首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
China’s New Middle Class Xia Jiaping opened his living room window and gazed out across the city he calls home. "None of thi
China’s New Middle Class Xia Jiaping opened his living room window and gazed out across the city he calls home. "None of thi
admin
2010-05-26
50
问题
China’s New Middle Class
Xia Jiaping opened his living room window and gazed out across the city he calls home. "None of this was here when I was young," he said of the glass and steel towers rising in the distance.
The new skyscrapers weren’t there before, but then, neither was the new class of Chinese to which Xia belongs.
His membership in that class is loudly proclaimed by the middle-class furnishings that are scattered about his 14th-floor apartment: a leather sofa, a flat-screen television, a flat-screen computer, a violin for his daughter, a microwave oven, and thick carpets. If the country has a history that’s five millennia long as it says it has, then the rise of the middle class has occurred in scarcely the blink of an eye. Its emergence is one of the most rapid social transformations in history.
New Change
The creation of this middle class has either come from or has released from large-scale economic, social and cultural change and, in the eyes of many Chinese, it signals the beginning of a permanent transformation of Chinese society.
"Nobody in 1990 could have looked forward 10 years and predicted where China is today," said Shao Yibo, who received his MBA at Harvard University. He returned to Shanghai three years ago to start Eachnet. com, a Chinese version of eBay, the online auctioneer. "There have been some unimaginable changes in China. And people just have to be here to believe it. This is clearly a city where things are happening. Shanghai is an exciting place to be."
Shao’s company, which offers Chinese consumers everything from cars to houses, cosmetics to computers, cell phones to antique Hong Kong bonds, is just one of the thousands of new, privately owned concerns appearing in Shanghai. These companies cater to middle class cravings while creating middle-class jobs.
China was not like the United States, Europe and even post-war Japan. Its growing consumer class does not have its roots in any middle-class ancestry. The parents of this new class of people invariably were workers or farmers.
Xia is now a manager at one of the world’s largest software companies. He was born in this city in 1965, where he joined four older sisters in his parents’ two-room home in a dormitory for factory workers. But, when China’s reforms, which began in the late 1970s, meant that universities began accepting freshmen after being closed for a decade, Xia made the move. He was a diligent student, and in 1984 was admitted to Shanghai’s Jiaotong University, to study applied mathematics.
Taking the Plunge
When he was about to graduate, an assortment of state-owned companies and research institutes visited Jiaotong to recruit. "I was offered a position by the East China Computer Research Institute, a government institute," Xia said. "At the time there were some other choices but nothing seemed as good as this. Things were in transition at the time but we were not so clear as to what was happening. I’d say most students went to state-owned institutions. " Xia worked for the institute for five years, all the time living with his parents. While he was at the institute he studied programming and became familiar with major software systems. His monthly pay was about US $ 250. Then, in 1993, he got a call that would change his life. "A salesman at this company called me and asked me to join," he explained. "But the first time they asked me I said I wasn’t ready."
"I said I hadn’t thought about taking the plunge into the sea," said Xia, using the expression common at the time for leaving the safety net of state employment and taking a risk in the private sector. "Then they called me again and came to my home. I was not alone in thinking it was a risk to do something like this, all of society thought it was a risk. You have to remember that state-owned industries were still very backward and everybody had the iron rice bowl," he said, using the common expression for cradle-to-grave security all workers were supposed to have; After two weeks of steadying his nerves, Xia decided to accept the offer from Oracle, the giant US software company.
This tough climb up out of the womb of state-owned enterprise protection is the area of interest of Zhang Wanli, a sociologist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. Zhang studies China’s new middle class. He points to the vast cultural differences of state-owned enterprises and private companies as having a crucial impact on the mentality of the middle class. One important difference is the level of risk-taking often needed to make the leap.
And, perhaps no Chinese city embraces this new world with the unbridled enthusiasm of Shanghai, the country’s largest and richest city. It sees itself as Asia’s once and future commercial capital. It has the world’s tallest hotel, the 88-story Grand Hyatt; General Motors chums out Buicks from its US $1.5 billion assembly plant; and one of the world’s first magnetic levitation high-speed trains will begin operation next year.
Once a sea of drab, cold-water apartment blocks, the city is now hundreds of modern condominium towers that are sprouting, and many hard wired with broadband Internet connections.
These staples of modern urban life have emerged as rapidly and at the same time as Shanghai’s middle class.
And Xia adapted to this new environment quickly. "For me, the big difference at Oracle, was responsibility." The number of employees at Oraele’s office has grown from 10 to 70 since Xia joined in 1993. "I was given much greater responsibility than had at the institute. And relationships among people are much easier. I feel much comfortable here. ’ Along with responsibility has come a compatible pay increase, about US $ 4,000 per month, or 16 times his last pay check at state institute.
