- For a different lifestyle
- For a better education (many for their kids)
- For a better health care system and natural environment
- For opportunities China cannot give them
- For international experience
I’ll talk about them one by one down the line. Today let’s first start with China’s major cities and compare the lifestyles between China and North America.
The dramatic changes
In simple words, for most young and middle-aged Chinese who live in large cities, their lifestyle is much more hectic than the ones in North America. Yet, it was totally opposite if we flash back to 20 years ago.
The open and reform policy enabled China to quickly transform from socialism to capitalism (although the government insists it’s a special time frame of moving socialism forward). The changes in China were simply phenomenal in the last two decades. A large amount of private owned companies and foreign invested companies emerged and expanded like wild fire. They introduced competition into the country that used to run a planned economy with thousands of SOEs (state-owned enterprises), many of which quickly ran into bankruptcy when capitalism kicked their butt. The folks who used to go to work with a cup of tea spending hours on newspapers and gossips were forced to compete against their coworkers or laid off (in late 90’s, over 10 million people had to “xia gang”, the Chinese for being lay off). The nationwide inflation only made the life of those people more miserable. After tasting the cruelty of capitalism, the attitude of China’s work force went from one extreme to another – get or keep a job at any cost.
Today, when you visit China’s major cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Canton or Chongqing, you can easily feel the rhythm of life much faster than North America. Everything happens in a fast forward mode. You feel the vibrancy, and you feel the pressure, too.
The aggressiveness
In 2006, when CBC’s China Rises team returned to Toronto, one of the team leaders was interviewed in a local TV show. When asked about China’s job market, he commented: “… Chinese young people are far more aggressive than Canadians in pursuit of success…”. I had to agree with him for it’s the truth. Here’s why – actually one of the many whys.
Starting from late 90’s, China pushed forward its reform in its residential housing system, privatizing residential houses by encouraging people to buy houses with governmental subsidiary. Only since then, China’s real estate market tool off (There was no houses or apartments you can buy before the reform. Everyone lives in the state owned apartments). In merely 10 years, accompanying the fast growing economy, the housing prices in major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have skyrocketed over 10 folds. However, the affordability went straight down.
For instance, the current average housing price in Shanghai is about RMB10,000 per square meter, which means a 100 square meter (930 sqft) apartment would cost RMB1 million. (Note: Because China’s large cities are heavily populated, e.g. 20 million in Shanghai alone, few people can afford living in a house, or “villa” in Chinese term, which costs millions in US or Canadian dollars. Most people live in high-rise condo apartments). The average annual personal income, however, is only RMB40,000. That means a double income family need 12.5 years income to pay off their home without spending a dime on food or entertainment. Here in North America, we only need 4 to 5 years. Many experts have been saying for years the real estate bubble which still hasn’t busted – that’s another hot topic in China and we’ll discuss about it later. No doubt, the housing pressure is on everyone, especially the young couples who are trying to establish their life in large cities. That’s why a recent TV program “Dwelling Narrowness” has become the best seller in China. Simply put, the young people there just cannot afford to be not aggressive, no matter at work or in business.
To be continued
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