Meeting future leaders of China | Keyu Jin | TEDxChaoyangWomen
everyone to meet the future leaders of China the first generation born under the one-child policy the failing home post 80s the little Emperor's and empresses they will be leading China in just about ten years time so the world often asks what does the future hold for China will there be a major shift in paradigm in mentality will the transition be smooth will progress be smooth when they may fail to realize that the biggest change potential discontinuity is going to occur when power is transferred to that generation radically different cyber connected hyper educated global citizens of the world so today 70% of Chinese youth is online they live to imbibe information we send about 400,000 students abroad to get a foreign degree every year they are open-minded they also have some peculiar consumption habits the speed with which they're ready to whip out the credit cards or their parents credit cards is uncanny they will turn China from being a global seller to a global buyer so change is going to happen because they will be on stage and so the world should just be more relaxed because of it but there's something peculiar about the only child generation and it's not because China has changed so much not just because of it it's because there's special unique products of the one-child policy so I am a you know filing home post ATS only child I'm also an academic economist so I thought well I better study this subject matter a little bit more thinking that I have some first-hand information or first-hand insight and so my French co-authors and I have found that there's some unintended and pretty significant consequences to the one-child policy of course apart from the main goal which is to reduce population growth which was successful at the first thing that we have found is that it led to an accelerated human capital accumulation now the story is very simple the reason is simple used to have many children three or four in urban areas and now you can only have one so ninety-six percent of urban households on average have just one one child so when parents trade in quantity they're going to raise their quality which is why every one of us got a lot of education investment so did you know that actually about twenty five percent of household expenditure every year on average is spent uneducated one child one teenager one only child twenty five percent goes into education but if you look at twins okay twins born under the one-child policy luckily you're allowed to keep your twin you get the twins get only about half that much when it comes to their teenage years all right so this makes sense the fewer children you have the more education investment they got so in fact China's GDP per capita is still pretty low they ranked 90-something on the same level of almost Albania but it's higher education attainment has surpassed many rich countries second unintended consequence it's a golden era to be a Chinese woman why he's in a simple we are daughters so we're raised as an only daughter but we're also raised as a son education has become gender blind you're going to educate your child no matter whether it's a daughter or a son so the result after the one-child policy in the 80s the higher education attainment rate between girls and boys closed the gap closed and in fact the returns to schooling for girls are now actually higher than the returns to schooling for boys in China so women are much more educated but not only our Chinese women more educated they also have greater bargaining power and the reason is that the large gender imbalance for now it's about you know every 117 little boys being born there are only a hundred girls so the large gender imbalance arguably related to the one-child policy has led to a scramble for wives XI teacher damn okay and also research has shown that families start to save families with sons start to save up a lot in order to raise the eligibility of their son in a marriage market that's become increasingly competitive so everyone is saving for the son and competition of saving breeds more competition of saving so I was thinking now it's probably better to have a girl now right you know we used to have this mental this bias for having sons how many betters have girls now because everyone else is saving for you so this is the unintended positives of the one-child policy and these things are going to help ease a bit of the economic challenges that China will be facing in the next ten years but there's a darker side to this as well I'm sure everyone has been aware of the recent suicides that have swept across the country jumping out of the window has become a popular activity among the Chinese youth 13 year old jumps out of the window because his mother is going to have a second child 13 euro jumps out of the window because he's criticized by his teachers high school student jumps out of the window because he and his parents could not agree on a major he's going to take when he goes to an American University it's become so commonplace that new schools being built around are built into cages no possible room for jumping out activities but what this reveals is that there is a common problem that we all share differences only to a matter of degree and that problem is this enormous psychological pressure pressure not only to perform the pressure to cave into our parents wishes and desires which are often in conflict with our own now the world sees us as selfish spoiled egocentric but they don't see the hidden price behind being only child the steep hidden price behind the love and attention and care that our parents never fail to remind us of all the time and that price is that the destiny is often not in our own hands because on the one hand we are eluard by this modern way of life the modern way of thinking the opportunities to which we have access now in large part thanks to our parents on the other hand we feel obligation and duty we're an only child we have no siblings among whom we can share that burden to free right off we feel the pressure to answer to their wishes and they would tell you we know what's best for you the parents would tell us we know what's best for you we've been through this hardship we know about life be practical don't be don't take too many risks they tell you don't study literature study finance go get a foreign diploma but hurry back home and stay close do not have a girlfriend or boyfriend in school because that's too distracting for work get your degree first find a stable job and then contemplate dating but by the time you're in your mid-20s you better be married with a child on the way because otherwise you're doomed so this leaves us about one year to find our life so mate girls be number one always every time so there we go we get our degrees I have a PhD from Harvard my friend way here has a master's from Stanford and there's you know pay White's you know ha beta all these girls get these degrees and then they tell us oh but you're only girls in the end do what you have to do settle down so the golden error that I've Illustrated you for Chinese women is only up to the point at which you get your fancy degree and then we're back to the starting line there's a mismatch don't you think an evolutionary mismatch between society that has changed and the values that have remained outdated I mean for all the tiger mothers that we've got and I know you have one too they pushes us they push us to the extreme they equip us with a world-class education and they send us to this school in that school and get this skill in that skill and in the end they are convinced that we're incapable of making our own decisions making the right so then what's this education about what's the use of Tiger mothers if they in the end themselves don't believe in the products they've carefully crafted now I'm an only child I left home when I was 14 to study abroad my parents gave up everything so that I could have a bright future they're everything to me and I am absolutely everything to them but I face the same struggle as all of you and the struggle is duty to family responsibilities to myself but I realized a while ago that because of this generational gap probably the largest we have seen in Chinese history that only I knew what was right for me only I knew the life that I wanted to lead the values that I cherished and the moral code that I wanted to adopt you see the world is bedazzled by China's numbers the numbers that are attached to the country that has seen economic growth the size of GDP progress but behind these figures and numbers is a national psyche that they may fail to comprehend and it's a psyche that is as important as the institutions and system that has underpinned China's progress so tomorrow China tomorrow is going to be in large part shaped by the psyche of our generation our ethos our values and our attitude in life China's tomorrow is really you you will be pushing the artistic frontier you will be creating China's global image you will be China's pacemaker now there are wonderful things in our culture and tradition that we must preserve Confucian values and code of ethics that we must revitalize but we and the world needs leaders from China who can think for themselves take responsibility in their actions be creative not just pragmatic you are an only child but you cannot lead China as if ur as if it were one too but you must find siblings in the form of our African brothers and our European sisters but way before that you need to rise above that pressure no matter how difficult it is for current society to understand you need to put destiny back in your own hands Welman Joe you died in your woman since Italy sound good Rachel surround woman Kashani die should we young them then sure I'm Tony I'll show you shoot them tell me how you're done don't put homeless sure what machines I sinned Alicia tell Gentile like she said woman attacher dressing woman done shoot me you