The Contrast

The Contrast

There are children playgrounds in this city, and there are “children playgrounds” in this city.

I am referring to the designer children playground within some newer style shopping malls. The one I remember occupies about three thousand square footage, charges sixty RMB per entry per child, accompanied adult free admission. There are typical soft surface revolving mechanical equipment like merry-go-around, slides, and play houses within the play area.

There is no time limit as to how long the child can stay; I guess it depends largely on the child, in China, being officially promoting the one child policy. The little Princes and Princesses are loved, to the point of mindlessly catered to the point of spoiled. Sixty dollars is a lot of money, considering entry level factory makes about fifteen hundred dollars a month.

Parents, grandparents, or helpers stood close by, watching admiringly at their little sweet hearts….

Then, the other days, I walked by a very large prestigious boarding school, took a wrong turn, walked into its back alley, the back alley has accumulated piles of garbage, a couple (拾 荒 的人 )were picking recyclable material from the piles silently, in China, people do not make eye contacts or talk to you if they don’t know you. Unless you have super personal skills, or you get lost and ask question first. So I walked passed them silently.

Anyways, as I walked by their hand cart, there was a young child, sleeping peacefully on top the pile in side the cart. I thought to myself, this child will have a better chance of excel himself later on in life, because he can deal with the reality. Watch Full Movie Online Streaming Online and Download

A lot of the young child or young adult who has a sheltered early life provided by their family has no clue what the real deal is waiting for himself or herself. Someone told me some parents actually advice their children to look for a comfortable job. I am sure it is out of love, but we forget that China is built on the back of her large rural communities.

City kids in my opinion these days lose a bit of the sharpness and competitiveness their parents and grandparents had in their own productive days.

The subtle inequalities between the sexes:
The Lunar New Year will be here in about three and a half months, already a lot of young people on the factory floors are planning their holidays back home. As I said a few reports back, the stigma of not able to find a mate still bears heavily on young people, a lot of times this pressure are brought on by the family, “a proper match” between young men and women are significant.
I was told a young man and woman of marrying age would be brought together in a restaurant to “size each other up. There would be two cups of tea placed in front of them, if at the end of the short tea meet, either the boy or the girl does not pick up the cup and have a zip, the “sizing up” would be considered unsuccessful, then another round of tea would be arranged somewhere some time down the road between other young couples.

I was told this practice is not uncommon these days in rural area, young men are under pressure to marry to produce a heir (boy) to carry on the family name. Young women are under pressure to be married away to lessen the family burden.

I personally do not see what burden the young women who moved to large city centers for work. If anything, on the contrary, they send monies home just like their male co-workers. Nevertheless, they want to get marry too perhaps they are tired of meaning being labeled “short end of the bargain – (陪本貸 ) within the family.

Sometimes, the euphoria of being able to get away from her own family is short lived, because if she produced a girl as a first born, sometimes even if the husband accepts and loves the child. Some in laws do not so understand, it often leads to conflicts and arguments, eventually a divorce, with the young mother being shamed through no fault of her own.

I used the word “fault” loosely, it is no shame in cities, I guess in rural areas man powers are scarce, so males are treasured for two reasons, future helping hand, and a heir to carry on the name.