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The gods and goddesses of the new China

By Cireena Simcox - posted Monday, 18 June 2007


I was at first horrified when, in attempts to put them at ease, I would ask various young people in the prime of their youth to list their hobbies and would get the answer “Sleeping. Eating”. The only variations were that some would not mention eating or others would include shopping. Checking with colleagues I discovered that sleeping was listed as the number one hobby throughout their classes as well, with eating a close second and shopping a variant.

This universal need for sleep and comfort food in young, healthy adults at first puzzled me. Students in the West also study long hours, often combining this with part or full time work and arduous travel. Yet most still have active social lives and take part in other activities. Why, I wondered, are these students so different?

It was in drama classes that I gained further insight into how seriously the lives of these little princes and princesses have been affected.

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One warm-up exercise I had planned was a variation on the childhood game of “Tag” .But I was met with blank looks when I explained this. “Oh come on!” I exhorted them “It isn’t so long ago that you were all playing it in the schoolyard”. Still they looked blank. Suspecting a language error I explained very simply and carefully, waiting for comprehension to dawn. Slowly I looked around and saw their faces hadn’t changed. Neither did they when I explained Hide and Seek, Red Rover, Statues - the repertoire of games which, though known by different names in different countries, I knew from experience were universal.

I realised finally that these young men and women had, in their constant striving for academic excellence, never before learnt how to play.

Playtime in the lives of young people has been proven to be an indivisible part of the development of the ability to problem solve, to co-operate, to strive for common goals or outcomes, to learn to disagree without confrontation, to confront with meaningful outcomes, to accept losing as well as winning and to develop imagination. All of these skills are lacking in large numbers of the students whom I teach. When coupled with apathy and inertia it is inevitable that these deficiencies will impact negatively upon the futures of many.

In the competitive world of globalisation innovation, the ability to problem solve and the speedy processing of complex new strategies are all necessary skills. Most importantly, however, cause and effect, projected outcomes and a sense of national - not just familial - responsibility will be needed when this generation takes its place as the ruling class of China. Nothing in their lives has prepared them for thinking beyond the family or of their responsibility towards a greater good.

Exhausted before they even begin life most are apathetic towards politics, ignorant of the arts, disinterested in anything other than perpetuating and passing on the family burdens they have upheld alone.

Never before has the country had to deal with a generation such as this so there are no precedents to follow.

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Belatedly some people and organisations are becoming aware that new strategies are needed to deal with the results of the one child policy. Unfortunately, this need does not have equal importance with the continued implementation of the policy itself.

At an international symposium in China I recently delivered a paper stressing the need for reading and literature to be made an integral part of the curricula in Chinese schools.

The paper mentioned that reading has traditionally been the past-time of offspring who have no siblings in the West. It also stressed that, though vicariously, children gain not only knowledge, increased vocabulary and verbal skills, but learn to utilise imagination, gain skills in problems-solving and share experiences and feeling previously considered to be unique to each one of them through books. As a foreigner I felt hesitant at perhaps being seen to criticise the country in which I currently both live and work.

To my surprise not only was the paper met with acclaim but many of the educators present approached me during the conference to add their support. It is therefore obvious that those of us dealing with the children of this successful policy to limit families share concerns about their immediate and future well-being.

Discussing the little princes and princesses theory one of my students, himself chaffing under the bonds of a restrictive and over-protective father, once said to me wryly: “princes and princesses? What - didn’t you know that we’re the gods and goddesses of the new China?”

Unless steps are taken it is possible that these new gods and goddesses will find themselves going the way of all the gods and goddesses who went before them - deposed by the demands of the modern world.

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About the Author

Cireena Simcox has been a journalist and columnist for the last 20 years and has written a book titled Finding Margaret Cavendish. She is also an actor and playwright .

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