Children born with “Silver Spoons”

Family Interaction & Social Relationship

Agreen Wang

Clues• Children’s living environment

--family relationship

--consumer society & globalization

--media promotion

• Children’s behaviors

• Money education

Children’s Living Context

• Family relationship

--family size is changed from extended family to nuclear family

http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu20ie/uu20ie08.htm

--as a result of this, children gradually become the family center.

• Family relationship

--the standard to evaluate children: most parents focus mainly on children’s studying, ignoring their living skills, personalities.

--parents over-protect children

--parents too busy to take care of children

Children’s Living Context

• Consumer society & Globalization

--from planned economy to market economy

More products,

Autonomic purchasing behaviors,

Gap between the rich & the poor,

Money, important money

Children’s Living Context

• Consumer society & Globalization

--China joined WTO on Apr 24, 2003

Global market,

Transnational corporation

Uniform product promotion

Consumer culture globalized

American social values input

Children’s Living Context

• Consumer society & Globalization

--Globalization raise consumer expectations that often cannot be fulfilled, and the end result is alienation, frustration, relative deprivation and, potentially, crime and social strife.

World Youth Report 2003

Children’s Living Context

• Consumer society & Globalization--Young people’s experience with regard to globalization is

very much class-based. … the opportunities provided by the global culture have allowed the new middle classes to build a position of localized class dominance, and this has actively worked against the interests of working classes, who are being rendered increasingly powerless in both and economic and a cultural sense.

World Youth Report 2003

Children’s Living Context

• Media promotion

Popular television programs

Super Girl’s Voicehttp://you.video.sina.com.cn/b/521923-1270910697.html

Lucky 52http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDM5OTE0OTY=.html

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzA5NTU4Njg=.html

Children’s Living Context

• Media promotion--TV series from America, Korea and Japan

--Magazines: Vogue, Bazaar, Elle

--Internet: fashion blogs, BBS

A society seems to be saturated of consumption, celebrity and fashion.

People respect the rich and dream to

be rich.

Children’s Living Context

• Girls show off/brag their wealth on the internet

http://www.ycwb.com/ePaper/xkb/html/2007-11/12/content_62073.htm

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDE1ODc0NzI=.html

Children’s Behaviors

• Internet provide youths great space to show their precious.

http://bbs.yoka.com/

People register on the website and show newest luxuries they buy recently, with concrete information as:

where & when they buy those things,

whom they buy for,

the price,

how they feel about it

http://bbs.yoka.com/thread-662766-1-1.html

http://bbs.yoka.com/thread-655666-1-1.html

Children’s Behaviors

• Most girls admit that what they mostly do are shopping, hanging around with friends, surfing on the internet

• They don’t care much about their studying, because their parents would help them continue their education.

• Research reveal the factors which make children born in 90s feel that they are polarized from their peers.

http://zqb.cyol.com/content/2008-12/18/content_2475701.htm

Children’s Behaviors

• Many parents they don’t have objection toward their children’s addiction to luxuries.

• Parents buy luxuries for children. They believe what they buy is the quality of those brands, without considering whether it’s necessary for children or not.

• Some of them also use brands to identify themselves. By media promotion, brands mean good tastes. And they hope to own good tastes.

Parents’ Attitudes

• Differences between China and the U.S.

In the U.S., wealthy people seem not so like to talk about their wealth in public.

Parents in the U.S. adopt different way to raise their children. Some of their children don’t know how rich they are, until they are told by others around them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzGKT_OoTXQ&feature=related

Parents’ Attitudes

• Children need money education

How to treat money

How to own their living value

How to develop their relationship with other people

Money Education

THANKS VERY MUCH!