truly the Chinese entrepreneurial spirit is something to behold, but this applies mostly to the current generation. The people running businesses in China right now have lived through the Cultural Revolution and countless hardships, they have lost everything and worked hard to get it back. However their children, the 1-child policy generation, are being pampered from birth and “protected” from all work and worries. Their parents have toiled all their life so that their kids would not have to: all they want is to send them to the best schools and colleges so that hopefully they can get high-income jobs. The very concept of a teenager working part-time during school is alien to these parents. So: entrepreneurial spirit, creativity and work ethics are mostly inexistent for those kids, and this bodes ill for China’s future development. Increasingly we see parents who have become complacent in the stability of their government, and want their children to get high-ranking bureaucrat positions so they can live off fat bribes. If anything wrong happens to China’s economy – and it will, at some point – these kids will be helpless to deal with it.
Recently I was discussing this with a Chinese friend coming for a visit. She wants to teach the values of creativity and hard work to her children, but she knows she’s in a minority to think that way. 🙁
