China

Having done some research into China i found a really interesting article in the national geographic which talks about the stresses and starins which are now influenced on the young children who live there. The article follows a family and their progression of thier lifestyle through the class's as china developed over 5 yrs.

In particular it follows a little girl called Zhou Jiaying, however her parents also choose to give her an english name Bella. It talks about how at the age of 4 her parents put her into spoken english and english converstaion classes by 5 she was also in acting classes and by 8 she was in piano lessons which they believed taught disaplin and developed her cerebrum and swimming lessons to make her taller as well as private tutition at weekends for school entrance exams.

Bella comes from a middle class family and as a result there is a lot expected from her, especially as in China you are only allowed one child. As i read through the article it becomes evidant that a common attitude in china is that you can always improve, as Bella is told by her parents 'you are only as good as your worst work'.

"You had to keep moving, because staying in place meant falling behind. That was how the world worked even if you were only ten years old."

I think this is a very eye opening comment made by the author, and something which is evidant throughout the article. Because of this attitude the children overtake their parents. Bella starts teaching her parents the newest slang and cool websites, she guides them on thier purchases of everything from where to eat as to what TV to buy and often is given the deciding vote. It would be interesting to see how marketing is implimented and understand how to effectively target the chinease consumer.