A spoilt generation

Due to one child policy in the cities, China’s new generation is heavily spoilt and they tend to take everything they have for granted. At the same time, they demand to have everything - they think they are entitled to.

I came to know three families in Hangzhou. They are very typical middle-class famillies. The parents hold high positions in the organisations they work for, and they have to work very hard so as to perform at work. The families all have big and nice apartments in gated compounds, outfitted with fashionable furniture and audio-visual equippment of all sorts, and two families have car, with one considering to buy one. 

Coincidentally, all three families have an only child - a boy aged about 6. It is striking that they share one common character: being bossy. They demand to have this and that, do this and that, and they yell and shout. Without failing, their parents will listen to them and fullfill the kid’s wish. I witnessed this many many times and felt deeply sad.

If this is the new generation, where will this lead China to? Growing up spoilt, one thing is for sure - they won’t have the will power to accomplish things. And being over protected and hence naive, they are easily submerged in the big big world.

I recall that an Swiss friend in his 60s once said this of a Chinese young man he met, “he told me about what he wants to do in the future. It is some sort of business idea. He is polite but way too naive. He doesn’t really know what the outside world is like.”