I’m going to make a few sweeping generalizations, so forgive me if this doesn’t apply to everyone. People here are just a lot more into money than at home. It sounds like a funny thing to say, considering I grew up on the main line where everyone is obsessed with showing off their money. I spent my college years in NY, the financial center of the country. The difference is the culture at home, where people have money, just doesn’t give the same value to it as Shanghai, where most people have next to nothing.
I know the gap between the poor and the rich is very visible on the east coast, but here it just turns my stomach. I lived in NY, I’m used to seeing beggars. But here, particularly the people in front of Jade Buddha temple, presented a whole new level of hopelessness. It is as if the beggars took marketing classes and each found a niche. There was the elderly, the sick, the handicapped, the religious, the father with a child, the father with a child whose neck had a growth the size of his head…
I’m terrible at statistics but there are about 23 million people in this city, a lot of them are migrant workers who officially live elsewhere. About one third of the city is filled with people who come here for work so they can send money back to their family in some little town. Most of them travel home once a year or so, on train rides that can take as long as two or three days. The cost of a plane ticket, which may be something like $300, is more than they could dream of spending. They work at restaurants or construction sites. They do all the jobs that are done by machines at home with their bare hands. They usually sleep at their work. Some places might provide decent sleeping quarters but can you imagine if you are a construction worker? The winters must suck; the safety rules and regulations, if they have any, aren’t enforced; and they work all the time. They are here to make money and for no other reason.
Even if you ignore that large percentage of the city which is made of migrant workers and look at the successful few who have managed to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, they are still obsessed with pinching every penny so they can stay ahead. It makes sense, there are so many people and if you want to succeed you need to work for it. Being “cheap,” in a way that is very foreign to me, is ingrained into Chinese culture.
Danny’s grandmother, who is Taiwanese but has the same mentality as the Chinese on this matter, is a good example. In the states our generation grew up being told you can be anything you want to be and you should find a career path that makes you happy. Danny’s grandmother grew up having very little money and believing you should do absolutely anything you can to earn more. The concept of making enough to be comfortable doesn’t really register in her mind. Danny gave the example that if you had the choice between two jobs, one that is exhausting and hazardous and pays $3 and one that is a cushy office job and pays $2, his grandmother would tell you to take the $3 job every time. If it puts your life at risk, so be it. I don’t think she can even fathom how Danny and I could possibly make our career choices based on our personal interests rather than our maximum earning potential.
I think the stereotype we find in the states that Asian kids are always the smartest in the class is very closely tied into this cultural phenomenon. Unlike America, Chinese culture values education. They each want to push to be the best student with the same ferocity Danny's grandmother wants us to earn that extra dollar. The students whose families were able to push hard enough to manage to make it to America are, unsurprisingly, the best students.
Well, it's not just money, but that education has always been a primary way of social mobility in Chinese culture. In Ancient China, the government would hire people based on a civil service exam; ideally, the government would hire someone based on his intellectual ability and education rather than his birth status. This value of education became engrained in Chinese and Asian culture.
ReplyDeleteThere's a story told about Mencius, a famous Chinese philosopher and his mother. Mencius was a young child and his family lived near a graveyard. She noticed him imitating the grave workers and said "This will no do" and moved her family next to a market. After a while, she noticed Mencius imitating the market workers, and again she thought that this won't do, so she moved her family next to a school. Mencius naturally started imitating the scholars, reading and writing, and his mother could finally relax.
The story about the child actually made it here to the United States. The thing that shocked me the most was that the driver knew that he hit the girl but refused to stop.
ReplyDeleteHis reasoning was that if the girl survived, he would have to pay her hospital bills which would be gigantic. If she died, then he'd only have to pay a small fine.
I'm surprised the Chinese don't have a law like here where if you leave the scene of a crash, you get the book thrown at you.
Finally, I lucked out in that my mom went to a Catholic school in Taiwan, so she had in some ways a Western education. She was very supportive of pursuing things that would make us happy and otherwise didn't put too much pressure on me and my brother.
ReplyDeleteIt did of course help that Charles and I picked computer science and engineering and have nicely paying jobs, but above all she wants us to be happy.