Good times for China's resurgent middle class

Press, 13 August 1986, Page 15

Good times for China's resurgent middle class

BERNARD DEGIOANNI

NZPA-AFPQingdao, China All is well with Zhang Yizhen, aged 52, and his wife who are a good example of China's new "middle class,” with money to spare for small luxuries, despite having four daughters. Their higher standard of living is slowly wiping out their memories of the 10 years of repression during Mao’s Cultural Revolution, which they suffered in silence. Mr Zhang, a modest employee in a cereal warehouse, in the coastal town of Qingdao, has seen his monthly salary almost double to 142 yuan (about $80.13) in just under eight years. His wife Zhang Gul-Min, a doctor, earns 160 yuan (about $91.09). Mr Zhang explained that before the economic reforms of 1978, "the main thing for us was to have enough money to fill our bellies.” “Today, not only do we have four different dishes at each meal, but there is enough money left over for clothes and laboursaving domestic appli-

ances,” he said. He lives with his father-in-law, wife and four daughters aged 15, 19, 23, and 25 in one of the few individual houses in the heavily built-up area of Qingdao, a former German concession which was later taken over by the Japanese. The Zhang family symbolises the Chinese middle class of the eighties. They have lived for the last dozen years in their four tiny rooms, spick and span and soberly furnished, with a total area of 38 square metres. “It is true that the kitchen is only just over four square metres and we do not have a bathroom or toilet. But we can all take a shower where we work,” Mr Zhang said. Mrs Zhang, aged 50, agreed: “We are better off here than in one of those modern-style flats which surround us. After all, it is a delight to be able to look out of the window at flowers we have planted ourselves.” She is a former nurse who studied medicine at evening classes to become

a doctor, and practises in a State factory. Her husband says smilingly over a traditional cup of tea: “My wife is really the head of the family, looking after the budget — mine, her own and our daughters.” Laughingly, Mrs Zhang calls him a liar. “I am head of the family only because I look after every thing, while you come home and have nothing else to do but put on your slippers and relax. Everything is prepared for you,” she said. The couple see that their daughters do not use too much make-up and do not keep bad company.

The mother does not like to see them go out evenings to dance, a rediscovered pleasure in China, although her husband reminded her, "Remember, you also liked to dance.” Neither of them discuss love or sex with their daughters. But Mr Zhang agrees that "we cannot, after all, expect them to stay at home all the time.”

He recalled that his own generation, in the

fifties, “were naive, and we only thought about work. Now young people have various means of relaxation.” • The three daughters old enough to work have to hand over their pay to their mother, because, as Mrs Zhang said: “We have to be careful to avoid unnecessary spending, so they ask us for pocket money when they want something.” Sometimes their daughters want money for new clothes, but their mother refuses because “their own clothes are still in an excellent condition.” How do the girls react? “They are unhappy but do not complain, like us during the Cultural Revolution,” their mother said. Mr Zhang was willing to talk politics quite openly, and the very fact that a foreigner was in his home was proof of the great change in atmosphere in the country since the Mao days. “I obey the Government, although I do not agree with them all the time; But we are modest people, and we know little about politics.”