In modern China, parents pushing for super tykes
Four years ago, Zi fell out with his violin teacher. The artistic shakeup, which is how Zi's parents carefully describe it, led to his current love, the piano. Zi, who is now seven, spends every Saturday in a huge music studio with 45 private teaching rooms. Every Sunday, as part of a rigorous weekend march to hone and test his talent, Zi takes English and drawing lessons.
Just as the US went through a "superbabies" trend in the 1980s, China's success- oriented culture is now shaping super tykes. In a country where cars now clog city lanes, where in Beijing a huge new opera house and high rises are displacing city homes, where the Communist Party now mandates the concept of "shao kan," the good life - young urban Chinese parents are pushing their offspring to be all they can be.
As China, with its 1.3 billion population, expands the economy, and its ambition to be the dominant power in Asia - there is also a collective hope that the nation will benefit from a super generation of high-level learners. Weekend classes for 3 to 12-year-olds are a national obsession, as urban parents regularly spend a third or more of their income in hopes that junior will become a "dragon," a dominant character among peers. China is a country in a hurry to get ahead.
Public schools in larger cities offer weekend "math Olympics" - advanced math leading to geometry and algebra. There's a budding industry of private teachers, phone networks, price sheets, and private schools that offer dance, introductory physics, calligraphy, music, karate, tennis, and art. The most popular class: English.
"We need to give kids advantages now," states Ms. Chen, Zi's mom, who attends all his classes, and has been sizing up her son for boarding school abroad.
At the private Jie Jang arts center where Zi takes piano, parents are told their offspring will develop "the eight powers": rich imagination, rigorous thinking, bold expression, deep understanding, steady control, memory skill, harmony, and outstanding organizing.
Parents say their kids need such "extras" to get into a top middle school, which itself will lead to a top high school and college. In the early 1990s, China switched from a six day school week to five days, allowing the current boom in weekend warrior tykes.
In Taiyuan, capitol of Shanxi province, 80 percent of families with grade school kids send them to extra classes, notes a recent survey. Beijing neighborhoods echo with a new and often ironic use of an old Chinese phrase: "Wang zi chen long," or "chen feng." It means: "We want our son to be a dragon." (Or our daughter to be a "phoenix.") In Chinese, the meaning suggests a successful figure such as Bill Gates or Hilary Clinton - who can control his or her environment.
Still, the trend has a number of detractors, ranging from local health officials to grandmothers.
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