Work

In A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Johnny muses that maybe someday the unions will fix it so that a person can work steadily but still have some time to himself - "now it's work all the time or be a bum," he says. Although the adults closest to me all appear to have some leisure, they are all fairly affluent. Whether or not things have changed for Johnny's class I do not know.

In China, however, things are much as Johnny described them. Chinese people work like maniacs from the time they begin school until retirement. People are so busy that it's quite common to send babies to be raised by their grandparents and children of four or five to boarding school. I was appalled when Zheng Xiaoxue told me she'd boarded at five, and I couldn't quite explain to her why this seemed so wrong. "They have teachers," she pointed out. "It's not like they just play all the time." This was so far from being my objection I thought it best to change the subject.

If you're too busy to raise your own children, you maybe shouldn't be having children. It's not as though there's a population shortage. But the children are busy, too - school days are longer here, and high school students don't do sports or work part-time jobs or have any outside activities the way we do in America. There is simply no time.

One of my teachers told me that her parents don't want her travelling or going out, saying that these things are a waste of time. Children aren't allowed much free play time, either - they are supposed to be studying whenever they're not sleeping. The Chinese have no concept of pleasure or "the pursuit of happiness" as a right that people ought to have.

I wonder why this is. Perhaps it's related to the population - the competition is incredibly fierce, because there are more people than jobs or space in colleges. If this is the case, then when the population is under control (which I believe it will be someday - if anyone can do it it's China) people will be able to take time to breathe.