For upwardly mobile couples, it's a guilt- free alternative that suits their lifestyle
By Sim Chi Yin & Susan Long
THEIR FURRY 'CHILD': A Chinese couple enjoying a meal with their dog at a pet restaurant in Hangzhou. Many young couples in major Chinese cities are opting for a Dink (Double Income, No Kids) lifestyle, citing economic pressures as a factor. For them, having pets instead of children is a pragmatic move in a dog-eat-dog world where it is an advantage to travel light and have as few family burdens as possible. TWO years ago, Ms Tian Fang and Mr Li Zhen returned home cradling their bundle of joy - a miniature Schnauzer they named QQ. They bought it at a dog show for 1,500 RMB (S$290) and spend 500 RMB on its food, toys and toiletries every month. 'We don't spend that much time with him, so we try to make it up by giving him better food, toiletries, toys. We get a lot of joy out of petting and stroking him, just like a child,' says Ms Tian, who works in the finance sector. Every night when she gets home around 7pm, QQ is waiting by the door. 'If I get home late, he shreds the newspapers and pees and messes up the house to show his unhappiness,' she says indulgently.
She and her restaurant manager husband, both 35, have been married for five years and earn a comfortable 7,000 RMB a month altogether.
Children were never part of their gameplan. 'We are both so busy at work. Life's pressures are so great. With QQ, we have no guilt. We just give him toys and spend some time with him after work and it's OK. We reward his good behaviour with chicken strips or lamb's leg. When he's naughty, we hit his nose with rolled-up newspaper,' says the university-educated fourth daughter of an engineer. 'To have kids just for joy in life, or just to pass on the family name, is too simplistic and too traditional thinking,' she scoffs. She typifies the new ambivalence towards parenting among the young in major Chinese cities like Tianjin, Beijing and Shanghai, where the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) has dipped to 1.0, among the lowest in the world today.
A TFR of 2.1 is needed to replenish a population. Experts say this could be a sobering harbinger of fertility trends to come, as more flock to the cities, where increasing educational opportunities and rising incomes provide attractive alternatives to marriage and child-rearing. Within the next two decades, the proportion of city dwellers, who now make up 44 per cent of China's population, will rise to 60 per cent, according to United Nations projections, likely causing a further overall plummeting of the TFR.
Already, demographers note that the number of women of child-bearing age throughout China is flat and will soon fall. While the government earlier made it illegal for men below age 22 and women younger than 20 to marry in a bid to curb population growth, the average age at which most Chinese are getting wed is now way above that. The country's two richest cities, Beijing and Shanghai, take pole position, with men marrying at 28.2 and 31.1 and women at 26.1 and 28.4 respectively in 2006, according to recently released figures. In 2005, singles accounted for 65.9 per cent of those aged from 15 to 29 and 45.7 per cent of those from 15 to 35. In 1995, the figures were 51.54 per cent and 38.23 per cent respectively.
As a result, the Chinese family has shrunk over the past 50 years, from 5.3 members per household in 1949 to 3.1 in 2005.
Experts say that rapid economic development, a furious living pace and more dual-income couples are fast eroding the propensity to procreate. More are comfortable with cohabitation. The to-do list before getting hitched also keeps growing longer. Events manager Zhao Guofu, 29, who plans to wed his girlfriend of two years next year, says: 'Marriage is not as simple as it was for my parents' generation. Our society has become hyper-competitive and consumeristic. We feel we need to sort out career, house and car before, not after, we settle down.'
More worryingly, many can no longer count beyond one child, either because the one-child policy syncs with hectic urban lifestyles or propaganda over time has moderated their family size aspirations.
As such, wealthy cities like Guangzhou are actively encouraging families with one child to have a second, in hopes of slowing down the greying process. In addition, almost all provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China now allow couples, where both - or increasingly just one - spouses are an only child, to have two offspring to spread out the burden of supporting the elderly. However, many among the grown-up single-child generation are saying 'Thanks but no thanks' to current provisions for them to have a second child.
One is enough for more than half of Beijing's adult singletons, according to a recently released survey by the Beijing Administrative Institute. Only 24 per cent intended to exercise their entitlement to have a second child. Over a quarter opted for a Dink (Double Income, No Kids) lifestyle, citing economic pressures as a factor.
Teacher Liao Lan, 30, who has been married to magazine editor Li Haibo, 31, for three years, says she can't find the time or any convincing reason to have even one child. To her and many other young urbanites, it is just a pragmatic calculation in a dog-eat-dog world to travel light, have as few family burdens as possible, invest in herself, enhance her education, training and employability, and guard her leisure time. As QQ's owner Ms Tian put it: 'After all, when I grow old, there's no difference whether we have children or not. We'll be left to our own devices anyway. We'll get a nanny or go to an old folk's home - the conditions are pretty good these days. 'If it's about having joy in your life, then it's better to have a pet.'
Comments: This article shows the changing mindsets of the Chinese, mainly those in the more developed (urban) areas like Beijing and Shanghai. They no longer have to worry about not being able to carry on the family line (having a son etc) and do not see it as an important task on their agenda anymore. China will also face an ageing population soon, with the government planning to keep the One Child Policy, at least for the next ten years. Change might be due to Western Influence, people getting more educated and money is seen as the more pragmatic thing to go after etc etc.
