Author Topic: Little Emperors  (Read 19761 times)

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Offline Martin

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Re: Little Emperors
« Reply #45 on: October 25, 2012, 07:45:03 pm »
On this topic, all I can say is, I am thankful I did not get anyone pregnant 2 years ago!!!

Offline Willy The Londoner

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Re: Little Emperors
« Reply #46 on: October 26, 2012, 05:45:30 am »
On this topic, all I can say is, I am thankful I did not get anyone pregnant 2 years ago!!!
You had a lot of possibilities then? ::)

Willy
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Offline Martin

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Re: Little Emperors
« Reply #47 on: October 26, 2012, 07:52:05 am »
On this topic, all I can say is, I am thankful I did not get anyone pregnant 2 years ago!!!
You had a lot of possibilities then? ::)

Willy
No, just one possibility.

Offline Jason B

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Re: Little Emperors
« Reply #48 on: October 27, 2012, 06:09:00 am »
Another thought I had whilst in the shower.  Where else do good ideas come from?  What is going to happen to these kids when they have kids?  Ever heard of the phrase "just wait till you have kids and they act like you, what will you do then"?  What will the young females in China be like in a couple of years or from a country that the boy has emigrated to?  Also with skype and QQ from other countries talking to the girls in China and telling them that you do not have to bow down to a boy like he is the messiah in everything you do. China is becoming more westernised and as they learn some western ways like girls and boys are actually equal they will not put up with the spoilt little brat that is now trying to court them as a potential suiter.  It may take a generation or two but I can see it happening.  Then there will be some very lonely men out there without their mummy to do stuff for them.
I WILL have my revenge for having to be clean shaven......once I learn how to tame my Dragon.

Offline David K

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Re: Little Emperors
« Reply #49 on: January 20, 2013, 07:54:08 pm »
The Independent confirms what we have known all along:
 how thoroughly the only-child subjects live up to their bad reputation.
Caveat Emptor  :)

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/onechild-policy-chinas-army-of-little-emperors-8446713.html

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They were known as China’s “little emperors” – the offspring of one-child families born after the country’s draconian family planning policy was introduced in 1979. They became the “spoilt generation” of teenagers who didn’t experience the joys and heartache of sibling rivalry or share and share alike – at least this was the simplistic stereotype of the singleton children born in modern China, based on little more than anecdote and hearsay.

But now, scientists have produced the first convincing evidence to suggest that the one-child generation of China has indeed become a rather maladjusted lot.
The one-child policy came about after a rapid growth in the Chinese population in the 1950s and 1960s. It was strictly enforced in urban areas, with reports of forced abortions and sterilisations, as well as heavy financial and social penalties for those who dared to transgress the one-child law.

Chinese authorities claimed the policy was a great success, preventing more than 250 million births between 1980 and 2000 and helping to set the country on the right demographic track for its spectacular economic growth.
However, more than 30 years after it began, an unintended consequence has emerged; it has fundamentally changed the psychology of young Chinese men and women, scientists said.
Chinese children born after the policy have grown up to become less altruistic and trusting, more timid, less competitive, more pessimistic and less conscientious than the Chinese who were born just before the policy, they claimed.

The study has broken new ground by analysing the attitudes of young Chinese adults using games designed by economists to test behaviour and intentions, such as whether the subjects are likely to share something with a stranger or are ready to trust someone they do not know.

When the scientists compared two age groups born a few years before the policy was introduced, with two age groups born just after, they were surprised to find such marked differences in the kind of personality traits which influence social relationships, that could have important ramifications for China’s future.
“We find quite large impacts. Those who are the only children as a result of the policy are considerably less trusting, less trustworthy, more risk averse, less competitive, more pessimistic, less conscientious and possibly also more neurotic,” said Lisa Cameron, of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. “These behavioural impacts could have economic consequences in addition to the more obvious social implications.”

“For instance, we find that those born under the policy are less likely to be employed in risky occupations, such as self-employment, freelancing or the financial sector. So it may be that the one-child policy generation will be less entrepreneurial,” she said.
The study analysed 421 individuals born just a few years before and a few years after the 1979 policy, which resulted in a dramatic decline of large families. In 1975, just 27 per cent of Chinese families consisted of only one child, whereas it was nearly 91 per cent in 1983.

