30 years of continuous transformation

By seneca ( bbs.chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-10-22 11:07

30 years of continuous transformation is a generation separating the socialist past from the at present undefinable Here and Now, possibly a state awaiting further modificiations until it resembles something the rest of the (developed) world is familiar with.

Visitors and locals alike can to some extent gauge the time trip Chinese aged 50 or older have been making: The majority of these folk lived a frugal, Party wisdom-guided life toiling for a Party-appointed laoban and receiving his fair dues that enabled him to survive.
Now if he is lucky (education being the key to a better destiny, perhaps), he can make his own decisions and lead a more rewarding and also more dignified life as a responsible member of society with the rights to move house, change jobs, own property etc.

His life might be a lot more interesting than it looked to him when he was just 20 years old and his father's employment prospects were held up as ideal.

I can imagine that being lifted out of antiquity into modern life, from living in equal poverty to living in competitive, individually-rewarded employment in a modern society must be as big a change as changing from donkey-cart to a spacecraft.

Let's see what the downsides will be in China in a few years or decades; surely some of the problems we in the West have had to solve will soon come to roost here too?