[The Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, known as Spring Festival, is often called the biggest human migration in the world, as millions return to their hometowns for family reunions. Lai Xiaomin, a delegate to the National People’s Congress from Hunan Province and chairman of China Huarong Asset Management, wants the seven-day holiday most workers are granted to be extended to 15 days, sina.com reported. With the long distances they must travel, he said, many people are unable to spend much time with their relatives on this most important of Chinese holidays.]
By
Karoline Kan
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Delegates to the Chinese
People’s Political Consultative Conference arriving at the
Great Hall of the People
in Beijing this week. Thousands of delegates are gathered
in the Chinese capital
for the annual legislative meetings. Credit Fred
Dufour/Agence France-Presse
— Getty Images
|
BEIJING
— It’s that time again, when
more than 5,000 delegates to China’s National People’s Congress and its
advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, meet in
Beijing to endorse legislation and discuss government plans for the coming
year. They talk about their policy ideas with the local media too, and coverage
of their proposals and the online comments they attract provide glimpses into some
of the issues on the minds of Chinese today.
End
All Birth Restrictions. Lower the Marriage Age.
In 2015, China announced it was ending its
decades-long “one-child” policy, allowing all couples to have two children. But
Huang Xihua, a National People’s Congress delegate from Guangdong Province,
said China should lift all controls on births and lower the legal marriage age
to 18, from 22 for men and 20 for women.
“You can’t turn people’s willingness to have
babies on and off like a water tap,” Ms. Huang told Southern Metropolis. “Once
having fewer children becomes a trend, it’s hard to reverse.”
As for marriage, she added: “Females reach
sexual maturity at around 14 years old, and males at 16. That means Chinese
people are sexually mature for six years before being allowed to marry.
Lowering the legal marriage age is a way to protect civil rights and preserve
social harmony.”
E-tee-wee-tee: “This would undermine women’s
right to education. Although it would only be an option, in China, where
parents are obsessed with maintaining the family bloodline, it would result in
more women dropping out of school early.”
Banzhixiangyan007：“It’s
only a proposal, aimed at giving people the choice to marry at 18, not forcing
anyone to get married then. If they’re adults and want to get married, why not
let them? And if you want to get married later, you do it later. Isn’t more
choice a good thing?”
Ziqidonglaizhenren：“First
you punish people for having too many children. Now that you want people to
have more kids, people should do as you wish? Besides, being a parent isn’t
just about giving birth, it’s about responsibility. What do 18-year-olds know
when they’re kids themselves?”
Drop
English from the University Entrance Exam
English is a compulsory subject on the gaokao,
the university entrance examination. According to Li Guangyu, a National
People’s Congress delegate from Hunan Province and chairman of the Yuhua
Education Group, this has caused students to devote too much time to English at
the expense of other subjects. “English imposes too much pressure on Chinese
students,” Mr. Li said on sohu.com.
Ahuhua: “Most people don’t need English in
their everyday life. They need Chinese. But they don’t learn Chinese well
either. Their grammar is terrible. They can’t write characters correctly.
People who keep stressing the importance of English are actually threatening
the position of Chinese in school.’’
Songbeibeipifalatiao: “English is one of the
most widely used languages in the world. How can we drop it from the gaokao?
Why not cancel math? Do you need math to communicate in your everyday life?”
Fanxiaopi Superpi: “In China, if it’s not
compulsory, who spends any time on it? Have you ever seen Chinese kids studying
philosophy, which isn’t tested?”
Make
Parental Negligence a Crime
A group of 13 delegates to the Chinese
People’s Political Consultative Conference have proposed that parents whose
negligence results in their child’s injury or death should be prosecuted.
According to one delegate, Li You, quoted in Chengdu Business Daily, every
year, 10 million children in China are injured in accidents, 100,000 fatally,
often caused by parents’ negligence. In February, two children slipped and fell
five floors to their deaths in a Tianjin shopping mall when their father held
them over a railing. In January, a 4-year-old boy drowned in a bath as his
mother, who was beside him, remained engrossed in her cellphone.
Demoiselle-Crane-flying: “Agree, and I
suggest parents should have to get a certificate before they’re allowed to have
children. Being qualified to marry isn’t the same as being qualified to raise
kids.”
Phantom1205: “It’s already so painful for
parents if their children are killed or injured. Wouldn’t putting them in jail
only add to the family’s misfortune?’’
More
Holiday Time
The Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, known as
Spring Festival, is often called the biggest human migration in the world, as
millions return to their hometowns for family reunions. Lai Xiaomin, a delegate
to the National People’s Congress from Hunan Province and chairman of China
Huarong Asset Management, wants the seven-day holiday most workers are granted
to be extended to 15 days, sina.com reported. With the long distances they must
travel, he said, many people are unable to spend much time with their relatives
on this most important of Chinese holidays.
Qinggetalang: “Fabulous! Even 15 days is too
short, maybe 30?’’
Tianxiongboke: “Does he understand China’s
situation? With companies hurting so much with worker shortages and the rising
cost of labor, I can’t imagine what would happen if the holiday was even
longer.”
Luoxuerushuang: “I suggest we have seven days
off a week. We’d no longer have to work, and I suppose our food would drop down
to us from heaven.”
Jujibeijixing: “First, how about making sure
every company gives its employees all the holidays they’re entitled to under
current.
Stack
the Dead
In many urban areas, the price of a burial
plot is soaring — costing more, by square meter, than an apartment, said Song
Xinfang, a National People’s delegate from Shandong Province. He proposes that
China build tower-style cemeteries to save land and money.
“If we build two floors underground, and five
to seven floors above, lots of people’s ash boxes can be stored on a small
plot,” Mr. Song told Legal Evening News. “Perhaps a family could buy a tower or
different families could share the same tower. It would save a lot of land.”
Haohaoxuexili bii gengjin: “This would be
really scary. If you went to visit your family’s shrines, you’d have to pass
all the shelves and rooms where other people’s ashes were stored. It reminds me
that in many horror movies, ghosts appear in elevators.”
Daydayda: “I think it’s reasonable and it
would help save land. I’m sure our dead ancestors would understand. But you
have to consider that many people would find this creepy.”
Make
It Easier for People to be Registered Where They Work
In the 1950s, a household registration system
was instituted to curb rural migration to cities and it continues to determine
where citizens can live and still enjoy full social welfare rights. Cai Jiming,
an economics professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing and a delegate to the
National People’s Congress, said it’s time to do away with maximum population
targets for cities and to treat all citizens equally. He says the traffic
congestion, air pollution and high housing costs that afflict big cities result
from poor management rather than overpopulation.
“People tend to move to big cities, not just
in China, but everywhere in the world,” he told Caixin. “This is driven by
market forces, and we should respect market forces.”
Quanqiuhaodianyingsoulou: “I suggest that
this delegate go to the hospitals, schools and subways and have a look himself.
Do some field research before talking about this.”
Fangfengzhengdemoyu: “I think the really
urgent problem is that job opportunities aren’t evenly distributed in China.
Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou have absorbed so many resources that people are
all rushing into these cities. If Chinese cities were equally developed, with
better education and medical services, there would be fewer people coming to
Beijing to inhale the smog.”
Follow Karoline Kan on Twitter
@KarolineCQKan.