One Sneak Peek Into The Wild Spirit of Less

This man climbs rocks, walks forests, and scavenges surplus bread like a vulture—his spirit animal. 

To him, these actions aren’t just for survival, they’re quiet acts of resistance in a world obsessed with growth at all costs.

Named after a river in China whose city was once the heart of the Han dynasty, Hang Chong’s story meanders much like the river itself: 

Shaped by unexpected turns, grounded by nature, and flowing always toward purpose.

Because if we don’t have clean air, water, or soil…

What’s left to talk about?

1. Why talk sustainability? 

“If we want to sustain human life as we know it, we have to start with the basics: clean air, clean water, healthy food and shelter. Without these, we can’t even begin to talk about anything else.

That’s what drives me to care about the environment that we live in. It’s not just about saving polar bears or hugging trees—it’s about survival and our quality of life. It’s about making sure people have the basic human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. On a planet where a fair number of people still don’t have their basic needs met, we have a real challenge.

I was a Scout for 10 years, and the motto “Be Prepared” has stuck with me. One thing that left a deep impression on me was the advice in the Scout founder’s farewell letter to fellow scouts before he passed on,  of leaving the world a little better than I found it. That’s stayed with me ever since. If I can make life better for someone else, in any small way, that means something.

Many of us don’t realise how much we rely on the planet for our basic needs and well-being. And yet, we’re caught in this polycrisis—a pollution crisis, a biodiversity crisis, a climate crisis—all feeding into each other. 

I think one of the most important things we need to rediscover is empathy. Not just for people, but for all the living species around us that make human life possible. Plants and animals are not just “nice to have.” They’re essential for the ecosystem services that they provide to sustain all life on our planet.

In Singapore, we live in a relatively stable and prosperous society. You don’t often see homelessness or starvation. But just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there. Many people here are struggling quietly. And underneath that, we’re still highly vulnerable. Think about our water and food supply—during the Japanese invasion, they captured the MacRitchie Reservoir and military food depots. The British Empire surrendered soon after. That was a major turning point. Water and food are basic needs. That’s why after Singapore’s independence, our government spent so much effort ensuring we wouldn’t be reliant on external sources any longer. This same principle applies to food and energy resilience today.

Right now, we import most of our food. If our neighbours stop selling us rice, what then? You can’t eat cryptocurrency or gold bars. And with over 90% of our energy coming from fossil fuels, transitioning won’t be easy—we have limited access to natural resources and rely heavily on regional goodwill. In the past, some politicians have even talked about “turning off (Singapore’s) taps”. What they said is not to be taken as just a hypothetical, but a real threat for us to keep in mind.

To create more land and build more homes, we’re importing sand and cutting down forested areas. Excessive sand mining in source countries has been linked with several environmental challenges, which include destruction of riverine habitats, loss of fisheries, coastal erosion and flooding.

Why are we still planning for a population of 6.9 million when we’re already at 6 million and still struggling to be self-sufficient? 

More people means greater demand on every basic resource—food, water, energy, space.

I get that some of this stems from concerns about an ageing population. Two out of five of us will be over 60 years old by 2050. The fear is that if we don’t grow in number, we won’t be able to support the elderly. But I think we need to challenge that narrative. What if, instead of chasing a higher population number and hence more consumption, we focus on empowering the people already here, especially the disadvantaged, to live better and more economically active lives instead?

Our current system links civil service bonuses and performance to GDP growth. But does economic growth really mean everyone benefits? If sin industries grow, GDP goes up too—but does that make our society better? I think it’s time we looked at new models.

Gross National Happiness. Doughnut Economics. Ideas that prioritise wellbeing over growth that does not account for planetary boundaries.

I believe less can be more. I try to be conscious of my own lifestyle every day—what I consume, how I live, and whether I’m walking the talk. Because real sustainability doesn’t start with motherhood statements. It starts with how we choose to live. “

2. Advocating for Planet Earth

“People often engage me to bring them on nature walks. It’s something I love doing — getting others to be curious about the natural world. One of my favourite places is Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. It’s a site for place-based education, where the land itself becomes the classroom. 

Fun fact: “Buloh” means bamboo. And bamboo isn’t just a plant — it’s the largest grass in the world. In Hokkien, we sometimes joke that if you’re really poor, you’ll have to resort to eating grass. But that’s not such a bad thing when you think about it. Wheat and barley were one of the first grasses humans figured out how to cultivate. It gave us bread and beer and a means to store food and build food resilience. This marked mankind’s pivot from being hunter-gatherers to early farmers.

