As mentioned in many posts, your history is a bit off.
Also, my overtime work in Beijing doesn't make my girlfriend happy; she understandably gets very angry that I never make it home for dinner or put a strong wall between work and life, this is very important in Chinese culture and I feel violations are actually more acceptable in American culture. I guess everyone is different, its impossible to generalize.
The concept of "community" breaks down very quickly in China. Sure, if you are a native Beijinger, you go to the park and do the dances in the square (assuming you are old or bored), but most of the people in Beijing are migrant workers who do not have hukou; they are basically excluded from the community. How can a community thrive when you exclude 60 or 70% of the people? Granted, 40% is still a lot of people, but something is very rotten in the society.
Everything said in the article is plausible and probably true. Once you really get embedded in Chinese society, you are as exposed to unfairness and corruption as a local is, without the benefit of being treated as a local, and it makes sense right? You can escape if you want, they don't have much leverage over you.
> most of the people in Beijing are migrant workers who do not have hukou; they are basically excluded from the community
That's not so simple. They belong to their own community of migrant workers and most are able to get community support when needed. They also become acclimated to Beijing and it is not unlikely their offspring will be Beijingers. I have a direct experience of that, our nanny is a typical migrant worker. has very good relations with our neighbors, who are of the oldest Beijing brand (they are Manchu). Disclaimer: we live in the hutong. It is very possible that life in new places is different.
Not true. Children of migrant workers don't get hukou just for being born in Beijing. You basically have people who have never been anywhere outside of Beijing who have no hope of getting hukou; they are basically a multi-generational second class citizenry.
The hutongs are about the only place in Beijing where you can find high concentrations of Beijing'ers. Anywhere outside of the second ring road tends to be mostly migrants. Granted, some of these migrants are rich, live in nice apartments, and don't really have adjustment problems, but then again, there is quite a huge underclass in Beijing that has none of that.
And if you can't get access to social services in Beijing, are you really a beijinger? Where do these kids go to school, take the gaokao, have a higher chance to get into PKU or qinghua? You aren't a full beijinger without hukou. That we can get hukou for a few of our college new hires every year is a big recruiting advantage for my company.
True. Actually there's been ongoing discusses on this issue, about education of children of migrant workers in China.
You cannot purchase a house, send your kids to school, or access many social services without a Beijing hukou(something like resident identification).
Big tech companies like Microsoft and Sina becomes more competitive on recruiting, because they have been given some hukou credits by the government, so if you get into these companies, you can get a hukou when it's your turn in the long-long queue.
And local Beijingers do not welcome those migrants. They even think it's unfair to let the kids of those to receive education in Beijing, not to mention the college entrance test(aka GaoKao).
Also, my overtime work in Beijing doesn't make my girlfriend happy; she understandably gets very angry that I never make it home for dinner or put a strong wall between work and life, this is very important in Chinese culture and I feel violations are actually more acceptable in American culture. I guess everyone is different, its impossible to generalize.
The concept of "community" breaks down very quickly in China. Sure, if you are a native Beijinger, you go to the park and do the dances in the square (assuming you are old or bored), but most of the people in Beijing are migrant workers who do not have hukou; they are basically excluded from the community. How can a community thrive when you exclude 60 or 70% of the people? Granted, 40% is still a lot of people, but something is very rotten in the society.
Everything said in the article is plausible and probably true. Once you really get embedded in Chinese society, you are as exposed to unfairness and corruption as a local is, without the benefit of being treated as a local, and it makes sense right? You can escape if you want, they don't have much leverage over you.