The happy picture above is a billboard featured prominently at my school. It shows what people here in China would consider to be the "Chinese Dream", which coincidentally is very similar to the "American Dream". The Chinese place a high value on education, and feel if they invest in private school and college and work hard that they will be rewarded with material success. The major problem with this dream is that there is no place in China that looks like the picture. I am not exaggerating when I say that in my 8 months here in China, I have only seen the blue sky twice. All the other days have been shrouded in a disgusting haze of pollution. Urban planning here is non-existenant, so urban sprawl is terrible. Neighborhoods with individual houses are rare, and when they do exist, the houses have no real privacy or property. Perhaps that explains why there has been a major exodus of millionaires from China in recent years. When people achieve financial success, they want things that money can't buy in China, namely clean air, safe food, and governmental integrity.
What is true is that China is fully of opportunity. Though major divisions exist between rich and poor, a solid middle class does seem to be emerging. But that new found opportunity is born in large part on the back of a complete disregard for the environment, and nobody seems willing to stand up and do anything about it. So people will continue to work hard, keep their heads down, and will settle down in spacious apartments with scenic smokestack views. And when a teacher asks their kid, "what color is the sky?", they will says without irony or hesitation, "Gray!" I'd rather be a poor man in America than a rich man in China.
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