Where did you grow up? Some of us were born and raised in the same house and if not in the same house then in the same city or town. Others were born in one place and traveled to and fro until they couldn’t really tell you where they grew up. In the first case your environment shaped you in a way that that house or town or school feels like your childhood. In the second case your environment shaped you in the way that you see your childhood in chunks of where was I and who did I know when such and such happened. Both of these ways of growing and learning and becoming who you are are important in their own special way.
I lived in like 5 towns before I was 8 but then stayed in one town until I went to college. So I would say I grew up in Lincoln-it is my home, and yet there is a bit of me that still cherishes the pioneer in my youth. I feel like I hold my immediate family closer to me because I only had them as constants from a very young age.
Recently I have learned some very interesting information about China and Chinese culture that has to do with moving. The one reason I hated moving as a child was because I would have to change schools. This luxury is not something children in China have to worry about.
户口: The cultural and governmental quality called the Hu Kou is very important in both social, family, and work life. Children are only allowed to go to school in the community where their hu kou is, or if their parents are wealthy enough to pay extra money to the school. Adults are free to move from city to city but cannot receive any kinds of benefits in a place that is not their hukou. Hu Kou is easily changed from city to city or village to city if you are able to afford to purchase an apartment. Renting an apartment doesn’t change your hu kou. Similar to a US passport it depends on your parent’s hu kou. Lets give Nebraska the cultural and governmental quality of a Hu Kou and show by example how this looks in China.
I am a woman who was born in South Dakota and lets pretend that both my parents were from the town I was born and therefore my family and in turn I have Brookings, SD hu kou. When my parents moved from SD to Lincoln, NE they would need to make several hard choices. 1. buy a house which changes their hu kou to Lincoln Nebraska. 2. keep their SD hu kou but forfeit any medical, life, or educational benefits for themselves and their children. 3. leave their children in SD with grandparents so that children have all of the above benefits and send the money from NE back to SD.
This scenario gets even more confusing if you are a minority people group because as a minority you are allowed more than just one child but only if your hu kou stays in the minority home land and doesn’t change to a large city hu kou.....so in this case you must choose standard of living vs two children vs one child lives with your parents and one lives with you (meaning each child has a different hu kou).
The basic meaning of all this is that if you need to move to the city to provide a better life for your family because the home farm doesn’t sustain all of you- you have to either leave your children in the village or doom them to a lack of education in the city.
The poor get progressively poorer and poorer. If they cannot afford to educate their children the children do not get education and therefore sink into more poverty.
Obviously this system provides challenges for individuals. Originally it’s purpose was to help the government organize and control the vast numbers of people who live within their country. But China is a country that is changing so quickly that the theory of policy and the realty of life no longer align. So, sacrificing your relationship with your children so that they can have an education or sacrificing their education for your relationship. What would you pick for yourself or for your children??
My language helper is going through this dilemma as I write this. Her and her husband have one beautiful little boy but they are pregnant again. They are both minorities but have lived in Kunming for seven years and own their own apartment. They are believers and will not have an abortion both because they think it is wrong as well as because they really want a second child. They are really happy but also very nervous and anxious about what will happen to them and to this new child. They must make a hard choice. Please be thinking for them during this time.
I lived in like 5 towns before I was 8 but then stayed in one town until I went to college. So I would say I grew up in Lincoln-it is my home, and yet there is a bit of me that still cherishes the pioneer in my youth. I feel like I hold my immediate family closer to me because I only had them as constants from a very young age.
Recently I have learned some very interesting information about China and Chinese culture that has to do with moving. The one reason I hated moving as a child was because I would have to change schools. This luxury is not something children in China have to worry about.
户口: The cultural and governmental quality called the Hu Kou is very important in both social, family, and work life. Children are only allowed to go to school in the community where their hu kou is, or if their parents are wealthy enough to pay extra money to the school. Adults are free to move from city to city but cannot receive any kinds of benefits in a place that is not their hukou. Hu Kou is easily changed from city to city or village to city if you are able to afford to purchase an apartment. Renting an apartment doesn’t change your hu kou. Similar to a US passport it depends on your parent’s hu kou. Lets give Nebraska the cultural and governmental quality of a Hu Kou and show by example how this looks in China.
I am a woman who was born in South Dakota and lets pretend that both my parents were from the town I was born and therefore my family and in turn I have Brookings, SD hu kou. When my parents moved from SD to Lincoln, NE they would need to make several hard choices. 1. buy a house which changes their hu kou to Lincoln Nebraska. 2. keep their SD hu kou but forfeit any medical, life, or educational benefits for themselves and their children. 3. leave their children in SD with grandparents so that children have all of the above benefits and send the money from NE back to SD.
This scenario gets even more confusing if you are a minority people group because as a minority you are allowed more than just one child but only if your hu kou stays in the minority home land and doesn’t change to a large city hu kou.....so in this case you must choose standard of living vs two children vs one child lives with your parents and one lives with you (meaning each child has a different hu kou).
The basic meaning of all this is that if you need to move to the city to provide a better life for your family because the home farm doesn’t sustain all of you- you have to either leave your children in the village or doom them to a lack of education in the city.
The poor get progressively poorer and poorer. If they cannot afford to educate their children the children do not get education and therefore sink into more poverty.
Obviously this system provides challenges for individuals. Originally it’s purpose was to help the government organize and control the vast numbers of people who live within their country. But China is a country that is changing so quickly that the theory of policy and the realty of life no longer align. So, sacrificing your relationship with your children so that they can have an education or sacrificing their education for your relationship. What would you pick for yourself or for your children??
My language helper is going through this dilemma as I write this. Her and her husband have one beautiful little boy but they are pregnant again. They are both minorities but have lived in Kunming for seven years and own their own apartment. They are believers and will not have an abortion both because they think it is wrong as well as because they really want a second child. They are really happy but also very nervous and anxious about what will happen to them and to this new child. They must make a hard choice. Please be thinking for them during this time.
