construction activity or some night time maintenance operation. You have to travel far to escape these sounds and find yourself closer to nature. (I wrote about the joys of listening to a pre-dawn soundscape from the birds in my local park here).

Noise pollution is unfortunately also heavily present in Shanghai parks (so there is no escape really) – most often during the evening – where you have the middle-aged and elderly dancing groups perform with their incessant "music" blasting out from speakers. In some parks you might see people practicing their singing skills or playing a musical instrument with backing music blaring out, all competing for one's attention and creating the most awful cacophony of noise.

Fuxing Park is one of the more interesting and lively parks in Shanghai where there are many dance groups and performers spread out across the park. The video is from around 2016 and not much has changed since then.

Shanghai is of course by no means at the top of the league of noisy cities in China and other industrialising countries. A recent study found that Guangzhou in Southern China had the worst noise pollution. Delhi was the second worst city for noise pollution, followed by Cairo, Mumbai, Istanbul and Beijing. Zurich in Switzerland had the least.

What I like to do to escape the noise to wake up early and get out for an early morning walk (or run) as often as I can, basically before half the city wakes up (the city is never fully asleep). To be able to achieve this on any given day is blissful. I also try to escape the city at least once a month, taking advantage of the incredible high speed train network to reach one of the nearby smaller cities and towns from which a short taxi or even cycle can get me to the hills and away from urbanity.

From my time living here as a European, I’ve learned that people in different countries react to sounds very differently. Chinese people appear to revel in the noise of a loud restaurant. It’s common to have to queue to get a table at a restaurant in busy shopping malls (where most people eat). The system of calling people up when their table is ready sometimes involves an incredibly loud, screeching announcement from a loudspeaker and nobody seems to mind. It’s all part of the ‘buzz’ seemingly. Chinese people seem to have the ability to sleep or get deep rest amidst a cacophony of noise too, whether it is deliverymen resting on their electric scooters, or office workers having their obligatory post lunch siesta at their desk.

Whenever I have the chance to visit home in Europe I am always struck by the silence – the peace and tranquillity - especially at night. The sound of cars passing by the main road in the housing estate where I grew up just punctuates the silence versus adding to a cacophony or providing a constant background hum. It had never occured to me before to feel grateful for these moments of quiet. I believe that part of staying mindful and maintaining sovereignty of mind, is about sensory awareness. The more aware we are, the more alive we feel, and in turn the better we feel. It took me many years of living in a noisy city to realise this, and it only did occur to me once I escaped from it.