A fan of Hollywood trivia, an avid reader of the "Harry Potter" series and Taiwanese comic books and an aficionado of Italian food, Yide is a marketer's dream. And he's just 8 years old.

China's one-child policy yields 'me' generation

Yide has an entertainment collection rivaling that of any American teenager, including copies of "Matrix Reloaded" and Madonna's "American Life" CD. He loves "The Simpsons" and has opinions on a surprising range of topics, from restaurant ambience to love.

He shares a spacious Beijing penthouse with his parents, Li Guijun and Chang Qing, both 39 — belongs to a special group of consumers, the so-called "little emperors and empresses" who are the legacy of the one family, one child population-control program launched by China in 1979.

Although these children range in age from infants to young adults, they share one characteristic: They are usually the sole focus of two doting parents and four grandparents, the so-called "one mouth, six pockets" family. That has given them buying clout that extends far beyond what might be expected in a country where the per-capita gross domestic product hovers at $900.

Raised during a period of dramatic economic growth, these only children are knowledgeable consumers of Hollywood movies and enjoy Taiwanese pop tunes and the latest Hong Kong fashions. Even the children of factory workers and domestic helpers are being sent to after-school classes and study-abroad programs, reflecting Chinese society's emphasis on education.

Buoyed by their families' support, these youths are parlaying university degrees into well-paying jobs as engineers, entrepreneurs and attorneys. Yao Ming, the 7-foot-4-inch Houston Rockets star, is one of China's best-known single children.

But being the center of the familial universe carries a price. Sociologists worry that this generation is overprotected and spoiled. They fear that China's embrace of capitalism has enriched the lives of young people materially but left a moral void that could contribute to social problems such as drug abuse and drinking.

In an article on the single-child phenomenon, Wu Ruijun, a staff member of the Population Study Institute at East China Normal University, laments, "Parents are focusing on the intellectual investment and ignoring the education of morality, which would cause unbalanced development of the child."

But China's one-child policy is credited with putting the brakes on a population that at 1.3 billion ranks as the world's largest. The biggest impact has been in the cities, because exceptions to the restriction were granted to rural families who needed an extra pair of hands to till the land.

Over the past decade, the average family size in China has dropped from 3.96 in 1990 to 3.44, according to the government. Twenty-two percent of families in the country and 62 percent of families in Beijing have just one child, according to 1997 figures from China's National Statistics Bureau, the latest data available. Some wealthier couples are choosing to have more than one child and pay the penalty, which varies depending on the locality. It can range from a few hundred dollars to several times the family's annual income.

Chinese parents and grandparents, most of whom came of age during the impoverished days of Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, boast one of the highest savings rates in the world. But the sky's the limit when it comes to spending on their children.

“The mind-set here is, I'm investing in the next generation,” explained Christopher Mumford, chief operating officer of Yaolan.com, China's largest parenting-themed Web site. He said Yaolan's 550,000 members spend an average of $250 a month on child-related purchases, including nutritional products, educational toys and child-rearing literature sold by his firm's Babycare company. Often, families spend more than half of their monthly earnings on their children, according to the government media.

That often requires a huge sacrifice, as can be seen upon entering the cramped apartment of Gao Mingyue, 10, and her parents and grandmother. Their neatly kept home is in a run-down housing complex that was once part of a nearby factory. When the apartments were put up for sale, Jiang Junming, Gao's mother, borrowed money from her parents to purchase their modest two-room walk-up.

In one corner of the bedroom shared by the couple and their daughter sits a polished, rose-colored piano. Jiang, 40, paid the equivalent of a year's salary for the instrument. Before her smiling, pigtailed daughter sits down to perform a popular children's song, the doting mother proudly pulls out half a dozen certificates Gao has earned for piano proficiency.

For several years, Gao took weekly piano lessons along with math and English instruction on weekends. The piano lessons were particularly costly, and the family spent more than half of its monthly income on the girl's classes, books and related materials. But Jiang says that those supplemental courses are her daughter's best hope for a life beyond the factory.

Real estate companies, automakers, even health clubs are harvesting the fruits of parental sacrifices. Backed by their families' combined resources, single children entering young adulthood are boosting sales of expensive electronic gadgets, condominiums and cars. It is difficult to separate out the spending of this group, but overall retail sales increased more than 8 percent last year in China at a time when most of the world faced stagnant or recessionary economies.

Like young people elsewhere in Asia, China's youth are fashion conscious and technology-crazed, which is why this country is the world's largest market for cellular phones and one of the largest for personal computers.

Li Guijun, who is a teacher at the Beijing Central Art Academy and the father of Yide, the young movie aficionado, sees the products of China's one-child policy as they move through his classroom. He admires their confidence but worries that they might have cast aside some of the good values of the old China in their race to embrace modern life.

“My teachers had a strong sense of responsibility to others and society,” he said. “My students pay more attention to themselves. This generation is much stronger. But sometimes they are ego-centered. That makes me a little worried”

By Evelyn Iritani
5 August 2003

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