Reading this chapter, I found myself shocked at finding out more information of what Chinese citizens struggle with. Mainly focusing on middle class citizens, Dodson makes note of the four major stresses that Chinese people are challenged with daily: "housing costs, educational difficulties for students and parents, job competition, and unfair health care expenses. When it comes to housing in China, the government, police, building security staff, and project managers take control of whatever they want to enhance for themselves without taking heed to the rights of house and apartment owners. In America, citizens have all their rights and ownership to the property in which they live. A property manager can't renovate on a project without having the permission of the owner, but in China that right seems to be tampered with. The dwellers in the apartment have to accept whatever is given to them without question or reason.
As far as the education for students in China, Dodson states on page 32 that, "The examination system requires that students who want to get into the best schools in China study up to 16 hours a day for at least the year leading up to the examination." I think that's a great method to motivate the students to study and to keep them focused on the exam, but it's also takes a competitive spirit and strictness for that person to pass the examination I also think it's very common and relatable with students competing to get into the best schools in the world, but once you graduate from that best school where does your high credentials go? Because of the increasing population in China, there are limited career based jobs for students to get into and as a result, students have to work at low paying jobs such as McDonald's or Burger King. However, what makes China different from American students is that their stress level on failing to work in their profession intensifies. If they don't graduate from university or simply find a well paying job after graduating, they ruin the reputation of their family and themselves. That fear in their hearts and negative assumptions cause that stress level to lead to worse things like suicide.
Lastly, Dodson explains the "Precarious Health Care" in China. Just as with their education system, China has a strict and somewhat underdeveloped concept to deal with ill patients. Dodson writes, "Just as in the United States, health-care costs can ruin a family." Health care has always been a major financial, emotional, and physical issue for Americans. We always want to protect and care for the people we love, such as family, but it's the means of doing it. In China, however, their hospital systems seem corrupt with the "Pay cash up front" method because several middle class families don't have that much financial support. As with the Zou family that Dodson mentions, the mother has to give up her 1,500 square-foot, three-bedroom apartment with a garden in the backyard to a "...small, run-down, two-bedroom apartment with a drafty, closet-sized bathroom and a poorly lit nook for cooking," (41). Zou's mom does this to provide the financial and medical attention that Zou's husband needed but it's very shameful of how a mother of five have to give up so much to receive less in her life. The government in China is similar to the American government because they are all aware with the lack of proper treatment and the demanding high expenses it takes to treat a patient. There are smaller organizations such as the URMI and the RCMI that are trying to provide as much as healthcare needs as they can for middle class citizens but it's not enough to get rid of the unfair financial demands. I kind of almost knew that China was a strict country but I was never aware of the unfair treatment Chinese citizens lived through regarding their ownership, education, jobs, and health care. Now I know it's just a crooked, strict government in the world who's only role is to suck all the money out of people, and to leave their economic status for their citizens drained.
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