I’m Wildman, 36 years old
The name is a suggestion of my radically distinctive lifestyle
In comparison to ordinary city dwellers
Hong Kong | Wildman’s Simple Life
Both my wife and I deny money as the sole value of the world
I graduated from the Faculty of Education of the University of Hong Kong
And it’s been 13 years
Since I started living in this simple and natural way
My last new clothing was bought over a decade ago
Now I’ve get used to wearing deserted clothes
Our family is vegetarian
We grow our own vegetables
Usually the ingredients of two out of three meals a day
Come from the small slot of land next to our house
From time to time we cook with food
Approaching or even past the “Sell By” date
Because if we don’t eat them
Nobody else will and they just go to the dumpster
90% of our furniture is recycled from streets
And the rest is made by ourselves
With recycled materials
We make our own enzymes for cleaning purposes
In the place of shampoos and detergents
To minimize our dependence on chemical products
I earn a monthly salary of ten thousand
If we don’t count rent
The whole family’s monthly expense is about two thousand
I’m so lucky to meet a like-minded wife
“People say, we need new stuff to get married”
“Luxurious, cool stuff”
“But as I see it, old stuff is better”
“Because after we get married”
“You don’t get a new bride everyday, do you?”
We started seeing each other in 2006, or maybe 2007, and married in 2012
We invited over 300 friends and relatives to our wedding ceremony
Rented a village school, no need of a/c
The ceremony happened in the afternoon, so no need of light
We asked our guests to bring their own utensils
And asked some friends to cook a vegetarian meal
Both my wife and I aren’t big fans of rings
But we did want to exchange wedding rings
So we made two rings with straws
After the exchange of rings, we buried them
Gave them back to nature
It was a simple ceremony
The total cost amounted to about twenty thousand
Our son’s name is “Maipi”
He is two years and seven months old
Some friends asked me
How much it costs you to raise a child?
Actually in the past two years
After our son was born
Our monthly expense only increased by several hundred
His toys are mostly old toys given by our friends
Or exchanged
For him new means seeing for the first time
Not fresh out of the box
I reinvented our trolley
As a private car for our son
Installed a seat in the front
And the rear is a cargo compartment
I take him out on this all the time
As we live with our son
We can turn the screw with him
Shovel the sand, construct with cement together
But you have to accept his speed
When we cook
He would help with the firewood
Many friends of us spend half of their life working in the city
And always wanting to return to country life
They seem silly to me
Making all those detours
If you like country life so much
Why not start as early as you can
You don’t need so much money to live a simple life
Everyone is able to do it
As long as you adjust your mindset
Happiness doesn’t come from material indulgence
When you can understand
The happiness of having food on the table
And having roof over your head
Your life is truly well