Monday, November 7, 2016

Hell was Next to Heaven

Effect essay-Third draft
10/23/2016
Lianghuan Tan
Hell was Next to Heaven
Thirty-eight years ago, Shenzhen, also known as hell was a poor village in southern China. It was next to an international big city governed by the U.K, Hong Kong also known as heaven. Many Chinese citizens managed to escape from hell to heaven because China was an extremely poor country and Hong Kong was a prosperous city at that time. After Deng Xiaoping came into power, the government gave up controlling everything because nobody wanted to live in hell anymore. China started to reform and open up after years of being a closed country. Chinese Economic Reform and Opening has been implemented throughout the past two generations. Cities and villages have become richer and more prosperous. This policy had important influences on my family.

It was easier for my father to find a job and earn more money after the Reform. It was much easier for my father to find a job in a city. Before the Reform, he lived in a village and worked as an accountant because the government arranged jobs for citizens . After 1978, my father went to Guangzhou and other cities looking for a job. Many companies were set up and hired a lot of workers, so my father could find a job easily and worked as a building worker in the city. In addition, my father earned more money. When he worked as an accountant in the village, he earned ten points, with which people purchased rice, instead of using money. However, he earned ten dollars per day when he worked as a building worker in Guangzhou. As his salary improved, so did his personal finance.

In addition to earning money, the new Reform improved my family’s quality of life in many ways. we lived comfortably in the new house. After years of working as a building worker, my father opened a small business in Guangzhou. My parents ran the store well, so they earned thousands of dollars. Then we went back to our hometown, Taishan. We used to live in a ragged house, which is seventy years old. With his new money, my father built a new house and we moved into it. Also, we had more entertainment. After we moved into the new house, my parents bought a set of furniture, a refrigerator and a television. We sat in comfortable chairs and enjoyed the interesting Hong Kong television shows every night. My mother watched dramas and sang sometimes. I went online and listened to music in my free time. We had much fun than before.

Additionally, I had the chance to choose my job and work anywhere because of the Reform. I also had the opportunity to look for jobs on my own. In the past, the government used to arrange jobs for graduates, but after the new policies of the Reform, I was able to choose my job by myself. I looked for a job in a job market and decided my own career after I graduated from college. I majored accounting at school, but I worked as a bank teller later. Also, I could work anywhere. Graduates had no choice in the past. A graduate’s hometown could be in the south of China, yet the government maybe sent the student to the north of China. After I graduated, I stayed in Guangzhou looking for a job, and then I went back to my hometown. I loved this new freedom.

The Chinese Economic and Open up policy has changed the life of my family significantly. Although I am in Chicago now, I still pay attention to the events in China. Sometimes I read Chinese news online because I am really interested in the future of my country. I even want to go back to China and work in a city one day. Sometimes I imagine that if I work hard in China, I can afford to buy a house. China is still a developing country, so the quality of life in America is better. Now Shenzhen isn’t hell anymore. It is heaven like Hong Kong, and maybe it will even be better than Hong Kong in the future.

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