The struggles of being part of the middle class in China

The Chinese mindset impacts consumer behaviors in a lot of aspects. We often notice in user requirement research, that the Chinse consumers need happiness right away, or they need assistance products solving their problems to save their time. Why do Chinese need so much assistance in their daily life? Why are they always short of time? Why are they so anxious?

Introducing the mindset is a good way to have a deeper understanding of consumers in a certain milieu, similar to when we write our research report for clients who do not know much about the Chinese culture.    

When we conduct ethnography studies in China, we always ask the question: What do you do in your spare time? If it is a family with a child, we Chinese researchers know, it’s time to write down a lot of information.

What does a typical answer look like?

“My child goes to school every weekday from 7 to 16 o’clock, we pick him up, eat something, then we will visit different tutoring centers every day, including English, athletic sports (such as fencing), learning a musical instrument (such as Cello), Math (normally related with “The International Mathematical Olympiad”), computer programming, etc. We also have different tutoring classes on the weekends. Normally I try not to arrange anything on Sunday morning so that our child can sleep in for one day in a week to have a rest. You know, we don’t want to stress children out. My job is driving my son from class to class and watching him doing homework every evening till about 9 or 10 pm.”

In the eyes of my German colleagues, Chinese parents are “going to an extreme”. Germans always argue: The nature of children is playing, the parent’s job is to provide a happy childhood, children should learn at school, not in their free time. But we Chinese, no matter if we are parents or not, have the same opinion: If a child had a “happy” childhood (like the German children), then it is going to have an unhappy adulthood. His parents who just “let their child play” are the main causes.

Since we are going to talk about a topic with a very big scope, we will explain it in three articles.

 

Article 1:

 

Respect for Scholars and the Importance of Education: A Different Mindset

When the American sitcom "The Big Bang Theory" became popular in China over 10 years ago, there has been a mild culture shock about the phenomenon that pretty, uneducated women/men were preferred by the majority over scientists who dedicate to solve the problems of the universe. We Chinese understand that hyperbole is used as an effect by the movie production, but as far as I know, in the US people who focus on their studies are often being mocked and those who play sports or are pretty are popular among their peers. In Germany second graders know the word “Streber” to negatively describe those who focus on the studies. To sum it up: Focusing on learning does not seem to be a “cool” thing in the European and American culture.

But in China from elementary school to university, the best learners in the class are always the most popular students. Teachers and parents or peers see them as role models. Getting good grades means that this student loves to learn, that he has endurance for longer focusing, he is patient, he knows the goal and how to achieve it. Good grades show that the student is a clever person – and being clever is THE most appreciated trait in China. If the student is also good at sports or has other specialties, then it is the icing on the cake and he is considered to be “cool”.

If a person is only good at sports but not good at school, we will call him having "four strong limbs but an empty mind" and if a person is only good-looking but poor at school, we will call him a “vase”, which is empty inside without soul. Thus it is very common in China that many Olympic Sport champions will choose to enter a university for self-improvement.

Of course, sometimes mindset changes over time. In the word of social media a lot of internet influencers get famous and rich by showing their “beauty”, leading teenagers to question the need to study and would instead prefer doing plastic surgery to make themselves pretty first and then become internet celebrities to get the easy money. This phenomenon has caused many concerns among educators in China.

History

The respect for the scholar and the importance of being educated is a Chinese tradition that dates back to the time of Confucius (551 v. Chr). In 587 the emperor started the imperial examination system which involved reading specific books, taking examinations and then entering the imperial palace as a counselor/official. This imperial examination system lasted for 1.300 years. From the Song Dynasty onward the imperial examinations were open to all, regardless of origin, rich or poor. This not only broadened the talent pool for the government to select but also gave intellectuals of the lower and middle classes the opportunity to move up the social ladder through the imperial examinations. In other words, for individuals studying was the most effective way to change their class, which we describe as "a carp leaping over a waterfall and transforming into a dragon. This idea still applies to today's China.

For the government this policy played a significant role in maintaining the stability of the society as a whole. Moreover, since these scholars were all the product of the same system and studied the same "sage books", the unity and centripetal force of culture and thought across China was indirectly maintained by this examination system.

However, starting from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the content of the imperial examinations began to become rigid, requiring that candidates should only produce essays that conformed to a certain form, instead of giving value to the actual learning of the candidates. Most scholars had to focus only on the imperial examination materials. Their knowledge, creative ability and independent thinking ability were greatly restricted. This is similar to today's exam system in China. 

With a history of about 1.300 years, the imperial examinations ended in 1905.

In our two new articles it is all about social mobility and the involution in China. 

 

Author: Yue Liu, Spiegel Institut Mannheim