Garga Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 School from 7am-10pm??? What's the idea behind that? Robbing these kids their childhood? How sad :(It's 7-7 for middle school, 7-10 for high school. And they have homework on top of that. It absolutely breaks my heart. I mean, it really does. I sit there at a kitchen table across from them conversing in baby English (because I can't speak Chinese at all) and I want to say, "That's it! I'm homeschooling you!" The pressure is beyond immense. One of the young men writes to me and he's clearly deeply depressed over the staggering workload. These are mostly wealthy children with wealthy parents. I don't know about the rural areas. I'm sure it's different there. The kids I host are vying for top universities in China and for top universities here in America. They visit the Princeton campus while they're here. Their parents send them hoping to inspire them to work harder so they can get into an ivy. I want to tell them, "Status and money aren't everything," but I just can't. They aren't in America. I don't know enough about their culture to say anything. They're already so unhappy with all the work they do that I don't want to make it worse by telling them to stop the madness. They're kids and have to do what their parents tell them to do. They live in fear that they won't get into good colleges and won't get good jobs and will be plunged into poverty or something. I hate it for them. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy in NH Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 I heard a lot of chatter on public radio about this today. Some of the interesting tidbits by journalists who have spent a lot of time there: They've witnessed dead baby girls floating in rivers (infanticide). There will soon be 25 million Chinese men with no hope of finding a Chinese wife. A testosterone filled society is more aggressive. Some policy makers are talking about allowing women to take two husbands. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrixieB Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 Good God. What woman would want two husbands?!? (LOL) My kid said, "Just think. At any given time there would be one on the couch, one breaking something, one dropping food in the kitchen, and one leaving the toilet seat up." 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 Good God. What woman would want two husbands?!? (LOL) Ha! Can you imagine the wars?!? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyThreeSons Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 So, in about twenty years, some people there will have aunts, uncles and cousins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 Two husbands! My man is wonderful, truly wonderful but he is the most I can manage. Give me another one and let the chaos begin! If I need another spouse, I want a wife!!! Lol 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 I heard a lot of chatter on public radio about this today. Some of the interesting tidbits by journalists who have spent a lot of time there: They've witnessed dead baby girls floating in rivers (infanticide). There will soon be 25 million Chinese men with no hope of finding a Chinese wife. A testosterone filled society is more aggressive. Some policy makers are talking about allowing women to take two husbands. I'm imagining some kind of dystopian future in which women are valued for their ability to breed. Really, if this teaches us anything, it should be that messing with nature always has dire consequences. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 I'm imagining some kind of dystopian future in which women are valued for their ability to breed. Really, if this teaches us anything, it should be that messing with nature always has dire consequences. I don't know, I'm pretty happy that we have antibiotics and caesarian sections; fixes for birth defects such as club foot and cleft palate; as well as surgery for life injuries such as fistula. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 I don't know, I'm pretty happy that we have antibiotics and caesarian sections; fixes for birth defects such as club foot and cleft palate; as well as surgery for life injuries such as fistula. I guess I should have said 'social engineering' instead of 'nature'. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luuknam Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 It's 7-7 for middle school, 7-10 for high school. And they have homework on top of that. It absolutely breaks my heart. I mean, it really does. I sit there at a kitchen table across from them conversing in baby English (because I can't speak Chinese at all) and I want to say, "That's it! I'm homeschooling you!" The pressure is beyond immense. One of the young men writes to me and he's clearly deeply depressed over the staggering workload. These are mostly wealthy children with wealthy parents. I don't know about the rural areas. I'm sure it's different there. The kids I host are vying for top universities in China and for top universities here in America. They visit the Princeton campus while they're here. Their parents send them hoping to inspire them to work harder so they can get into an ivy. I want to tell them, "Status and money aren't everything," but I just can't. They aren't in America. I don't know enough about their culture to say anything. They're already so unhappy with all the work they do that I don't want to make it worse by telling them to stop the madness. They're kids and have to do what their parents tell them to do. They live in fear that they won't get into good colleges and won't get good jobs and will be plunged into poverty or something. I hate it for them. In South Korea they're just as crazy about working dawn to midnight in order to get into a a good university, and they don't limit the number of kids, so it's not a Chinese thing, nor the consequence of a 1-child policy. I'm also not sure that they *want* to reach the natural replacement rate in China. 1.4 billion in a country with significantly less arable land than the U.S. still seems like too many people. 7 billion people on earth still seems like too many. Edited to change China's population: http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 I guess I should have said 'social engineering' instead of 'nature'. Even that is a bit problematic. I think that insisting that children get an education rather than working in the mills was a good thing, but it was definitely a top-down policy of social engineering, which probably caused hardship to some families that relied on children's wages when adults were disabled. I don't think that social engineering, going against nature, etc. are problematic in themselves - it's more a question of what form they take. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JadeOrchidSong Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 Every city in China is as crowded as state fair all day everywhere and traffic jam is everywhere, too. In early 1970s when I went to school the normal class size is 60. Now it is 80 in my home province at elementary schools with one teacher speaking with a microphone to the class. I hate the crowdedness and the pollution. I was severely depressed and felt suffocated by both when I went back to visit in 2010. Cars park and drive even on the sidewalks endangering pedestrians' lives. A few times I was almost hit by cars on the sidewalks. I hope China will improve its air quality and its traffic jam. 15 years ago when I left China almost no one I knew had a car. Now it seems each family has TWO cars!!! Yes, prosperity makes people want cars even though they can get by with great public transportation. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HRAAB Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 Good God. What woman would want two husbands?!? (LOL) I'm thinking all the repairs might get done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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