Most of those annoying and stupid individuals are from the so called China's Lost Generation. I found the following video made by two westerners explains the reasons in a pretty accurate way.
It probably also explains the maxim of “No matter how good one be at any given task, there is always a ten year old Chinese child that is better at it.”.
There are quite a few ten year old Chinese children.
Though, it does beg the quæstion why we hearn't as much from the 10 year old Indian children
I guess it is the result of younger generations (in the West) discovering they are going to be worse off than their parents in many ways. Whereas China is still on an upward trajectory, for now.
It's just a Casino operated by rulers. Many in China know it. But average people just can not resist the lure. This has happened in China several times. The new generation (perhaps those were born after 1985) is getting their own lessons and pay the tuitions this time.
[edit]: to downvoters, reason for downvoting my comment? If you are not familiar with average people in China, please do your homework.
As a Chinese reader, every sentence in this article rings true, even more so in the historic perspectives.
Especially in the PRC, you're in general incentivized to be an "excellent cog in the machine", and they teach this value to you in schools. "Being unique" in your first 18 years of life is considered a bad thing, and respect for hierarchy is enforced every day.
I wouldn't write everyone in China off to the type presented in the article -- most people in China know that this is not an efficient way of approaching things. However, their hands are tied in a society that enforces hierarchy in every possible way.
thanks! agreed--what is necessary for success is completely different here, yet many Chinese parents still think there is a magic formula, and that they know it!
The large percentage of younger people in advance positions might be unique here since China only started to develop its economic in the early 80's. The people of 70's and 80's grew up with the rapid economic development and capitalistic market reforms. Also they were the generations that went back to school taking education seriously after the previous generations wasted their time in countless strife, like the Culture Revolution.
Alibaba probably couldn't find sufficient talents in the pre-70's generations.
That doesn't really make sense. They probably live in a very poor region of China. If they weren't doing factory work they would probably be doing agricultural work to try and get money to help out their family. There's no "education" route for those in this situation.
"I have to wonder why that, culturally, seems to be linked to Asians?"
It is not Asians - it is most cultures where the parents are fairly poor and the children have a chance to succeed in life.
A second generation rich (well off) person will not work as hard as someone whose father is poor.
I doubt that the stressing and pressure that this guy is going trough is good - but the hard work that a lot of Chinese school children do is a good thing.
I'm writing this from Hong Kong, where I run a scholarship for young entrepreneurs in mainland China. A few thoughts:
-To understand the mentality of a Chinese parent, you need to know a few things. First, the obvious one child policy, and the expectation that this one child will support their children but also their parents and grandparents (no social security, minuscule pensions and a non-existent safety net). This puts an enormous pressure on the individual to have a stable and high wage job. Lots of people on these boards are in startups (or would like to be), but few Chinese nationals are willing to take that route due to the immense risks involved. They're gambling not only their personal wealth but also the survival of their family.
-School is brutal, particularly college admissions. Each student at the end of high school takes something called the gaokao. Imagine the SAT on steroids (2 days long) that you only take one and almost wholly determines what "tier" of college you get admitted into. You can take it once a year, and if you fail, you have a second chance one year later (the intervening year is usually spent studying 14+ hrs a day). You pour a gazillion college-bound kids into this crucible of death, with only a scant few slots at the other end. Even for the student goes abroad to study, they've been indoctrinated with the cutthroat and "success at all costs" mentality necessary to get ahead in China. It's a numbers game, and the numbers are stacked to make your life hell.
What does this have to do with obsessive parents? Take these last two facts and mix in some historical perspective. Many of these parents either lived through or are sufficiently proximate to the turmoil of the 1960's and 1970's to know how brutal life can be for those that do not get ahead. It's not the American poverty of temp labor and living in a trailer park; it's the poverty of starving to death. It's the poverty of not having shelter from the cold, of having zero access to medical care. While this is less true of today's China, the fear of this poverty survives, even for those in relative affluence (think of your grandparents that lived through the depression and still are obsessively thrifty).
I can understand why these parents are monomaniacal in ensuring (or trying to ensure) a better life for their kids. With grueling competition, a one-child policy, scant social safety nets and a vivid memory of how brutal China can be, it makes sense.
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