‘SINGLE KIDS OFTEN SELFISH’
Liu Bo, 37, has fond memories of his childhood in Hebei, a province neighbouring Beijing. He remembers playing, sharing and, of course, fighting with his elder brother while their parents were busy running a large restaurant and a wholesale fruit market. Both Liu and his brother were born before China introduced and then strictly implemented the one-child policy in the late 1970s. Hardly surprising then that Liu and his wife, Wu Xiao Na, also from a twochild family, want to give their seven-yearold daughter a warm if tightly-budgeted family life complete with a sibling. “I have often seen single children who are selfish and self-centred. They often have personality issues and lack communication skills. They can become arrogant and spoilt,” Liu told HT. “The personality of children who grew up in bigger families was different from those who grew up as a single child”. Liu and Wu have been wanting a second child since their daughter was born and with the government now completely relaxing the one-child rule, they have decided to go-ahead. Liu himself did not feel the hard pinch of the earlier policy. “It was a good policy at that time. It was needed for development. We needed energy. We needed industry. It was necessary to control the population,” Liu said. The situation has clearly changed now for small families like his. Liu works at a database company and is also doing his post-doctoral research on history; his wife teaches English at a Beijing technology institute. “The cost of living, especially children’s education is high. That is why not all my friends want a second child. But I can cover the cost,” Liu said.