Learn to be Independent
In 1995, he got married with Shi Weiping, an engineer at a state owned shipyard. A year later they had a daughter, Xia Shiyi, but still they live with Xia’s parents. "We saved money that way,’ he said. In 1999, the couple bought one of the new apartments that were springing up like dandelions across the city. For US $ 75,000, a sum unimaginable to his father, who earned about US $15 a month and now lives on a monthly pension of US $ 86, Xia and his family moved into a 365-square-meter apartment, only a brisk 10-minute walk from his parents. Unlike many of China’s newly well-off, Xia does not own a car, testimony, he said, to the city’s appalling traffic, and to hopes that the 15-minute bicycle ride to his downtown office will hold back his growing stomach.
This year his daughter will begin elementary school. Already, her parents are paying for violin lessons and are preparing her for her annual music exam, which will determine whether she will advance to the next level. The hardest thing, the couple say, is weaning (使…戒掉) Shiyi from cartoons on TV long enough to practice. And, unlike her grandparents or even her parents, Shiyi will be raised to be independent. "We’ll let her make her own decisions," her father said. "She decides if she wants to take extra classes-painting, drawing, violin. She has everything we never had as children."
With a salary of US $ 4,000 per month, Xia Jianping bought a new apartment and car.
选项
A、Y
B、N
C、NG
答案
B
解析
在Learn to be Independent这一部分的第一段,从“bought one of the new apartments"和"Xia does not own a car"可以明显得出本题与原文不符。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/8NLFFFFM
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
Inearlytimes,mostpeopleweretoobusymakingalivingtohavemany【B1】______.Todayasmachineshave【B2】______theamountof
Learningdoesnothappenpassively.Itisanactivitywhichapersondoes.Itisataskwhichcanbeattemptedinvariousways,
A、Tothedentist’s.B、Tothemarket.C、Tothepostoffice.D、Tothebookstore.A
A、Hewasnothappywiththenewdirector.B、Hewasnotqualifiedtobeanengineer.C、Hewantedtotravel.D、Hefoundhisjobbo
Tounderstandthemarketingconcept,itisonlynecessarytounderstandthedifferencebetweenmarketingandselling.Nottooma
ASenseofCrisisAroundtheworld,governmentsseeviolenceinschoolsasagrowingproblem.Thesubjectisontheagen
Thestandardoflivingofanycountrymeanstheaverageperson’sshareofthegoodsandserviceswhichthecountryproduces.Ac
Thestandardoflivingofanycountrymeanstheaverageperson’sshareofthegoodsandserviceswhichthecountryproduces.Ac
Withtheterminationoftheuncertifiedteachersandtheexpectedretirementofhundredsmore,schoolsystemofficialssaidthey
Therearetwofactorsthatdetermineanindividual’sintelligence.Thefirstisthesortofbrainheorshewasbornwith.Human
随机试题
根据双因素理论,管理者为了提高护士对护理工作的满意度,激发正性情绪。最适宜采取的措施是
可以将气管拉向患侧的疾病是
“气鼓”的特点是
多发性骨髓瘤细胞是B淋巴细胞杂交瘤细胞的理想细胞,其原因不包括下列哪项
为保证医疗临床用血需要和安全,保障献血者和用血者身体健康,国家实行的制度是
某工程项目总价值为1000万元,合同工期为18个月,现承包人因建设条件发生变化需增加额外工程费用50万元,则承包方提出工期索赔为()个月。
对ERP系统框架及主要功能表述正确的有()。
20×4年1月1日,甲公司为乙公司的800万元债务提供50%担保。20×4年6月1日,乙公司因无力偿还该笔到期债务被债权人起诉。至20×4年12月31日,法院尚未判决,但经咨询律师,甲公司认为有55%的可能性需要承担全部保证责任,赔偿400万元,并预计承担
对近来全国范围内通胀产生的背景和根源,众说纷纭,其说不一,有说存款利率过低造成的,有说外来热钱导致的,有说国际上大宗商品涨价带动的,还有说是农民工短缺、工人工资上涨引发的等。应该说这些因素都是客观存在的,它们对这次通货膨胀或多或少都起了一定的作用。但近年物
请根据以下材料,按照“发现问题——分析问题——解决问题"的思路,写一篇案例分析,要求观点明确、材料充实、结构严谨、条理清楚、语言规范、卷面清洁。(不少于1000字)材料:玛丽是位美国老师,从芝加哥来到北京教书。她在讲课时学生不断地记笔记,但是,没有
最新回复
(
0
)