[ Social Conducts ]
Traditional family values
In China, the Family name comes first, the given name second. That is vestige of the traditional Confucian values: the family remains Chinese society's most important unit. In rural areas, common surnames identify an extended clan.
The birth control policy has had profound influences on the Chinese society. The children with no siblings, particularly if they are male, are usually spoiled by doting parents and even more by grandparents. These kids have been dubbed "little emperors", a western equivalent might be "exceedingly spoiled brat".
Although increasingly a rare occurrence in the cities, in arural family three generations may be living together, with responsibility for elders falling to the sons. Daughters, on the other hand, become members of her husband's family after marriage. Families in the cities, however, are increasingly small and self-contained, like most urban families worldwide.
Social life
In the morning, many Chinese people keep a habit of exercises in early morning, Wushu, or rather martial arts, Qigong, jogging, either in the park or along the road. Morning streets are crowded with commuters. Armadas of cyclists pour throught cycle lanes and scatter across junctions. Buses lurch along the streets, sometimes encountering traffic jams.
As Their rich and varied cuisine reflects, the Chinese love to eat, and China's rise in living standards is appartent at meal time. Urban residents, to whom even pork was once special, now regularly consume beef, fish, and shrimp in the home, and restaurant meals can be veritable banquets. This is especially the case if the meal is charged to entertainment expenses, or is being paid for by a businessman who wants to impress--the Chinese do not usually split the tab-On the table there should always be more food than the diners can eat, otherwise, the host loses face. Until recently, dinner was the chief evening event that could last till small hours.
China's national and regional television stations are improving, they feature foreign as well as domestic programs. China-produced films improve so stupendously that they sweep up awards in the film festivals of Europe.
Karaoke, that vain Japanese-invented sing-along addiction, has swept China as elsewhere in Asia, and set the whole China singing. Overwhelmingly, the songs patrons prefer are from Hong Kong and Taiwan; there is also material available from the West.
Working life
There was a time --until recently, in fact-- when he distinction between rural and urban workers was quite clear and obvious. Rural life meant the farm; urban life, the factory or office. As agriculture becomes mechanised and automated, the increasing numbers of migrant farmers throng into the cities and become a city planner's headache.
In the cities, the "Iron bowl", as the systemn of permanent and guaranteed jobs and wages was once called, has vanished. And unemployment became a profound social problem.
[ Public Holidays ]
