SMALL TOWN, BIG DREAMS
“Thanks to the internet, the world is flat. There are no geographic limitations indoing business.”Lv Jie Wen, 25 years, Heshanhe airplane landed at Guangzhou’s Bai Yun international airport, the capitalcity of one of the most and earliest developed areas in China, Guangdongprovince. But Guangzhou is not our destination. We are heading out for a smallertown in the province, called Heshan, where we will start our lower tier cityexploration.
T
I have many questions, and hope to find answers by talking with local people,observing their culture, socio-economic conditions, especially the young people.How do they live their lives in a small town? How they keep themselves connecteddespite geographic distance? What are their dreams, ambitions, and aspirations?What kind of pressure, upsets, disappointments have they faced? What is thedifference between them and young people living in big cities? How they seethemselves, how they see their futures?
Pressure Vs. Ambition
She looked very upset when I saw her for the first time. She seemed under greatpressure. Her name was Lv Zhi Ying and she was 21 years old. She had beendoing nothing after she’d failed her college entrance examination. As manypeople know that in China, the college examination is an extremely critical rite of passage for youth - they have to work really hard to pass, otherwise, they will lagfar behind those who make it. This is the turning point that can make or breaklives, and Zhi Ying’s seemed to have broken. She has already suffered much. Shehas no job; so she doesn’t make any money at the moment. She has to live withparents and the family is rather poor. So she doesn’t get much support fromfamily; in fact she wants to contribute to the family finances but can’t. Shedoesn’t have many good friends to trust or rely upon. She feels great pressureboth internally and from society. She can’t sleep well. She doesn’t like staying inthis small town anymore - but for a while, she has to…But, Lv Zhi Ying doesn’t give up. She has dreams, she has ambitions, no less thatthose lucky folks who already have a college/university education, and careers.Lv Zhi Ying has a blog! She writes her blog everyday; she is also writing a novel. Yes, she calls it “a novel”- it is about how a young girl overcomes miserable failureand goes after her big dream. Evidently, this is about herself and her dreams. Sheadmires Han Han (a popular Chinese young writer) very much. Han Han’s
experience somewhat makes her feel comfortable – inspite of being a ‘loser’ in theChinese education system, Han Han’s success as a writer encourages her andgives her confidence. Her big dream is that someday her novel could bepublished, and she could do her dream job – as a magazine editor, or in any othermedia.As my conversation with her drew to a close, she had changed completely fromthe morose beginnings. Her face had turned red with excitement, and she wasexcited about her imagined future. She said that she wanted to turn the pressureinto energy that will keep her moving forward. She believes that in China - a landof opportunity, as long as you try best, there is always hope to succeed.
Local Entrepreneurs
There are fewer resources in a small town other than in the big cities, no matterwhether it is job opportunity or business opportunity. But does this reality limitlocal young people’s ambitions and actions? The answer is a firm negative.Lv Jie Wen is a 25 year old young man, and works in an optical lens manufacturingcompany after graduating from a technical high school. It seems his daily life is nodifferent from other local young people: work, surfing the internet, entertainment,movie, music, online games. He plays all these no less than others. But he has abig secret which he shares with me - he is planning to open an online-store or aB2B business unit on Alibaba.com some day soon, to sell lenses to manufacturersor trade companies, by leveraging his professional knowledge of lens andcommercial networks. Although he had never has real experience of online-shopping, he does not worry. He visits e-business websites very frequently,especially Alibaba.com, he studies how Alibaba.com works and has figured outwhat he can do on its platform.He lives a comfortable life. He lives with parents, has a professional job, earnsmore money than his peers. For many young people, this is a good life that onecan enjoy for a reasonable length of time. But he is not satisfied. He thinks he canachieve more, something big. Most importantly, he wants to be his own boss. Thanks to internet, which has made the world flat, he doesn’t see any geographiclimitations. He thinks his dream is more realistic and easier to be realized via theinternet.Lv Jie Wen is very optimistic about his business future.
Aspiration for going overseas
After high school, more and more young people in China’s big cities are goingoverseas to study. Some are supported by their rich families; for others, their
academic performance gets them scholarships. Young people in small towns alsohave similar aspirations. Jin Yong Zhe is 21 years old, a Korean Chinese university student living in the farnorth – Yanji, in Jilin province.He lives alone - his parents went to Shenzhen to runa Korean style restaurant there so that they could make enough money to helpfulfill his dream of studying abroad. He is very good at sports, especially football,but he wants to become a sports business manager rather than a football player.Very specific career choice indeed!He has a plan: go to the U.S. or Canada, study towards a Master’s degree,majoring in sports management (he has already identified the relevant schools).After graduation, he would like to get a job in the U.S. He would work very hardthere, become an American citizen, and then invite his parents to live with him.He would like to support them so that they could lead a better life in their old age.But if he can’t get a job in U.S., he would return to China. “That’s also good,because China is growing so fast and there are many opportunities as long as youare capable” he explains. With his planned background and experience, hebelieves that he would get a “decent job with decent salary, of course, the job hadto be something I like”. Jin Yong Zhe definitely wants to achieve something in his life, but above all hewants to make his parents proud.
Connection with a bigger world
Zhang Han Wei lives in Xizhou, a 6
th
tier town in Yunnan Province. This 15 year oldmiddle school student has had to move around between different cities anddifferent schools due to her father’s work. The result - she has a big friendnetwork in different places across China. Thanks to this exposure, she considersherself the same as any young girl in Beijing or Shanghai. She learns Korean,listens to hip-hop and rock & roll music. Most of the music she listens to isdownloaded from the internet. She plays online games like “World of Warcraft”,sometimes shops online for clothes. She likes Harry Potter, watches Hollywoodmovies, and loves sports - particularly basketball and football. She watches CCTV-9 to practice her English.She donated money as soon as she heard about the Wenchuan earthquake; andthen shared her feelings with her friends on her blog. Whenever she finds newpop music or new movies, she writes about them or chats with her friends aboutwhat she likes. Her favorite pop singers were Jay Chou, Pan Wilber, and AvrilLavigne.Even though Zhang Han Wei lives in a small place, her rich experiences and
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SMALL TOWN, BIG DREAMS “Thanks to the Internet, The
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| Upload Date: | 02/01/2009 |
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