Chinese officials promulgated the one-child policy in order to produce a generation with consumption and education patterns similar to those found in developed countries. This modernization strategy has succeeded, but at a high price. Having only one child enabled parents to concentrate all their resources on providing that child with the best that money can buy. Consequently, Chinese only-children have been raised with the kind of high expectations, consumption demands, and educational aspirations common among their counterparts in developed countries.  At the same time, however, Chinese only-children have also faced intense parental pressure and competition for elite status in the educational system and the job market. Drawing on interviews, surveys, and participant observation with the same cohort of only-children from age 13-20 to ages 28-35, this talk examines how and why their adolescent experiences have led them to unprecedented levels of college attainment, upward mobility, gender equality, and late marriage and childbearing, as well as a desire to spare their own children the pressures that they faced while growing up.

Admission to the lecture is free.