The Future of China

I read an interesting article today that tied in with an interesting experience my wife and I had this past weekend. I mentioned this event on my other blog as well.

We attended a wedding party for a former student of mine. Their held the wedding in their hometown (not Wuhan) last Wednesday, and had a party in Wuhan with their Wuhan friends this past weekend. It was a great time, a number of firsts for Emily and I. One of the significant moments for us came during the dinner (informational note: a major part of a Chinese wedding is the banquet, where the couple spends a lot of money on an enormous amount of food, to the great delight of the guests). We enjoyed a very wonderful meal and had opportunity to catch up with several of my former students. They all knew me before I began my formal Chinese study (and how very little I spoke then) so we spent a great deal of time answering questions and talking in Chinese. An unexpected opportunity for Chinese Corner!

Here is the enlightening moment: Early in the meal I was surprised to find that no one at our table was drinking alcohol, and no one in the whole room was smoking! This may not sound like anything unique to you, but for a Chinese banquet it is almost unheard of! And when the bride and groom toasted each table, they drank juice instead of baijiu (Chinese rice wine). We asked one of my former students sitting close by why no one was smoking or drinking. She said, "Because we were born after 1980. We are choosing a healthier lifestyle."

Wow! What a statement! In mixed age group banquets there is lots of pressure placed on the men in particular to drink and smoke. If someone attempts to refuse you will certainly hear statements (in Chinese) like, "you're not a man if you don't smoke". It is nearly impossible to escape a meal without finally taking a cigarette. Toasting is also very common. When you are toasted it is a sign of a good relationship. For you to refuse is tantamount to giving the person the middle finger (that's my interpretation anyway). And you'll hear things like, "if you don't drink the whole glass you're not my friend." So, for us to be sitting there and no one is smoking and very few are drinking, it was quite remarkable.

See the article for more interesting information about young people in China. I hope it will help you see China in a different way, not just as that "overpopulated country with overblown economy and overly protective government." China is quite diverse, and not NEARLY so scary as you might be led to think by the media and our (sometimes) lame politicians.

Here's another article highlighting some recent research regarding the differences between three decades of Chinese youth.


Postscript - I had heard of the 80.20 principle, where 80% of the people do 20% of the work, and 20% of the people do 80% of the work. This article introduced me to the 90.9.1 principle. I'm glad to know that I am now officially a part of the 1%. I'm actually putting my own ideas, stories, etc on the web, not just reading (90%), and not even commenting (9%), but actually posting my own material!