Humans learned to domesticate animals too. But it was the edible seeds of grasses — like wheat, rice, and maize — that made civilisation possible. They gave us stable food sources. We could finally settle down, build villages, then cities and empires, and eventually free up time for innovation. If it weren’t for those cereal grains from grasses, we wouldn’t have the societies we have today.

And that’s one of the examples I like to share during my programmes. I get invited by social enterprises and organisations to run environmental workshops, and I enjoy every bit of it. I’ve been able to thrive without a full-time job for years because I’ve adopted a minimalist lifestyle. I am privileged to be able to still live with my parents, so I don’t pay rent — which, for most people, is a major monthly cost. The median salary in Singapore is around $4,000. Rent can easily eat up a quarter of that.

Those from the ‘sandwich generation’ tend to feel stuck. They might earn $10,000, but most of it goes to mortgages and utilities, children’s needs and parental support, and daily expenses. There may be barely anything left to save and invest. My father’s generation could pay off their home loan in 10 years. Now, it may take 15-20 years instead.

I’ve also tapped into the surplus food network. A neighbour of mine volunteers with sharing apps, such as Olio and GoodHood. She picks up unsold food from places like Foodpanda and shares it with the community. In return, she keeps a small portion. I visit her once a week to collect some of that food — bread, fresh produce, even artisan items that would have otherwise been incinerated.

I freeze whatever I can’t finish and toast it for breakfast. I’m also really careful about what I eat. If there’s an ingredient I don’t recognise, I’d rather skip it. From a precautionary perspective, it’s just safer.  By 2030, two out of five Singaporeans will either be diabetic or pre-diabetic. And a lot of this comes down to our diet. Processed white bread here often contains added sugar — and when they replace sugar with artificial substitutes, that can mess with our gut microbiome, which are essential for absorbing nutrients.

All of this is part of how I try to live consciously. Sustainability isn’t just about grand ideas. It’s also about your plate, your choices, and your pace of life.”

3. Adopting eco-friendly practices in daily life

“If I had a spirit animal, I’d say I’m a vulture. Not in a grim way, but because I mainly live off surplus food. What others throw out often becomes my next meal. My diet is incredibly varied, and honestly, it all depends on what turns up. Just this morning, someone in my area posted a batch of surplus home cooked curry. I picked it up for lunch.

If anyone within a five-kilometre radius shares that they’ve got food to give away, I can cycle over and get some exercise at the same time. It could be a bakery’s end-of-day bread, or groceries someone overbought. My mum also volunteers at a community garden nearby — just ten minutes away — so we get fresh, pesticide-free vegetables too!

Even during the Hungry Ghost Festival, I can make use of what’s deemed surplus. You’ll find tons of oranges left outdoors as part of  ancestral offerings. Traditionally, such offerings are consumed after the spirits have done so. But nowadays they are commonly left out, which can attract pests and create more litter. I help to repurpose them — sometimes up to a hundred oranges at once— and share them with neighbours that are not superstitious. 

In fact, helping others tap into these food-sharing networks has become part of my lifestyle too. When I talk to people about it, it only takes five seconds to get them interested in free food. This opens their mind to learning more about food waste and sustainability eventually. The idea is simple: reduce waste, feed people, and live more consciously. That’s how I eat, and that’s how I live.”

4. Advice to youths

“If I could give one piece of advice to young people today, it’s this: spend a little less time in the digital world and a little more time with nature and our wild neighbours. Nature can be deeply therapeutic — emotionally and mentally. And with so many youths struggling with mental health, I believe the outdoors offers a quiet kind of healing.

I started my environmental journey when I was 16. Over time, I realised that the more I learned about the natural world, the more I saw how deeply connected we all are to it. When you begin to appreciate where your water comes from, for example, it changes the way you see everything. The chinese idiom 饮水思源 comes to mind — when you drink water, remember its source.

Singapore may be small, but it’s still home to endemic wildlife found nowhere else on Earth. That’s something we should be proud of! But if you ask most people what’s truly uniquely Singapore, they might struggle to answer. 

We spend millions to “rent” pandas from China, but what about the animals that are native to our own land? We talk a lot about national education, but somehow, this part — our natural heritage — often gets left out.

If we don’t protect what’s ours, who will?”

Connect with Hang Chong here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hangchong/

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And that is all for today’s One Sneak Peek Into.

Stay tuned for more insights from our interview series as we continue to explore the stories of trailblazers breaking barriers and redefining success.