A social Observation

There is a strange social paradox that soon stands above most of the other social oddities seen by an outsider living in China, it is difficult to find a simple way of explaining it without actually show the world what I have seen or heard but I will try.

The paradox is this, to survive in the developed regions of China, or to leave a poverty stricken area and ‘make it’ in China’s free market, you must be studious, hard working and conform rigidly to other people’s expectations of the position that you want to take up in society. To do this you must spend your childhood, your teenage years, and life into your twenties abandoning many of the things that are believed in Europe and America to be crucial to the development of a healthy persona. This leaves young adults with the personality of an old man, and an inner child pinning to go outside and play soccer with its friends.

Many of China’s new generation of near capitalists now have the money to afford luxuries that were closed to their parents due to China’s underdeveloped economic plans, and the ability to enjoy these luxuries that was closed to them as children due to their regimented upbringing. Now, what to do with that inner child? Amidst what I would describe as ‘the brutal realities’ of China there is now a generation who can afford many of the trappings of a ‘modern lifestyle’ and who secretly want to let the much-suppressed inner child out but who don’t know how to go about it.

Men and women who fought hard for a place, or even a rung, on the ladder of the new Chinese state by sacrificing the freedoms of childhood and adolescence are now finding themselves with the chance to do many of the things that where taboo, or not ‘good for schooling’, so what do they do? Naturally they do exactly what they would have done as children (except with more beer and cigarette smoke, and less poke’mon).

Here is the paradox; many of the teenagers who I meet are like small adults, regimented, bent on books and absurd schedules of work and yet more work, while their parents behave like children at every opportunity. The urban myth that parents buy their children the toys that they want for themselves only goes as far as footballs, baseballs and soccer kits (aside from video games, model trains, star-trek DVDs, remote controlled cars, dirt bikes, and the newest version the poke’dex), unless that is you live in China. If you have ever been to a Chinese disco, or a themed party you will fully understand my argument.

It is one thing for adults to do something because they are getting into a party spirit, but it is another when they actually enjoy doing it at home.

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