The scientists asked the volunteers, now in their 20s and 30s, to carry out a series of economics games designed to test features of their personality, using real money as an incentive. The “dictator game” measured altruism, the “risk game” tested boldness and the “competition game” looked at rivalry.
“Economic experiments have the advantage of allowing the researcher to observe particular, well-defined types of behaviour,” Dr Cameron said.

“Experimental participants are also incentivised with money, the amount of which depends on the decision made in the experiment, which, experimental economists argue, provides a greater motivation for participants to reveal their true preferences,” she explained.

What became clear, the scientists say in their study published in the journal Science, is that one-child offspring suffer from what they term “sibling deprivation”, meaning that a lack of brothers or sisters appeared to make them more self-centred, less co-operative and less likely to get along with their peer group.
Previous work on one-child families in the West, where parents have largely chosen to have just one baby, have found little differences in behaviour between them and the offspring of larger families. What was different here was the ability to look at a whole society where parents were coerced into having no more than one child.
This was like “a huge natural experiment” that allowed the scientists to distinguish between growing up as an only child in a one-child society, and being an only child in societies where parents had the choice, Dr Cameron said.
On paper, singleton children should have an advantage in that they have the full attention of their parents and do not have to compete with siblings. But, in practice, the findings suggest that singletons may have missed out on the rough and tumble and give and take of growing up with other children of about the same age.

As one commentator noted: “Perhaps the biggest surprise of the study is how thoroughly the only-child subjects lived up to their bad reputation.”
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Offline Willy The Londoner

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Re: Little Emperors
« Reply #50 on: January 20, 2013, 10:50:56 pm »
In recent times the authorities have realised that the continuation of the one child policy may have to be relaxed not because it is unworkable but simply because with a population now living longer they  require more persons working to enable better pensions to be paid.

But the one child policy itself was flouted so much anyway.

If a couple are both the result of one child families then they can have two children.

As they are becoming richer more people can afford to pay the penalties of having two or more children.

The ruling does not apply to those from rural areas. This results in the fact that many couples in the cities are originally from the rural areas and they retain their living status as from those areas.  As a result children are registered in these locations but they end up being parted from families living in cities as their children have to go to the school in the area they are registered, unless the parents pay for them to attend city schools privately!

Come school holiday times the number of kids in our complex must double as they come back to the city to spend time with parents.

But there again my wife has three children and the son has the traits of a 'Little Emperor even though he was bought up with siblings.  The two girls are great to have stay but he is not welcomed at anyone family members home!

Willy
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Now in my 12th year living here,

Offline David K

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Re: Little Emperors
« Reply #51 on: January 21, 2013, 03:24:56 pm »
The little emperor syndrome has wider implications than just China.
In New Zealand we have a bone headed immigration policy* that allows
well heeled people into NZ provided they bring their loot with them.
And guess what, most of these 'entrepreneurs' are from China. 
They bring with them the very same exploitative business practices that made them
rich in China, and they bring with them the little emperors....

So we now have:
 Little business springing up that offer half the legal minimum wage, usually to other immigrants
 A whole "high fliers" floor on the local casino that is primarily for asian gamblers, and has a record of drug money laundering
 Large numbers of pale faced, cigarette smoking young males, with late model fast (lowered) cars that hang about in the city center, who wouldn't dream of lowering themselves to working for a living...
 ( they have a built in ATM.....Ask The Mother.. )

Because I do (voluntary) English language tutoring, I see a lot of this first hand.
Its not all bad - the Chinese crime rate is lower than the national average, and thanks
to my lovely Mongolian/Chinese wife, our home is now a place of harmony..

But decisions made in China ripple throughout the rest of the world
===========
* Not as bone headed as the UK tho..
   11 Million "imports" who are delighted to have a state that "cares" for them  :-)
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Offline Willy The Londoner

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Re: Little Emperors
« Reply #52 on: January 21, 2013, 09:37:59 pm »


But decisions made in China ripple throughout the rest of the world

Maybe not in my lifetime but others on here will see that the influence of China, having become the biggest economy in the World, will have an effect on the whole of civilisation.

They have been able to achieve this due to the're political system. Western governments are now trying to impose austerity measures to relieve there burden of debt and at the same time trying to appease the voters.   China has not achieved this debt, the western world owe their financial survival to China who buys up the debts of democracy.

Willy
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Now in my 12th year living here,