介绍:
Xiaohua: If you could choose your birthplace in your next life, where would you choose? A recent survey covering 34 provinces indicates that 56.3% of Chinese who participated in the survey chose somewhere different from where they were born.
如果还有下辈子，你最愿意做哪里人? 零点调查公司日前发布的“全国34省市形象地图”显示，56.3%的中国人下辈子都打算换个地方投胎。大家是有多讨厌自己的家乡?
So does it mean that these 56.3% people hate their where their hometown currently are?
Heyang: I don’t know if they hate their current hometowns, but they certainly don’t like it enough to want to be born here or there again. And it seems like the big cities are most attractive, with Beijing being the most popular choice winning…I’m shocked by this figure with 17% of the votes. And Shanghai follows with 8.9% and Guangdong follows Shanghai’s footsteps. So these big cities probably have a better city image and also what it entails and what comes along with it…That actually influences people’s perception on what do I want to be in my next life.
John: When we look at the reasons why people chose this, it had nothing to do with ‘I just don’t like my life,’ ‘I just don’t like the people,’ ‘In my hometown, the food is real crappy, it’s just so dirty blah blah blah.’ No, it has more to do with the fact that people think living in these cities that offers more opportunity. Because if you are born there, you have the hukou. It’s a very similar discussion that we had earlier in the show about allocation of resources. So really what this comes down to, I think if we look at it from a broader places people are choosing. That’s what this is about. It’s an objective ‘where can I have the best opportunity, where can my children have the best opportunity.’ These are those areas.
If you break it down, 85% of participants from Sichuan chose to have the same birthplace. So you can see that even there, regionally and income wise as well, it really breaks down into some interesting results than just saying a lot of people want to move to Beijing. Because in the end, 16.8% of the Chinese population really isn’t all that much.
Heyang: Yeah…But I still think maybe there’s a problem with how people see their hometowns. Maybe they are not happy with where they are at right now. I think increasingly the Chinese population, with more and more people coming into the city to live and urbanization in process, feel a detachment towards their hometowns. And maybe it’s the detachment make them feel why not choose somewhere that sounds better and seems better. And what does my hometown mean to me? Not that much! That’s something I wonder if is unique to China at this stage of development. Because I remember speaking to people from the US, the UK, and European countries, when people talk about their hometowns, it could be this tiny little town so obscure that nobody has heard of, but people speak with pride. This is more of an anecdotal observation here, but I don’t think it is all that prevalent here in China. Often people speak of ‘it’s some little town, you don’t want to know about it.’ I think it’s a very different kind of attitude. Maybe not everybody’s encountering this, but certainly some people.
Xiaohua: I kind of agree with you, but I tend to agree with John a bit more. It’s probably not about your love and hate for your hometown. It’s probably about your resources. Because if you look at it, it would be great to be born as a Beijinger, as I don’t need to be affected by all these discriminatory policies any more.
John: But also I think it’s really difficult asking people certain types of questions and having them give a full and comprehensive answer about their lives. Because it’s the small details we take for granted and we end up forgetting about. And when they are not there, life can get hard and we feel home sick. It’s the classic proverb: if you ask a fish about their life, the last thing they are going to tell you about is the water they are swimming in.
Xiaohua: That’s interesting. So if you ask them about their hometown whether you like your hometown, maybe people will say yes. If you ask them do you want to change to another hometown, maybe they want to say no.
John: It’s two very different questions.
Xiaohua: Yeah, and you get two very different answers.
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