English: China’s with provinces numbered for use with tables of provinces. Regions are coloured: Orange = Northwest Purple = Southwest Yellow = South Central Cyan = East Green = North Blue = Northeast (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is an excellent article by Patti Waldmeir in Shanghai, published in the FT; it takes a critical look at the “Chinese Dream”. I would highly recommend reading this article. Check it out!
via When blue becomes the new white – FT.com.
I very much empathize with the story and have met taxi drivers in Los Angeles and Sydney with similar tales. Essentially, working class families stake their all on their children’s education. My story in LA was of a Russian taxi-driver who was proud that his daughter had become a doctor. The Sydney story was similar but about an Egyptian taxi driver from Cairo. However, both stories were pre-2008 and before the financial crash. Now students leave universities with huge debts and uncertain prospects for jobs; youth unemployment in Europe is a record high and is finally consuming policy-makers attention as a crisis.
Returning to the FT article, people in the West need to understand that despite China’s growth, it is even more competitive to get on the jobs ladder. I was in China last October and very much empathize with the article. Despite China being nominally a Communist country, it is incredibly competitive; sadly, it is not always a meritocracy and cronyism is widespread, especially getting a job in the Public Sector or one of China’s major corporations.
Sadly, the Chinese Dream is perhaps a bit like the American Dream at the moment; increasingly young people feel that they have been conned.
Any thoughts?
